Billinge Hospital, wigan

Visited here with Snowdudejohn, he had been past it a few times and surgested going! when we went there was only 2 buildings left, all the rest of the site had been leveled for a new housing estate. visited in the summer, so i doubt there is anything left by now! :(

History:-
Billinge Hospital was originally founded in 1837 as a Wigan Poor Law Union hospital and workhouse.Mental Health services are still available

Opened in 1968, Billinge Maternity Hospital served as the maternity facility for the surrounding areas, including much of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, parts of the Metropolitan Borough of St.Helens and parts of the District of West Lancashire .

In June 2004, the maternity hospital was closed and maternity facilities were transferred to other units at hospitals in surrounding districts. Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Trust, who administered at Billinge Maternity Hospital, were transferred to a new maternity unit at the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary (more commonly known as Wigan Infirmary) in Wigan. Maternity care units were upgraded at surrounding hospitals, including Whiston Hospital, Ormskirk Hospital, Bolton Hospital, Salford Royal, Chorley Hospital and Warrington Hospital.

In March 2007, demolition work on the maternity hospital building commenced. As of May 2007, only a small section of the maternity unit is left standing.
In April 2010, only two buildings stand which are due to be demolitished soon as more houses are being built on the site of the former hospital.

keys, for what? a lot of locks id say.

on the wall in one of the rooms.

left over pool table and ball, yep only one ball.

it was a lovely sunny day for exploring!

st. josephs orphanage/st. josephs hospital, preston

Id not been in here for a while and wanted to see how the old place was doing, i know there would be some damage from the fire but there was a ceiling that had collapsed as well in another part of the building. visited with BB. I have never been able to find much in the way of history on this place for some reason but i was contacted by a someone through flickr and they provided the history.

So a big thanks to Linda Barton, archivist, Preston Historical Society.

history:-
Many people mix these buildings up but essentially there are three different Grade 2 listed buildings.


Firstly St Josephs Orphanage, Theatre Street, built and opened 1872 by Maria Holland Trust and run by the Sisters of Charity our Lady Mother of Mercy, nuns that came from Holland to open and run the orphanage.

Secondly, St Joseph's Hospital, Mount Street, referred to by all the locals as Mount Street Hospital was opened in 1877 again by the Holland Trust and run by the same order of nuns. However, completely seperate building and, at no time in its existence, was it an orphanage.

Thirdly, the R.C. Chapel on Theatre Street, designed by James Mangan and opened in 1910 was specially build by money raised for use by the Hospital and the Orphanage.

When the orphanage closed in 1954, the hospital took over the building and built a small link passage to link both buildings. The hospital used the orphanage building as a nursing school and it continued to be the convent for the order of nuns, as it had always been when it was an orphanage.

When the hospital closed in the 1980s all the three buildings were purchased by the present owner who then converted the Orphanage building into a private residential elderly peoples nursing home. No original features left in that building from when it was an orphanage. He did not use the Chapel nor the hospital building.

He also owns the 1930s extension on Mount Street and the 1950s extension on Theatre street which was the geriatric wing for the hospital. Planning application is in for conversion to apartments, but doubts have been raised whether this will happen. The buildings are deteriorating badly and I fear for their future. Grade listing doesn't really protect them from neglect and potential destruction.

Note that the hospital and the orphanage were run and administered as completely separate institutions even though both were run by the same order of nuns and funded by Maria Holland nee Roper.

first time i got a good pic of the stain glassed window!

left in the back of the chapel

no trip is complete without a trip to the theater

one thing about here is it never fails to creep me out beyond belief! you are forever hearing what sounds like footsteps just behind you.

fire damage from last year i think, this was the room with the pool table in it! remains now on corridor of floor below.

these wheel chairs are all over the place!

some relaxing!

and to finish off a pic of the outside from the inside! :)

St.Josephs seminary, upholland

Me and Over where in the area and decided to have a look at st. Josephs, it had been a while since we had last been here. we got in easy enough, we went up to the roof with the statues on it for a few pics.

Then back in to the main building. we where on a corridor and heard some whistling, Over turned to me and said is that you? i replied does it look like me! i turned to see a bloke walking across the corridor he looked up at me and carried on! he was only about 20 feet away from me and it was as if i was not seen. so we darted to the end of the corridor, looked back the guy was not following?

we decided to go to the library to get some shots thinking we will be asked to leave soon, and what a shock we had when we got there, everything was gone! all the books as well as all the beds and chairs that was in every room. it was now just an empty building!

what its like now.

and back then.

view from roof of lake and woodland.

the main court yard, if you look closely you can see some guys in the corner of the court yard cutting back trees.

inside the chapel, my first time in here which I'm glad i got to see.

overall I'm glad i got to see it one last time but its a shame its just a bare building now, all the beds, chairs, books and TV's have been moved out. theres not a great deal to go in there to see, the best bits of the building are now the outside. :)

Whinstaley hall, wigan

Me and Over went here after another site was not able to be done, i like it here because it has so many original features. the floors inside are a mess some fallen through and the upper floors feel like there made out of sponge, anyway here is a bit of history and pics.

history from wiki:-


The hall was built in the 1560s for the Winstanley family of Wigan; the Winstanley family were lords of the manor since at least 1252 and may have been responsible for building the moat on the site. The Winstanleys owned the hall until 1596, when the estate was sold to James Bankes, a London goldsmith and banker. Winstanley Hall has three storeys and has a date stone with a date of 1584, but this is not in situ so may not provide an accurate date for the construction of the house. Extra blocks were added in the 17th and 18th centuries. Further and extensive alterations were made in 1811-19 by Lewis Wyatt in a Jacobean style. He moved the entrance to the left flank of the hall and replacing the original entrance with a window.

The Bankes family retained ownership of the hall until the 21st century when it was sold for private development. The hall had been kept in good condition until the 1960s when habitation stopped. As the building decayed and the cost of maintaining Winstanley Hall was too much for the family it was sold on.

the view from the roof, trying to show the size of it.

Over getting a shot

a crest dated 1819, from alterations been completed.

some of the old fire places.

Poseidon fountain outside in the court yard.

had to be done! :)

stanley dock grain silo

one of my favorite places to visit is Stanley dock, don't know why I'm just fascinated with the whole place. it was my first time up the silo and god it stank in there courtesy of winged rats i believe. it was a cold night and it was blowing a fair bit to add to the misery.

history:-
The Stanley Dock warehouse was built in 1848. The dock itself links to the Liverpool and Leeds Canal. It also stands apart from all the other Docks in that it was built on the landside of the dock road.

Directly opposite the Stanley Dock Warehouse stands The Tobacco Warehouse. Built in 1900 it was the biggest building in the world at the time. Even today, it remains the world's largest brick warehouse. While the Tobacco warehouse is partly used as a popular Sunday market, both buildings await much-needed restoration and redevelopment.

The Stanley Dock is a dock, on the River Mersey and part of the Port of Liverpool it is situated in the Vauxhall area in the northern end of the dock system. It is connected to Leeds and Liverpool Canal to the east and Collingwood Dock to the west.
Designed by Jesse Hartley, it opened in 1848. At the start of the Twentieth Century the Stanley Dock Tobacco Warehouse was built on the in-filled south half of the dock.

Built in 1852-4 this is one of the first dock warehouses to be designed for rail transport and the use of hydraulic power.

yes i know you may have seen this same style of pic from everybody else who has ever been up here but i like it. :)

over looking Liverpool

the tobacco warehouse on the left, not the best of pics but its the best i got from the night.

the 6 faced clock, which is also derelict.

a pic from the filming of Sherlock Holmes, Stanley dock was used in the filming of the first and and soon to be second!

st. marys asylum. stanington

This post is made up of pics from a couple of visits, i went before they started demo of the buildings and then once during. while they where demolishing it there was a group of guys walking around the site in high vis, i only narrowly avoided them because of thick fog, on that trip i only went to see some of the out building. 

shame that it was demolished as it was a great place to have a wander round, there is still some of it left now but i don't know how much.

the main hall, the floors in here where rotten.

some pics from what is referred to as the villa

i loved all the old beds in this building, it felt really strange seeing them all just left here.

old drug check book, cant remember the date inside.