Wigan

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wigan
View over Wigan
View over Wigan
Wigan satellite image
Wigan satellite image
Coordinates 53 ° 33 ′  N , 2 ° 38 ′  W Coordinates: 53 ° 33 ′  N , 2 ° 38 ′  W
Wigan (England)
Wigan
Wigan
Residents 81.203 (as of: 2001)
administration
Post town WIGAN
ZIP code section WN1-WN3, WN5, WN6, WN8
prefix 01942
Part of the country England
region North West England
Metropolitan county Greater Manchester
Metropolitan Borough Wigan

Wigan [ ˈwɪɡən ] is a city in the British county of Greater Manchester . Located on the Douglas River to the west of Manchester , it is an industrial city with metal, textile and chemical industries. The city has around 87,100 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2004) and is the administrative seat of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan with more than 305,000 inhabitants.

history

Over 2000 years ago, Celts settled in what is now the city. The Romans later built fortifications there and named the place Coccium .

On August 26, 1246 Wigan received city rights. In the Middle Ages, the city was an important trading hub in which mainly metal was traded.

Wigan has long been a heavy industry site; the Wigan Coal and Iron Company was based here and operated several coal mines in and around Wigan, u. a. the Clock Face coal mine in nearby Saint Helens . There is a college of mining and engineering in Wigan .

The "All Saints Church", known for its Norman tower, is worth seeing .

George Orwell set a literary monument to the city in 1937 with the book The Road to Wigan Pier . In it he described the life of the miners. All mines were closed in the course of the deindustrialization of England by Thatcherism after the miners' strikes of 1984/1985 were unsuccessful. Poverty and precarious jobs are very common in the city today.

With the Adam Viaduct over the River Douglas and Southgate Road, Wigan has the oldest prestressed concrete bridge in the United Kingdom.

traffic

railroad

Wigan has two stations on main lines. Wigan North Western Station was originally commissioned by the North Union Railway at this point in 1838 and served the route between Wigan and Preston and is now part of the West Coast Main Line . The station is not, as one might think, on the northwestern edge of the city, but its name is derived from the fact that the London and North Western Railway added it to their route network in 1846. The station Wigan North Western is exactly like the 100 m distant from him Station Wigan Wall gate on the southern edge of the center of Wigan. Wigan Wallgate station was established in 1848 by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway and serves the connection to the stations Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Victoria as well as to Southport .

Inland shipping

Wigan is on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal , which reached the city from the west in 1781. Today shipping is mainly used for tourist purposes. As early as 1741, attempts were made to make the Douglas River navigable as part of the Douglas Navigation project , but this was not technically satisfactory in the long run.

Sports

From the 2005 season, the Wigan Athletic football club played in the Premier League until 2013 . In 2013 he was also the first English cup winner , but was relegated in the same year. In 1995, until it was taken over by local entrepreneur David Whelan , the club was still playing in the third division.

sons and daughters of the town

Web links

Commons : Wigan  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gwenaëlle Lenoir: See you in Wigan . In: Barbara Bauer, Dorothee D'Aprile (Ed.): Le Monde diplomatique . No. 1/25 . TAZ / WOZ , January 2019, ISSN  1434-2561 , p. 12 f .
  2. ↑ Leeds and Liverpool Canal on the Canal & River Trust website , English, accessed April 4, 2016
  3. ↑ Private website with historical data from Douglas Navigation , English, accessed April 4, 2016