Wigan
| Wigan | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Country | England |
| Shire county | Lancashire |
| Council | Wigan Council |
| Population | 107,732 (2011) |
Wigan is a market town in Lancashire, England, approximately sixteen miles north-west of Manchester city centre and a similar distance north-east of Liverpool city centre.
Wigan North Western railway station is on the West Coast Main Line. Local services to Manchester use Wigan Wallgate railway station. Wigan Pier is situated close to the town centre on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. Areas of the town include Kitt Green, Orrell, Pemberton, Scholes and Winstanley. Wigan is contiguous to Ince-in-Makerfield.
Wigan saw significant expansion during the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries as a centre for coal and textiles; due to the growing importance of coal in the 1790s, the Leeds and Liverpool Canal was re-routed to serve Wigan. The last working mill in Wigan closed in 1980 and coal mining in the area ceased in the early 1990s.
Wigan Athletic Football Club (soccer) and Wigan Warriors rugby league club share the Brick Community Stadium in Robin Park.
The population of Wigan is 107,732, as of the 2011 UK Census.
It is referred to in the title of George Orwell's 1930s polemic on Lancashire working class life, 'The Road To Wigan Pier'.
Geography
Wigan is in south-central Lancashire and a part of the West Derby Hundred. It sits approximately 16 miles west of central Manchester and a similar distance east of central Liverpool. Nearby towns include Standish to the north, and Ashton-in-Makerfield, Golborne and Newton-le-Willows to the south. The town sits on the River Douglas, which rises on Winter Hill between Bolton and Chorley and ends its 35 mile course at a confluence with the Ribble near its estuary. Through Wigan, the Douglas has been canalised since around 1740. To the south of the town centre is the nature reserve Wigan Flashes ("flash" is a word for a body of water, related to French flaque). It consists of an area of wetlands, lakes and ponds which are the result of early 20th century mining subsidence. The largest of these lakes is Scotsman's Flash. It is known for its bird population, supporting around 2% of the UK's total willow tits. There is also a nature reserve at Amberswood, just south-west of the town centre near Platt Bridge,
History
There was an influx of Scandinavians into the area in the early 10th century following their expulsion from Ireland in 902 AD. Their mark is left on the modern town in the form of the place-name Scholes (now a suburb of Wigan) which is from Old Norse skalli ("huts") and in the street names which end in -gate (Millgate, Hallgate, Standishgate and Wallgate); gata having been Norse for "street" (it appears in street-names in Denmark, Norway and Sweden).
Following the Norman conquest (1066), Wigan was not mentioned by name in the Domesday Book (1086). Wigan was part of the Manor of Newton-le-Willows at this time, which belonged to Roger of Poitou (who had been granted land mainly in the north by William the Conqueror) and the "church of that manor" mentioned in the entry may have been Wigan parish church.[1]
As revealed by an archaeological dig in 2005, 13th century Wigan had several pits for extracting coal and a pottery. Mab's Cross on Standishgate also seems to originate in the 13th century, the first record of it is from 1277 and it is one of four stone crosses marking the medieval route from Wigan north to Chorley. According to local legend, the cross is named for Lady Mabel Bradshaigh, wife of Sir William Bradshaigh of Haigh Hall who was known for his role in the Banastre Rebellion of 1315 by Lancashire knights against the Earl of Lancaster.
Administration
A part of the traditional county Lancashire, Wigan's local government status has been changing since at least 1246, when it was granted borough status. When Lancashire County Council was established in 1889, Wigan was seen as large enough to have its own county-level local governance and thus formed a county borough independent of the council until 1974. From 1974 until 1986, Greater Manchester County Council's area was divided into metropolitan boroughs, of which the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan was one; covering an area of Lancashire centred on Wigan, but also including Atherton, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Golborne, Hindley, Ince-in-Makerfield, Leigh and Tyldesley. Following the abolition of metropolitan county councils in 1986, Metropolitan Borough of Wigan Council has been run as a unitary authority, meaning it is responsible for all local government functions within that council area.
Transport
Wigan is immediately east of the M6 motorway, with the M58 motorway (or the 'Mid-Lancs motorway') linking the M6 in Wigan's western suburbs to Aintree, just north-east of Liverpool and acting as the main route to Liverpool from the M6 southbound. Historically, the A49 road (which runs from Preston, Lancashire to Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire) was the main long-distance route in Wigan.
Culture
Cuisine
Wigan and the surrounding area is well known for the production of pies, having more pie shops per square meter than any other town in the UK. Wigan has been labelled "pie capital of the UK".[2] Galloway's is a popular bakery chain that operates in Wigan and neighbouring towns such as Chorley and St Helens and specialises in pies.
Popular culture
Wallace and Gromit, the titular characters of the popular stop-motion film franchise, live at the fictitious address of 62 West Wallaby Street in Wigan.
Richard Ashcroft, lead singer and guitarist of the alternative rock band the Verve, was born in Wigan in 1971.