Buildings of Interest

Description

c 1900 - Architect - George Heaton

The club was founded in 1936 by a group of enthusiasts including Mr. Sidney Whittle (Bob Whittle, Margaret Wilkinson and Joan Prescott's uncle) and the club premises were acquired in 1939.

The Mount, 38, Bridgeman Terrace is a very appropriate address for a bridge club. The deeds date back to 1899 when Henry Flint leased the land from Charles Orlando Bridgeman, the Rector of Wigan, to build a house, "The Mount". The rent was £14-18s-4d per annum.
Henry Flint died in June 1906. In 1908 the house was bought from the executors of Henry Flint, Walter Hubbard and James Dean, by George Alfred Christopher for £750.
Mr. Christopher was a freeman of the borough of Wigan and a well-known public benefactor who built the Christopher Home, at a cost of £31,000 (several millions today), now part of Wigan Infirmary.

The house is quite large and neither Henry Flint nor George Christopher appears to have had any surviving family. Mr. Christopher died on February 3rd 1939, aged 70, at the Christopher Private Patients Home.

Text by Judith Peace 2016

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Obituary

HENRY FLINT died on June 9, 1906, at his residence in Wigan.

He commenced his career as an apprentice at the Haigh Foundry, Wigan, and was later engaged as a draughtsman at the works of the Wigan Coal and Iron Company.

He was subsequently connected with the Worsley Mesnes Ironworks Company, Wigan. For about thirty years, however, he had been in business in Wigan on his own account.

He was elected a member of the Iron and Steel Institute in 1897.

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1939 - Obituary

We deeply regret to announce the death of Mr. George Alfred Christopher. a well known Wigan benefactor and Freeman of the Borough, at the age of 70.

Mr. Christopher died at the Christopher Private Patients' Home. Wigan, to which he gave C31.000 to defray the cost of its building.

A mining engineer by profession, he came into the public eye in later life by reason of his gifts and benefactions to public bodies. In addition to the Christopher Home, he also made a gift of playing fields at Standish Lower Ground, which now bear his name, to Wigan Mining and Technical College.

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Read about the life and works of George Heaton - Link

The history of Wigan Bridge Club by Judith Peace produced in 2016. Link