Local Life - Wigan - March 2020

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future for good.
Established in 2009 by Lee Hynes, the
Save Winstanley Hall group has been
campaigning to secure the Hall’s future
for nearly eleven years. Now local
resident Rob Stevenson is leading the
charge.
the property to shoot rats and slipped while holding
it; others claimed he felt guilty over the deaths of his
wife and lover and shot himself on purpose.
During World War I, Winstanley Hall served as
accommodation for wounded soldiers under the
banner of the British Red Cross, with the permission
of G.H. Bankes. Soldiers used the Hall and its grounds
for training exercise, with the Royal Engineers and
6th Battalion of the Manchester Regiment staying
over. In World War II it was home to the Women’s
Auxiliary Air Force until a group of squatters moved
in, comprised of around 20 local homeless families
who lost their houses to the bombs.
Winstanley Hall remained in the Bankes family
for nearly 400 years, until Tim Bankes sold it to
Dorbcrest Homes in 2000. Though a planning
application was submitted to turn the Hall into
flats back in 2003, it was quickly withdrawn due to
opposition, and now what was once a proud family
home has sadly become a shadow of its former
self. In 2015 a £170,000 supporting grant allowed
urgent repairs to be made to the stable
building, but progress since has been
sluggish.
‘I grew up in Highfield,’ Rob tells me,
‘so a lot of my childhood was spent
playing in Winstanley Woods, which
were part of the estate. This was really
what inspired me to get involved in the
campaign – I think it would be an absolute travesty
if an area that could be used as a community space
was lost.’
Rob has since been in contact with Dorbcrest
Homes and Wigan Council, with the hopes of
getting information from inspection reports and an
options appraisal for the Hall, so he can evaluate the
most sensible course of action.
‘Ideally, it would be great to set up a Trust to help
repair the Hall. This could mean using some of the
outbuildings for commercial purposes and some
for community spaces – profits would go back into
funding repairs,’ he explains. This could mean Wigan
Council obtaining a compulsory purchase order for
the Hall, with minimum compensation paid to its
owners because of the state of the building and the
extent of necessary repairs.
‘The local community is really missing a family area
– a nice park to go for walks or for kids to play in,
and the Hall is a great location for that,’ Rob adds. ‘I’d
also love to see the gardens turned into community
Surrounded by tangled weeds, the
building’s ancient rural charm is still
evident – but the grand exterior hides
a decaying ruin suspended in time.
The Grade-II* listed Hall is a Category
A risk on the Historic England register;
it is at immediate risk of further rapid
deterioration. But there’s one Wigan
group looking to change the Hall’s