Hart Common

Hart Common is a village located on the outskirts of Westhoughton, in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England.^[1]

Historically part of Lancashire, it lies mainly along the A58 road. The name is taken from a prominent local family, The Harts, the head of which was known jokingly as Hart of The Hole. This being due to the surrounding locals not thinking much of the area at that time. In 1874 the Hewlett pits were sunk (see below) and the present hamlet was built to house the colliers and staff. The more affluent members of staff were housed in the higher quality terraces running along the north side of the A58, either side of Patterson Sreet. The mine superintendent's house, No. 552 Wigan Road, is to the side of and overlooking the main entrance to the mine, which was along Hewlett Street and over the railway by way of a cast iron bridge (now demolished). The colliery site is now fully landscaped and returned to pasture. The principal roads in the hamlet were Hart Street and Common Street, along with their attendant back entries Back Hart Street and Back Common Street. Common Street retains its terrace of miners' cottages, plus seven new houses. The two terraces which flanked Hart Street were demolished many years ago. The rubble of these houses was never removed, simply buried under twin mounds of grassed over earth. Hart Street now remains as the cobbled entrance way to The Common (Hart's Common), which contains a modern children's playground and football goals.

The village is best known for being the home of Coleman Milne, one of Britain's premier manufacturers of funerial vehicles, stretch limousines and other specialist vehicles. It now also features a large golf course, converted from farmland. It is also the home of Westhoughton Rangers Football Club, the playing fields for which are another piece of common land, leased for a peppercorn rent fron the Hart Common Mission Church Trust, administered by the Anglican Parish of Westhoughton.

Hart Common once enjoyed two public houses, a post office, a Co-op grocery and butchers, two general stores and two other butcher's shops. These are now, sadly, all gone. The neighbouring hamlet of Marsh Brook, itself reduced in stature too, is now incorporated into Hart Common, bringing with it one of the few, independent greyhound racing stadiums left in the country. Marsh Brook is the last outpost in Bolton, along the A58, bordering directly onto the adjacent town of Wigan, once the home of the Wigan Coal and Iron Company, the owners of Hewlett Pits and builders of Hart Common.

History

In the 1870s the Hewlett coal pits were sunk in the south-west of Westhoughton, and many men in the district found work in the mines. Before this, the area of Hart Common was mainly agricultural. There was a shortage of labour when the pit first opened and many of the Irish harvesters, instead of going home at the end of the season found work in the pits. This was during the Franco-Prussian War in the mid 1870s and the miners were able to earn £1 per day. However, when the war ended the price of coal had fallen to 6s. per ton and Mr Hewlett called for large reductions in their wages. These were strenuously opposed by the miners and a strike ensued. It was then newcomers arrived and settled in the village - the villagers said they had "arrived at Crows Nest Siding under a tar sheet", they were said to have a strange 'lingo'. The villagers did not take kindly to the newcomers, and for many years afterwards the remark "Thi fayther cum fr' under't tar sheet" was enough to start a fight.

Mining And The War

Once a small colliery village, Hart Common was home to rows of miners cottages along Wigan Road, and the Hewlett Pits, owned by Wigan Coal and Iron Company. The pits, in the 1870s were eventally closed 1913 and 1931. There is a plaque on the front number 552 Wigan Road (now the Saplings Day Nursery) which reads IN MEMORIAM.. ..THE NAMES HERE RECORDED ARE OF THOSE MEN WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES FOR THEIR COUNTRY IN THE GREAT WAR AUGUST 1914 TO NOVEMBER 1918 AS WELL AS THE NAMES OF THOSE WHO OBTAINED MILITARY DISTINCTIONS IN THE WAR.. ..1&2 HEWLETT PITS KILLED.. which is then followed by a group of names of those killed, and a further list of men who received military honours.

References