Liverpool & South West Lancashire FHS - Forum

Good morning,

I am looking at the map of Ditton Hough Green from 1860 to become more familiar with the area during that time and have several questions.

I have read Haigh Green Hamlet and Hough Green. Are these one and the same? According to the OED, Haigh and Hough are two different words.

"Welchman's House." Would this be the surname of the person living there or something to do with people from Wales who moved into the area.

Finally, St. Michael's Golf Course. I read it had been closed due to arsenic. Is that not the case?

Thanks for your thoughts.

Cupcake wrote:Good morning,

I am looking at the map of Ditton Hough Green from 1860 to become more familiar with the area during that time and have several questions.

I have read Haigh Green Hamlet and Hough Green. Are these one and the same? According to the OED, Haigh and Hough are two different words.

"Welchman's House." Would this be the surname of the person living there or something to do with people from Wales who moved into the area.

Finally, St. Michael's Golf Course. I read it had been closed due to arsenic. Is that not the case?

Thanks for your thoughts.

I believe that Haigh-Green Hamlet and Hough Green are two separate entities in that Hough Green and Ditton form a township that includes Haigh-Green Hamlet. A hamlet would have been a small group, perhaps very few, of cottages etc. See: http://www.aboutlancs.com/ditton.htm and DITTON, a township in Prescot parish, Lancashire; on the Warrington and Garston railway, 1½ mile NNW of Runcorn. It includes Haigh-Green hamlet from http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/gazte ... d=10348110

Now I look at the first link more closely I think you may have 'been there' already because the map has Welchman's House. My wife, who is Welsh to the core, says the Welch spelling is the archaic form. The expression Welchman's House could however refer to the home years before of a Welshman, or that of a traitor or one who didn't pay his dues or was an informer, hence to welch on a bet or his friends. Interesting! You need a local historian for the answer to that one.

Regarding the closure of St. Michael's Golf Course...
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sankey_Canal..
On top of this, St Michael’s Golf Course, a municipal golf course in nearby Widnes built atop "30 hectares of land from old chemical waste tips", was forced to close due to high levels of arsenic found in the soil, that created a public hazard.

Hi
Regards Haigh Green I have never head of it locally. Welchman's House, yes I have seen it on the maps, dont know its origins though, may know better in a day or two, I am expecting a copy of Ann Martindales history of Ditton in a day or two. And St. Michaels Golf course is currently closed due to arsenic contamination. The area was a chemical and domestic tip in years gone by. It was known as the Ditton Alps at one time. It seemed like a good idea to reclaim it as a municipal golf course and it did good service for several years until something started oozing up to the surface. When it was found to contain arsenic it had to be shut down, while remedial work is undertaken. A local man told a tale some years ago in the local paper, that as a child during or after the first war, during a fuel shortage he and some friends found a load of coke on the tip. They promptly bagged it up for their families and needy neighbours. That night the police came knocking on the doors wanting to know were the coke was as it had been used as a filtering aid and was badly contaminated with "Arsenic".
cheers chris

Thank you for the information on Haigh Green/Hough Green, St. Michael's golf course and the Welchman's House.

Am excited to take a look at Ann Martindale's CD on Ditton as I've been putting bits and pieces together from all kinds of places.

FYI: There is a FB page called "Widnes Discovered" that has a number of photos. Only one of Ditton (Ditchfield Road) with the Church and school. And a photo of the old pub Ball O'Ditton. It is giving me a sense of what the area was like in the aftermath of the chemical works.

The weekend is over all too soon so I am off and back at work today.

Your American Cousin Bets

An earlier map of the area (1840's),

http://www.roydenhistory.co.uk/halewood ... d_1841.jpg

shows the above mentioned Welchmans House spelt as Welshmans House. I wonder which is the right spelling?

This is an interesting map, and just what I was reading last night in Royden's paper on the Enclosures of Hale. I am unclear whether or not I can apply the same theory on Enclosures at Hale to Ditton as it seemed as if there was the over-all theory of enclosures, but in practice there might be variations. Nonetheless, it took away the commons, but it always comes down to money. What was that Balzac said, "Behind every fortune lies a great crime."