Standish, Greater Manchester
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. This article has been tagged since January 2007. |
Standish is a village and district of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan in Greater Manchester, England. Historically part of Lancashire, Standish is located between the neighbouring towns of Chorley and Wigan.
Contents |
[edit] Geography and administration
 |
This section is a stub. You can help by expanding it. |
Standish once had it's own railway station, which closed many years ago, as did Victoria Colliery.
Standish is located on the A49 road between Chorley and Wigan, a short distance from Junction 27 of the M6 motorway.
[edit] History
[edit] Etymology
The name Standish is almost certainly formed from two Old English words "stan", meaning stone, and "edisc", a park or enclosure.[citation needed]
[edit] Early history
Standish has a documented history dating back to 1178. Historical remains earlier than the Anglo-Saxon period have been found in Standish in the form of two Roman hoards, one of which, the Boar's Head Hoard, was found in 1926.
At the end of the twelfth century Warin Bussel was Baron of Penwortham, and when his daughter married Richard Spileman he gave to her the vills of Stanedis and Longetre as part of her dowry. Two daughters born of this marriage each received one of the vills as her own marriage portion; the elder, Juliana, marrying Radulphus, who took the name de Stanedis or Standish, and the younger, Edith, marrying Siward, who adopted the name de Longetre or Langtree.
With the marriage of Radulphus and Juliana, whose dowry gave them land and a name, the Standish family had begun. The story of the Standish family can be followed from here, 1202, to the last Lord of the Manor of Standish, Henry Noailles Widdrington Standish, Lord of the Manor from 1883 to 1920. When he died in 1920, at Contreville in France, he left no children, and so the house of Standish officially came to an end.
Throughout their history the Standish family remained loyal to the Roman Catholic faith after the Reformation, and like many other Lancashire gentry families had to steer a fine course between their beliefs and avoiding the wrath of the Protestant State. Although Standish escaped major incident in the English Civil War, the support of the Standishes for the Jacobite cause involved the village in national events in the 1690s and again in 1715, when first William and then Ralph Standish were lucky to escape with their lives and to preserve the family estates intact.
There has been speculation that Standish was the home town of the pilgrim father, Myles Standish, but while he may have come from a different family branch of the Standishes of Wigan, there is no evidence he ever lived here.
[edit] Landmarks
St. Wilfrid's Church is first mentioned in 1205, but the vast extent of the ancient parish with its eleven townships (Adlington, Anderton, Charnock Richard, Coppull, Duxbury, Heath Charnock, Langtree, Shevington, Standish, Welch Whittle and Worthington) points to a very early foundation. It was rebuilt of local gritstone in the 16th. century and the large blocks of red sandstone, in the north-east corner, are relics of the older building. The old tower with its impressive spire above it had been left untouched at the rebuilding but this spire was unfortunately damaged by lightning in 1814 and again by storm in 1822. Forty-five years later the spire and the tower below were removed and then rebuilt. St. Wilfrid's Church was later joined in Standish by St. Marie's R.C. Church (opened on 18th May 1884) and Standish Methodist Church.
[edit] Famous People
Ashley Slanina-Davies - Hollyoaks actress.
Nick Dolan - Coca Cola Advertisement star
[edit] External links
- The Standish Homepage A website all about Standish, Greater Manchester
- Standish History A collection of articles relating the 800+ years of the history of Standish
Categories: Articles to be expanded since January 2007 | All articles to be expanded | Articles lacking sources from November 2006 | All articles lacking sources | Articles with sections needing expansion | Articles with unsourced statements since January 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | Wigan
