Swimming At Flag Bottom

A Memory of Hindley.

I remember as a little kid in the 50's going through Borsdane Wood with my mam n' Aunty Liza - we'd take egg n' tomato butties with us and always head for the Flag Bottom. This was our cheap holiday / Wigan week, I think it was June, I have forgoten a lot of dates as I emigrated to Australia in 68. We had 5 kids and Aunty Liza had 4.
In those days, the brook had a great little water fall and most of the bottom was flagged , we couldn't wait to get in the water and have fun, even over cast - didn't matter. I do remember some hot sunny days, and the egg n tomato butties were great!,....and collecting blue bells...thats another story hey.
Funny, as we grew up in Hindley you always thought how things would get better, better cleaner streets, beautification of the park and the wood, and safer streets,
all of which went the other way. Makes you wonder what the future holds.

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Added 06 April 2012

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By marl.col on Sun May 31st 2015, at 10:34 am

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I remember growing up in the mid-50s and early 60s .Lewis's ice cream van .Johnny Toughey used to be the ice- cream man .He used to ring a school bell to let you know he was coming. Every kid bought an ice cream then it was the one pleasure we had .happy days .

By marl.col on Sun May 31st 2015, at 10:39 am

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We also had picnics at the flag bottom, the green facing was a popular place for it. There was a row of little houses by the bridge as you left the tunnel entrance, we bought pop from a little shop there if I remember rightly. I also remember Ray Mac who lived in Lancaster road as I did. He lived up at the top and I lived next door but one to the Ellesmere pub with Roger my Brother. I had a shop facing St. John's church, Seconds out . I had it for 23 years, from 1978 to 2001.

By patmiller49 on Fri Jul 10th 2015, at 8:32 pm

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I lived on Salisbury Avenue, and went on walks with Rays mam and Liza.
Pat, did you live in Bridgewater Street after you got married?
Michael Hurst.

By hurstyharry48 on Sun Apr 22nd 2018, at 7:46 pm

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I was born in Darby Lane Hindley in1948.Raynor Park & Borsdane Wood was where we played at weekends.We took pop bottles with water to drink & mam would make us butties.Paddling on Flag Bottom was great!Then we would climb 60 steps to look at farmland beyond.Catching tiddlers in jamjars came next in Raynor Park.Smallest waterfall ive ever seen was there.Sliding down grass bank on tin trays was great!Miss it!

By Josephine Lang on Wed Mar 30th 2022, at 4:51 pm

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