Appley Bridge railway station

Appley Bridge is a small, affluent village crossing the borders of Greater Manchester and West Lancashire, England. It is located off Junction 27 of the M6 motorway and is nestled in the Douglas Valley alongside the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.

The Appley Bridge meteorite is a meteorite that hit ground at Halliwell Farm in Appley Bridge, Lancashire, England at around 8:45 PM on Tuesday, 13 October 1914.After local residents saw a bolide, the meteorite was subsequently found in a farmer's field in the village the following day. It was 18 inches (460 mm) below the surface of the field, with the appearance of burnt iron, and weighed almost 33 pounds (15 kg). An article in Scientific News (No. 2588, 30 October 1914) stated "a small fragment which had been detached from the larger mass was put on view in a shop-window at Appley Bridge." A collection of letters, memoranda, and news-cuttings pertaining to the meteorite is held by the Natural History Museum Archives in London. In 2011, a fragment weighing less than an ounce and mounted in a one-inch plastic gem case was sold by auctioneers Lyon & Turnbull in Edinburgh. It was expected to sell for £250.

Wrightington Hospital is a health facility in Wrightington, Lancashire, England. It is managed by the Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust.

Roby Mill is a village in the West Lancashire district of Lancashire, England. The estimated population is 405.

Gathurst Viaduct carries the M6 motorway across the Douglas valley at Shevington, Wigan, Greater Manchester. The second largest bridge on the M6 motorway, it lies between junctions 26 and 27. Constructed in 6 spans, it crosses the Leeds-Liverpool Canal, the Manchester to Southport railway line and the River Douglas itself. The viaduct is 800 ft (240 m) long and 87 ft (27 m) above the level of the river. The reinforced concrete piers consist of five sets of four 6 ft (1.8 m) diameter columns supporting a cill beam. The reinforced concrete deck is carried on ten 10 ft (3.0 m) deep continuous welded plate girders extending over the full length of the bridge. In design terms it is a sister bridge of the Rakewood Viaduct on the M62 motorway near Littleborough. It was built primarily out of wrought iron.It was built in 1961 by A. Monk and Co Ltd of Irlam at a cost of some £830,000. Steelwork was manufactured by Robert Watson Steelwork Ltd of Bolton.

The Douglas Navigation was a canalised section of the River Douglas or Asland, in Lancashire, England, running from its confluence with the River Ribble to Wigan. It was authorised in 1720, and some work was carried out, but the undertakers lost most of the share money speculating on the South Sea Bubble. Alexander Leigh attempted to revive it eleven years later, and opened it progressively between 1738 and 1742. Leigh began work on a parallel canal called Leigh's Cut to improve the passage from Newburgh to Gathurst, but progress was slow and it was unfinished in 1771. The working life of the navigation was short, as it was bought out by the Leeds and Liverpool Canal Company in 1772, to prevent a rival scheme to build a canal from Liverpool to Wigan. The canal company could not really afford the purchase price, but needed to secure the water supply to prevent the rival scheme from using it. The Leeds and Liverpool completed Leigh's Cut, built locks to enable sailing boats on the river to avoid having to pass under the aqueduct which carried the canal over the river at Newbugh, and improved the upper river into Wigan in time for a formal opening in October 1774. The final 3 miles (4.8 km) of river section into Wigan was replaced by a parallel canal, completed in 1780, and the lower river was superseded by the Rufford Branch, opened in 1781. The navigation was not a financial success, but most of the investors had interests in coal mines, and improvements to the river enabled them to get their coal to wider markets. Leigh in particular continued to invest in the navigation until its takeover, presumably using profits from his coal interests. The navigation was abandoned by 1801, but because the canal company had not been able to buy all the original shares, the new cuts were known as the Upper and Lower Douglas Navigations, and were accounted for separately, until the final two shares were purchased in 1893. Thus on paper the Douglas Navigation lasted for 173 years, and a small part of it remains, as to build the Rufford Branch, the river was diverted into a new channel, and the old channel reused by the canal. Sollom Lock can still be seen on this section, although it no longer has any gates. Some 4 miles (6.4 km) of the tidal river are in use below Tarleton Lock, and this section has been increasingly used since 2002, when the Ribble Link opened, connecting the Lancaster Canal to the River Ribble.

Standish-with-Langtree was, and to a limited extent remains, a local government district centred on Standish, Lancashire, in North West England. Historically it was an ancient township in the hundred of West Derby and county of Lancashire. This unit was abolished in 1974 following the Local Government Act 1972, the same act which established Greater Manchester.

St Joseph's College is a former Roman Catholic seminary and boarding school in Up Holland, Lancashire, England. The foundation of the original building was laid in April 1880 and the college opened in 1883. The buildings have since been deconsecrated.

Hunger Hill is a small village three-quarters of a mile (1.2 km) from the centre of Wrightington, in West Lancashire, England. It is described as a rural settlement. It gets its name from the Second English Civil War when royalist soldiers stopped in the village for supplies.

Gathurst is the name given to a small section of the township of Shevington, a Civil Parish within the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. It was historically a part of Lancashire. The village is served by a railway station Gathurst railway station which is located on the Manchester-Southport line and managed by Northern. The station also serves the nearby village of Shevington.

Shevington is a village and civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The population of the Wigan ward called Shevington and Lower Ground had increased to 11,482 at the 2011 Census.Lying within the historic county boundaries of Lancashire, Shevington lies approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) from Wigan town centre, 3.5 miles (5.6 km) from Skelmersdale and at the 2001 census had a population of 9,786.

Gathurst railway station is a two-platform railway station on the outskirts of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The station is on the Southport line 2+3⁄4 miles (4.4 kilometres) north west of Wigan Wallgate station. The station also serves the nearby village of Shevington, indeed until 1973 (see British Rail Timetable of 1972) was named Gathurst for Shevington. It is currently operated by Northern Trains. The main stone-built station building survives adjacent to the Wigan-bound platform, but is now in use for non-railway purposes (as a public house), modest shelters now being provided on both platforms for rail travellers.