Workers Deep level shelters - Wigan
After getting endless texts off Tom about a walkabout in Wigan, I decided to take him up on his kind offer and pay
a Sunday morning visit to the pie-eating capital of the UK This was the second stop on a whistle-stop tour
History
Built on the site of Pagefield Mill in Wigan.These deep shelters are basic concrete built blast tunnels, running in
a cross section and out towards the park opposite.
Each section of tunnel is about 6 ft wide by 7 ft high, and between 25 and 50 ft in length would have housed roughly
200 or so workers from the mill above ground.
Until 2006 they had been sealed, but have since played host to a raft of visitors, most recently myself
and Mr Tom Sherman.
Access was pure comedy, and the sight of two fully grown adolecents clambering 15 foot up a tree in a busy
park, must have been a sight to behold...although spooking a courting couple on the way back down was
worth the trip alone
Cheers to Tom for the tour
A quick climb down and were in, first impressions...it's small damp and dark
remnants of years gone, mostly chair frames, benches, tinnies, and tea-lights
a caged section of tunnel, back-filled like the majority of the end sections down here
I had to put the tea-lights to good use as the lenser was on it's way out
Well signposted, but also fairly modern spray signage, almost certainly not from the 40's
all in, a decent little explore and another shelter ticked off the list
Cheers for looking
After getting endless texts off Tom about a walkabout in Wigan, I decided to take him up on his kind offer and pay
a Sunday morning visit to the pie-eating capital of the UK This was the second stop on a whistle-stop tour
History
Built on the site of Pagefield Mill in Wigan.These deep shelters are basic concrete built blast tunnels, running in
a cross section and out towards the park opposite.
Each section of tunnel is about 6 ft wide by 7 ft high, and between 25 and 50 ft in length would have housed roughly
200 or so workers from the mill above ground.
Until 2006 they had been sealed, but have since played host to a raft of visitors, most recently myself
and Mr Tom Sherman.
Access was pure comedy, and the sight of two fully grown adolecents clambering 15 foot up a tree in a busy
park, must have been a sight to behold...although spooking a courting couple on the way back down was
worth the trip alone
Cheers to Tom for the tour
A quick climb down and were in, first impressions...it's small damp and dark
remnants of years gone, mostly chair frames, benches, tinnies, and tea-lights
a caged section of tunnel, back-filled like the majority of the end sections down here
I had to put the tea-lights to good use as the lenser was on it's way out
Well signposted, but also fairly modern spray signage, almost certainly not from the 40's
all in, a decent little explore and another shelter ticked off the list
Cheers for looking
Last edited: