Leigh East (ward)

The Bedford Colliery disaster occurred on Friday 13 August 1886 when an explosion of firedamp caused the death of 38 miners at Bedford No.2 Pit, at Bedford, Leigh in what then was Lancashire. The colliery, sunk in 1884 and known to be a "fiery pit", was owned by John Speakman.

Bedford Colliery, also known as Wood End Pit, was a coal mine on the Manchester Coalfield in Bedford, Leigh, Lancashire, England. The colliery was owned by John Speakman, who started sinking two shafts on land at Wood End Farm in the northeast part of Bedford, south of the London and North Western Railway's Tyldesley Loopline in about 1874. Speakman's father owned Priestners, Bankfield, and Broadoak collieries in Westleigh. Bedford Colliery remained in the possession of the Speakman family until it was amalgamated with Manchester Collieries in 1929.

Red Rose Forest is the previous name for the charity City of Trees, the charity underwent a rebranding in 2016. City of Trees is the community forest for Greater Manchester, part of a national network of community forests across England - www.communityforest-trust.org Red Rose Forest was founded as a community forest in western and central Greater Manchester, England. It was established in 1991, as the Greater Manchester Community Forest – one of 12 community forests across England. In 1994 the Red Rose Forest Plan was approved by Government and launched to the public. It aimed to be a mechanism for the economic, social, and environmental regeneration of the countryside around our towns and cities. Achieving this by involving communities in creating and preserving a woodland flora for the future. The population within the forest boundary amounted to 2.5 million, at the time the community was founded, making it the largest urban community forest in the United Kingdom.The main aim of Red Rose Forest was to get greenery where people can appreciate it every day. This included street trees, green roofs and green spaces. Red Rose Forest's Green Streets team worked with local communities on unique and innovative greening projects to improve the quality of life for urban communities. The value of greening as a means of tackling a range of social, health and economic issues is huge. Red Rose Forest offered many ways for the people to get involved in their environment including the general public through their Friends of the Forest scheme, businesses through sponsorship and communities through the Green Streets project.

Leigh is a constituency in Greater Manchester represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by James Grundy of the Conservative Party. Before this, the seat was represented by Andy Burnham of the Labour Party, who served as the MP from 2001, and Shadow Home Secretary in Jeremy Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet until October 2016. Burnham stood down following his victory at the 2017 Greater Manchester mayoral election, and was succeeded by the Labour and Cooperative Party's Jo Platt who was MP from 2017 to 2019. Burnham, who was re-elected as Mayor of Greater Manchester in 2021 with an increased majority, still resides in the Leigh constituency.

Bedford High School is a comprehensive school for boys and girls in the Bedford area of Leigh, Greater Manchester, England.

Leigh Spinners or Leigh Mill is a Grade II* listed double cotton spinning mill in Bedford, Leigh, Greater Manchester, England.

Bedford, a suburb of Leigh, Greater Manchester is one of three ancient townships, Bedford, Pennington and Westleigh, that merged in 1875 to form the town of Leigh. Historically, Bedford was in Lancashire.

Pennington, a suburb of Leigh, Greater Manchester is one of six townships in the ancient ecclesiastical parish of Leigh, that with Westleigh and Bedford merged to form the town of Leigh in 1875. The township of Pennington covered most of Leigh's town centre.

Higher Folds is a settlement about 15 miles from Manchester, in the unparished area of Leigh, in the Wigan district, in the county of Greater Manchester, England. In 2018 it had an estimated population of 2,770. Shaun Keaveny grew up in Higher Folds.

Atherton Hall was a country house and estate in Atherton historically a part of Lancashire, England. The hall was built between 1723 and 1742 and demolished in 1824. Christopher Saxton's map shows there was a medieval deer park here in the time of Elizabeth I.

Bedford Hall is a late-medieval-house in Bedford, Leigh, Greater Manchester, England. It was leased to tenants by the Kighleys, absent lords of the manor of Bedford, and has been modified several times over the centuries becoming a farmhouse and now two houses. It was one of a group of timber-framed medieval halls, including Morleys Hall in Astley, located to the north of Chat Moss. It is a Grade II Listed building.In 1291 the hall was in the possession of Adam de Sale who held it from the de Kighleys. In 1303 William de la Doune was accused of demolishing the hall which had two chambers and another for esquires which he said was ruinous and unroofed. With the permission of the Kighleys a new hall with two chambers and a kitchen was built.

St Joseph's Church is an active Roman Catholic church on Chapel Street in Bedford, Leigh in Greater Manchester, England. It is in the parish of St Edmund Arrowsmith. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II listed building.