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Crooke Village has been in existence from or soon after 1850 but the first written records of the area were made in 1317. It earned it's name 'Le Croke', a Norman name, from the bend in the river and was owned by a Robert le Perpounte-Clerk. Even then, it was a part of Shevington, then spelt Shevyntona. I should not suppose there were many buildings about, probably some farm buildings and not much more.

Over time, the land changed hands many times until around the year 1520, when it became the property of the Catterall family. Crooke Hall was built in 1608 for Peter Catterall and his wife Elizabeth. His father, Roger Catterall, died while his son Peter was still a minor and on the occasion of Peter's marriage to Elizabeth, the trustees of his father's property, built the Hall. The house overlooked the River Douglas and latterly the canal which was built between 1781 and 1830.

The Douglas Navigation was a canalised section of the River Douglas or Asland, in Lancashire, running from its confluence with the River Ribble to Wigan. Authorised in 1720, it opened in 1742, was bought out by the Leeds and Liverpool Canal Company in 1780, and abandoned by 1801, by which time the canal provided a better route to the River Ribble.

CROOKE HALL, the former seat of the Catterall family, stood on low ground on the north bank of the River Douglas about 2 miles below Wigan, and at the extreme south-eastern end of the township. The canal now passes between where the house used to stand and the River, and the surroundings were desolate and sordid owing to the working of collieries in the immediate neighbourhood as the coal industry took off around 1830 so an ugly colliery village sprang up on the north and west of the Hall.

As a result of the coal mining in the area, Crooke Hall began to sink into the ground as did the old school because of subsidence. By the time of the First World War, the building had become half submerged and by the 1920's, the floods had reached well under the upper storey and in 1937, it was demolished.

The story goes that Mr. Catterall, a member of Parliament, applied to Parliament for permission to have the River Douglas widened and deepened in order to make it navigable to shipping. It would appear that, in 1712, a Thomas Steers, a gentleman from Liverpool, surveyed the Douglas and recommended that it be made accessible to shipping, enabling the transport of coal from the coalfields and other products around Wigan down to the Ribble, and onwards to Preston. The canalisation of the river from its junction with the River Ribble to the Miry Lane End in Wigan was authorised by Parliament in 1720, with Thomas Steers and William Squire, Esq. of Liverpool as the two proprietors. It was opened in 1742. Eventually, the canal was extended into Wigan and the Douglas Navigation was bought out by the canal company and all traffic transferred onto the canal. The Douglas Navigation then became redundant around 1790. As you can see from the picture below that the Douglas Navigation was connected to the canal via a lock at Dean Lock at Gathurst where traffic left the Douglas Navigation to join the Leeds / Liverpool canal.

On the south side of Crooke there were two other rail lines that delivered coal to the canal. They came from the Winstanley and Orrell collieries. In the early 1800s coal was usually transported along wooden railways using horses as the motive force.

In 1812, Robert Daglish, manager of Clarke's collieries who was also a mechanical engineer, commissioned the Haigh foundry to construct a locomotive of an adapted Blenkinsop design from Yorkshire by Daglish. He converted the wooden wagon way to iron rails and stone sleepers and was built to operate on a rack and pinion method, the pinions being mounted on the centre wheel of the engine. The three locomotives that were built came into service in 1813 and each engine was said to have done the work of 14 horses and delivered the coal to the canal tipplers at Crooke. The introduction of these loco’s helped to offset the rapidly rising cost of horse fodder during the early part of the 19th century. The engine was affectionately nicknamed, ‘ The Yorkshire Horse’ which preceded Stevenson’s “Rocket” by 16 years. John Blenkinsop’s originally designed engine ran from Middleton to Leeds in Yorkshire. These engines ran at about 3 to 4 miles an hour and they must have provided a spectacular sight for the inhabitants of the Orrell area.

Blenkinsop's innovative design utilised a pinion wheel, which was driven by the locomotive, engaging a central rack-rail. This enabled the hauling of heavy loads by a relatively light engine. Daglish modified the design, using toothed driving wheels which engaged cogged rails.

Clarke’s Wagon Road as it was called, ran for 36 years before the engines were decommissioned.

It seems that the “Yorkshire Horse”, or at least its engine part, spent its latter years in the colliery stables cutting hay and mixing provender. It was finally demolished in the early 1920s.

The nearest pits to Crooke Village were John, Taylor, and Giants Hall Pits. They were all started around 1850 except for John Pit. John Pit was opened in about 1805 and closed in 1830. It was initially serviced by a purpose built canal tunnel up to the mine workings. As the 1846 Ordnance Survey Maps shows the route of the canal and tunnel.

The canal tunnel travelled underground for about 1000 yards. Unfortunately, it was not very sucessful as it only produced something over 200,000 tons and was not good enough to do the job and was therefore abandoned and the pit closed in 1830. It latterly served as a drain for the workings as it still does today, even though the workings can no longer be seen.

In around 1850, John Pit was then bought by John Taylor and he laid a rail link to the canal in the 1850's. The other pits also used this trackway to deliver coal to the canal as well as being connected to the main rail line. Standish Hall Drift Mine was a much later addition to the mining industry and began around 1940. It's production of coal was disappointing and closed when the other pits closed in the early 1960's.

A rail link or tramway ran over land down to the main canal, to enable the loading of coal into barges there, via a Tippler. The rail track or tramway came over Wigan Lower Road by a structure known as ‘Red Bridge’ or ‘Red Brick Bridge’, which was taken down after the pits closed in 1966.

There were up to five tipplers in Crooke but the one by the bridge was the largest in Wigan. Two tipplers were located on the other side of the canal, one near the marina entrance, the main one pictured below and another a hundred yards lower down the canal oposite Woodcock Row. There was another that berthed near the Chemical works but I have no idea when that started of finished.

The tippler was first built around 1832 after John Taylor bought John Pit and he also sank the mine deeper for richer pickings.

The pictures were taken at different times, hence the changes.

These pictures have recently come to light, taken by Ian Moss just before the tippler was closed down and published in 'Narrowboat' Magazine recently.

Crooke Hall had fallen into disrepair and was latterly let out as cottages. The land on which the building stood faltered and the building sank and as a result was demolished.

Ironically, in 1951, the Hall was scheduled as a building of historical and of architectural interest by the Ministry of Works and worthy of preservation but it was 14 years too late because it had already been demolished. The then owner of the hall, James Lyon, of Shevington, presented the heavy oak panelling from above the front door of the hall, to the Library as a memento. It has carvings upon it, dating it 1608 commemorating the marriage of Peter and Elizabeth Catterall. Today, it can be found at the foot of the stairs inside the History Shop that leads to the first floor. The inscription reads:- ANNO DNI 1608 PEC PR IR CARP . The PR and IR were the initials of the carpenters who made it. The other letters tell of its date and the initials of Peter and Elizabeth.

This building used to be the school in Crooke that stood on the side of the tunnel canal just inside the now marina, which closed in 1876. A tram line from Giants Hall Pit came down to the canal beside it to deliver its coal to the barges. Like Crooke Hall, it was prone to flooding and became unusable. It was replaced by the present school building which is now a nursery in Crooke and the ecclesiastical element was taken over by St. Anne’s Church in Shevington. It was opened, in 1876 for the Church of England as it had a closer presence than the Mother Church in Standish. Everything of the old school was demolished and there is nothing there visible as a reminder of its presence.

In this picture below, to the left, it shows a barge berthed at the entrance of the canal to the pit, that had since become silted up and before the marina was built. As well as that, along the route of the canal, between the large gap in the trees on this side of the canal and the next bunch, is the most likely spot where the old sunken school used to stand on the far bank. It is also the location of the Chemical Works shown on map much lower down in the presentation.

If you look carefully, at the above picture, to the right there are markings on the ground that could give some indication as to where Crooke Hall may have stood.

Since this picture was taken, Yvonne and Roy Vernon have built up their marina by themselves to what it is today. This is the only recent aerial picture I have at present but it shows the extent of the work carried out. This and the next picture shows all of Crooke Village from the air.

At the other end of the village, there used to stand a row of houses known as ‘Woodcock Row’, looking at the previous picture, to the bottom right hand corner.

On the Ordnance Survey map of 1846, the only buildings standing in our now Village, were the Hall and the adjoining farm buildings. I have learned that the then owner of the Hall was a Mr. Woodcock who was well into mining and maybe had other interests as well. This indicates that the houses of Woodcock Row were probably either built of paid for by Mr. Woodcock thus giving them his name.

In the same token, it would also indicate that the rest of the houses that are now in Crooke Village were built after Woodcock Row because the indications are that this row of houses were the first to be built here, unless you know differently?

There were 26 houses in all and they were built around 1850, about the time of the further sinking of the John Pit Mine. Among them there was a shop and a meeting house. The houses were built to house the growing numbers of mine workers who were flooding into the area from all over the country looking for work in the local pits. One family even came from Cornwall. The buildings were not of the best quality and suffered with damp problems and were eventually demolished. The last three terraces were taken down around 1973.

At its peak, apart from the houses, up the cart track towards Shevington between the last house in Crooke and Woodcock Row, there were seven caravans and one tram car owned by Gerrard Thomas which were additional dwellings. That land is still in the ownership of the Thomas family. There also used to be business premises beyond, the last being a kind of refuse area. The picture below is a picture of the tram car that was once a dwelling but subsequently became a hen house before being removed.

1936 was the Village's busiest year when more than 300 people lived here. It was a hive of activity.

In all, while the village has been in existence since the 1870's plus, there have been four general shops, a Post Office, a Chip Shop, a couple of houses as Churches, a couple of Schools and a Bakery. One of the houses in the village was known as 'The Cathedral' because there was no Church here at that time. There was also another Public House. It was called ‘The Duncan Arms’ which used to stand next to the rail tracks to the Tippler. The building is still there but now it is two private dwellings. That closed somewhere between 1912 and 1926. On the last census which was taken in 1911, the landlord was a Thomas William Pinder. I have been told that the last landlord committed suicide but I am not sure if this was the same man. I have no pictures of the shops, the Chip Shop nor of ‘The Duncan Arms’ but I do have one of the Post Office.

Presently, I am unsure of its exact location but at least I have a shot of it.

Another building not much talked about is the Bakery. Initially I thought this building was the Bakery but it was not. The location of the Bakery was in the unadopted street opposite The Crooke Hall Inn at No. 87.?

The only picture of the Tippler Rail Track I presently have was given to me by the Anderton family, showing Peter, their son by the track when he was a young boy.

According to the Ordnance Survey Map of 1893, it shows where the buildings used to stand that are no longer there. It also gives a lot more detail as to what was happening at that time. For an instance, where the school that sank was, there was also a Chemical Works and it also shows the two mineral lines coming up to the canal both on the left and right on the map, where there were two more coal tipplers. I have no pictures of those but I should imagine they were a lot smaller than the one from John Pit.

Vincent Priest who used to live in the village, kindly sent me a picture which shows, in the background, ‘The Ruck’ or ‘The Rook’ the slag heap that used to sit on the ground that is now know as the green behind the then School, now Nursery. The children in the picture are his sisters and a cousin and the picture was taken in 1964. Vincent’s father, Albert, was the secretary to the newly formed Crooke Village Co-Operative in the late seventies under the chairmanship of Norman Hart.

The Crooke Hall Inn has been here in the village for as long if not longer than the Duncan Arms. Both pubs used to have a bowling green and all pubs along the canal were primarily built to supply refreshments to the bargees. In those days, most of the barges were owned by companies and usually, where there was a pub, you were also likely to find stables. In the beginning of the canal life, all the barges were hauled along the canal by horses so they had to be catered for. In Crooke, there used to be two stable buildings, one between the Crooke Hall Inn and the Tippler and the other by the side of the canal behind the Crooke Hall Inn. The stables by the road were later turned into workshops for the tippler and trackway Maintenance. There is nothing left of either stables there today but old ordnance maps of 1893 previously shown, show of their existence. The pubs may have come into existence well before the canal was built because there were many men employed in its building of the canal as well as there being mining going on in the area and so there would therefore be plenty of workers needing refreshment.

The cellar bar in the Crooke Hall Inn was also used as a Chapel of Rest where dead souls were laid out until they could be dealt with by an undertaker.

Behind the pub is the village well. I have no idea as to when it was last used but a manhole cover now covers it today.

In 1826, within the deeds of the Duncan Arms building, between houses 101 and 103, a new road was going to be built but for one reason or another, it never was. It was to be called Baron Street. Even the planners got the name of Crooke wrong as you can see from the plan. I have no idea how long this street was to be because if it had been built, it would have probably taken the Bowling Green land as well.

For the present, that is all I have. When more information or pictures come to light, provided there are no problems, I will add to this document. If there are any details you think are wrong, then please let me know so that I can make necessary alterations.