Buildings of Interest

Description

The bowling green and pavilion was opened on 4th June 1903.

The park superintendent, Mr. Pettit, laid out the green, and Mr. Ablett built the pavilion.

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Bowling has been part of life in Mesnes Park for more than 120 years. Although recreation had been envisaged when the park opened in 1878, the first purpose-built bowling green and pavilion opened on 4 June 1903, after part of Barley Brook was culverted to create suitable level ground. The green was laid out under Park Superintendent Joseph Pettit, while the pavilion was built by a Mr Ablett. Bowling quickly became popular and a second green opened in 1921. The remainder of Barley Brook was culverted the following year, partly through an unemployment-relief scheme, allowing the Corporation to expand the recreational area. By 1926, further bowling and sporting facilities and a second pavilion had been completed, creating the familiar complex of greens alongside the railway embankment.

The greens became an important part of Wigan's sporting and social life, used by Mesnes Park Bowling Club, local organisations and generations of recreational bowlers. Women also became established participants; Wigan Archives records a particularly interesting wartime match on 10 August 1942 between the ladies of Mesnes Park Bowling Club and Wigan Town Council officials. For decades the greens provided not only competitive crown-green bowling but exercise, friendship and companionship for local people. Although bowling at Mesnes Park has since declined and the greens are now recorded as disused, the surviving pavilion and landscape remain reminders of an era when a summer afternoon around the bowling green was an important part of life in one of Wigan's finest public parks.

John Jones