Local Life - Wigan - March 2018

39
around the area. There was also a heck of a lot of
tree planting. It’s something we take for granted
now but there are many more trees now than there
used to be. We used to get whips for a few pence
each so if any were pulled up - and there was a lot
of vandalism around at that time - we’d simply plant
another one.”
“It was pure slack... with
clay underneath”
The programme of regeneration was painstaking
work, done over a number of years. In the late 1980s,
attentions turned to making Orrell reservoirs into an
attraction. But the geology of the land, coupled with
its industrial use in the past, proved challenging: “All
the area was mostly spoil; you’d dig into and it was
pure slack. And then underneath it, there’s naturally
occurring builders’ clay. That makes it even more
challenging.
“The streams had to be cleaned and we put in three
control flow dams which are still there to this day.
“The wetlands were really welcomed by the
community and we had a lot of help from local
During the demolition of Scholes in the 1970s
The creation of the wetlands at Orrell Water Park in the late 1980s