A Piece of Lowton History

LISTED BUILDINGS

At the present there are only six listed buildings in Lowton
they are
Holly House, Newton Road (Grade 2)
Fair House Farmhouse, Pocket Nook Lane (Grade 2)
Byrom Hall, Slag Lane (Grade 2)
St.Luke's Church, Slag Lane (Grade 2)
The Sundial, Slag Lane (Grade 2)
The Stocks, Slag Lane (Grade 2)
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On the Lowton / Golborne boundary stands
Lightshaw Hall (Grade 2*)

The Sundial
A Grade 2 Listed structure

"but in a sad state at present"

Photograph taken 28th March 2006

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This is a drawing of Richard Mathers Home in 1880 by a Miss Nunnerley
If you can pin point it's location please e-mail the website mail@lowtonwebsites.co.uk

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Civic Hall

The story of Lowton Civic Hall starts in 1939 when the farmer of the land in Hesketh Meadow Lane was requisitioned and compulsory purchased by the War Department. It was to be used as an accommodation village for the munitions factory at Risley Moss and was to be known as Risley Hostels. Building started in 1941 and the self contained “village” was constructed with it’s own chapel, cinema and sick bay it was to accommodate 600 workers and within twelve months it was ready to take it’s first residents. However in 1942 before the first Risley worker could be housed the plans were changed and it was decided that it would become a land based ship to be known as HMS Cabbala, this would be a Royal Navy signals training centre. The trainees came from all across the country to be trained in top secret methods of sending and receiving codes especially the use of Morse Code. There were about six hundred sailors and sixty WRENS on board the ship until 1946. There is a memorial plaque to HMS Cabbala in the entrance hall erected in 1983.

After it was vacated by the Navy it was renovated and got ready for the next chapter in it’s life, as a hostel for displaced people from Eastern Europe most of whom found work in the local coal mines. By 1948 most of these people had bought their own homes or moved into council houses and the site once again needed a new use. It was taken over by the Ministry of Works who converted it into a housing village for American service personnel and their families from the base at Burtonwood The village Scotia North with it’s ideal facilities had an American forces shop (PX) and a bank added. The Americans remained here until 1960 and the then Golborne Urban District Council took the site over, They used the land for sports fields and put the accommodation into their council house stock now for local families. When the Golborne Council was taken over by Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council in 1974 it was decided to demolish the housing units and replace them with new council houses nearby, but to retain the playing fields and large halls for leisure use. These halls are what we now know as the Civic halls.

INFORMATION AND PHOTOGRAPHS OF HMS CABBALA AND SCOTIA TIMES WANTED BY THIS WEBSITE
PLEASE CONTACT US BY E-MAIL mail@lowtonwebsites.co.uk

BYROM HALL

John Byrom's link with Lowton
A building of historic interest in Lowton is Byrom Hall, the ancestral home of the poet John Byrom,
Byrom Hall which was constructed in the 18th century, once had a moat which was crossed by means of a drawbridge. The estate of Byrom has existed since the thirteenth century and is mentioned in the Victoria history of the county of Lancashire.

A picture showing the hall with the moat is on page 61 in Bert Worsley's book A pictorial view of Old Lowton - Now out of print but available for loan from Leigh and Golborne libaries.

BYROM HALL Slag Lane Lowton
John Byrom 1692-1763

Born in the Old Wellington Inn in Manchester's old market place in 1692, the son of a linen draper. He was educated at the Merchant Taylor's School attended King’s School, Chester, then went on to Cambridge, where he graduated M.A. in 1715 he became a Fellow of Trinity College. But, declining to take Holy Orders, he resigned and soon after married his cousin, Elizabeth Byrom, against the wishes of both families. He was a devout Jacobite supporter.

He earned a living by teaching shorthand, for which he invented his own system. In 1723, he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society,

The following year, his brother died, and John inherited the family estates and returned to Manchester. He frequently visited Cheetham’s Hospital in Manchester, and wrote many hymns for the boys there.

While at college several of his writings and poems were accepted and published in "The Spectator". Later he studied medicine in Montpellier (France), though never qualified.

He wrote many religious and political essays as well as numerous poems, and the Christmas carol "Christians Awake".

Byrom had several children, but his favourite was his daughter Dolly. In December 1745, after a romp with Dolly, he promised to write her something for Christmas; it was to be written especially for her, and no one else. The delighted Dolly reminded her father of his promise each day as Christmas grew nearer. On Christmas morning, when she ran down to breakfast, she found several presents awaiting her. Among them was an envelope addressed to her in her father’s handwriting. It was the first thing she opened, and to her great delight, it proved to be this Christmas carol. The original manuscript is headed “Christmas Day for Dolly.” It was first published in Harrop’s Manchester Mercury in 1746.

Music: “Yorkshire,” John Wainright, 1750 Wainright played the organ at the Collegiate Church in Manchester, England.

The ancestral home of the Byrom Family is in Byrom Hall at Slag Lane Lowton, The lane facing the hall in called Byrom Lane.. He died in 1763. Buried: Jesus Chapel, Manchester Cathedral, Manchester, England.

You need your sound on for this link
Hear midi files of Byroms Hymns

Largest house of ill repute in Europe

Better photograph of Lowton House now the site of a housing development Lowton Gardens

Mining Memorial

Miner and shearer loader machine. Head, hands and upper body of miner emerge out of cutting drum. The hands are holding a piece of coal. Four blades of cutting drum (part of shearer loader machine) are represented.

Commissioned by Lord Robens (date?) First erected in 1965 by the North West Division of the National Coal Board at Anderton House in Lowton, Lancashire. Marked the invention of the Anderton Shearer cutter/loader which was first used in St Helens. In 1989 it was moved to Eastwood Hall in Nottingham and was then installed in its current position in December 1998. Installation costs were funded by the Southern Corridor Single Regeneration Budget (SRB) which is managed by the Ravenhead Renaissance Partnership.On behalf of the Ravenhead Renaissance Partnership, the Groundwork Trust submitted the planning application to St Helens Borough Council.

1) James Anderton, inventor of the Anderton shearer and loader machine 2) Shearer-loader (Used in coalmines worldwide, the first shearer-loader was installed at the Ravenhead Colliery's Rushy Park seam in 1952, then used at Cronton Colliery, St Helens, and Golborne Colliery, Leigh. 3) Mining community (represented in the body of the miner)

Lowton from 1965,

Why has it been alowed to be resited in St.Helens

"A Piece of Lowtob History"