Blue Plaques

Around the Borough. Add your own



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hilton_(novelist)

Alderman Thorley Smith - Wigan Town Hall



Local Life | Wigan Edition | February 2020 - Yumpu Link (p.18)

George Orwell - Upstairs in the Museum of Wigan Life

Not a blue plaque but … Martha Hogg - Wigan Town Hall - Her Story

With only 14% of blue plaques dedicated to women, English Heritage calls on the public to nominate more females - Link (Oct 2018)

Have we got any in Wigan Borough?

Women or blue plaques

Lolly wrote:Women or blue plaques

Blue plaques dedicated to women.

There was a map of all blue plaques in Greater Manchester but I don’t know if it’s available now: Feb 2018

Cricket Street, Wigan - Link

@LeighCenturions (Sep 2015):

We unveiled a Blue Plaque at the site of our former home near Mather Lane yesterday.



Love how the shape of the two rugby plaques is apt.

It’s the RL plaque that features in March’s Local Life magazine - well worth a read

Just seen this tweet from yesterday:

https://twitter.com/KirkleesCouncil/status/1263510335350362112

We're delighted to announce that we are submitting a bid to create a National Rugby League Museum in the George Hotel in Huddersfield - the place where it all began for the sport #itscominghome
https://kirkleestogether.co.uk/2020/05/21/bid-to-bring-rugby-league-back-to-where-it-all-started/amp/


George Hotel in Huddersfield

Its across the road from the railway station

jo anne wrote:Not a blue plaque but … Martha Hogg - Wigan Town Hall - Her Story

With only 14% of blue plaques dedicated to women, English Heritage calls on the public to nominate more females - Link (Oct 2018)

Have we got any in Wigan Borough?  

@WiganCouncil (17th Mar):
This May, 80 years after she set up Soroptimist International Club Wigan, a blue plaque will be installed on Dr. Muriel Haigh's former home. In 1927, Dr. Muriel Haigh was the first female doctor in Wigan Borough to open her own GP practice. Read more: Link

Wigan Council launched its Blue Plaque scheme in 2018 … So far, plaques have been awarded to Alderman Thorley Smith, George Orwell and Pete Shelley.

You can submit an award nomination for the 2022 Blue Plaque award - here

Eligibility Criteria
• Blue plaques can be established to mark a person, a building or an event with historic cultural significance
• They should be of significant public standing in the borough. A national or international context will strengthen the proposal
• They should have made some important, positive contribution to the local area
• Fictitious characters will not be commemorated
• Commemoration of buildings requires a historic cultural significance worthy of public notice, whether from a historical event or an important cultural significance that's not obvious from its present appearance
• Plaques can only be considered for people who are deceased
• The Council will fund two blue plaques per year. Additional plaques may be established if funding has been raised by the applicant.

@AlisonMc_F (1st Sep):
Thank you to everyone who attended the unveiling of a blue plaque for Dr. Muriel Haigh, founder of Wigan Soroptimists @SIGBI1 & Wigan Music Society & Wigan’s first female to start her own GP practice. Well done to everyone who campaigned for the plaque. Wonderful to see Dr. Haigh’s legacy remembered



News story - sigbi.org/wigan (Mar 2021)

Blue plaques for Wigan-born royal composer and acclaimed scientist
An eminent musician and composer, a world-renowned scientist and an important sporting location will receive Wigan borough’s blue plaques for 2022.

https://www.wigantoday.net/news/people/blue-plaques-for-wigan-born-royal-composer-and-acclaimed-scientist-3542244

Kathleen Mary Drew-Baker

Sir Ernest Bullock

This is interesting - Facebook - I Love Wigan History

For those who dont do facebook

Graham Taylor

Did you know:
William Ewart (1798-1869) was MP for Wigan in 1839. In 1863, he conceived the idea of a Blue plaque to commemorate a link between a location and a famous person or event, serving as a historical marker. It is the oldest such scheme in the world.

In the Grand Arcade

A stunning blue plaque has been unveiled yesterday at Queens Hall to mark the 90th anniversary of Wigan FC

A friend of mine that writes in the match day programme was invited
to the unveiling , took his newly baby grandson with a latics top on .

Here's the ceremony , Mayor 'n' all.