A BRIEF HISTORY OF LAWNS FARM, ORRELL

The Ashton Family arrived to rent Lawns Farm from Mawdesley in the early 1900’s.

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They moved their stock on foot and all their  belongings by horse and cart, the horse struggling up Bank Brow. When they approached  they would have travelled up the bottom meadow now Lawns Avenue and past the hive of industry of the brickwork’s, now the playing field and cattle sheds.

There was no electricity and the water was brought up from a well. All that was left of the thriving mining industry was the ghosts of miners and pit ponies that had toiled underground bringing up coal, and a legacy of pit names and dangerous shafts peppering the fields of Lawns Farm, which to this day still sink at times. 

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Long gone were the men who sweated quarrying and mining stone flags to be used in such places as the Albert Dock in Liverpool , leaving behind them dangerous caverns, deep pools of water and faces of rock all over the farm and within yards of what is now the farmhouse. 

The Ashtons worked the land and grew crops, regularly taking cart loads of produce and straw into Wigan Market coming back with a load of manure produced by the town horses for disposal in the countryside, stopping the horses for a drink at the Halfway House.

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Also on the farm at that time was a Quaker community of up to forty men who each worked  a small section of land together with others who had cobblers’, tailors’ and joiners’ workshops. The scheme was visited by the lady who later became known to us as Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.

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At some time the brickworks, which manufactured firebrick and sanitary ware, went into industrial decline and closed down. The site was later to become the local playing field and the storage sheds were later sold to the Ashtons who used them for many purposes including housing for hens and pigs, later replacing the building with a barn suitable for cows.

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During the WW11 years the farm carried on providing food for the local community and for many years had POWs working the land alongside the local population and much loved working horses. It does not seem that long ago that my Grandparents used to receive Christmas cards from the Germans who worked the land at Orrell. It was perhaps around this time that my Grandad used to have a bit of fun with the nudist colony next door at the Lawns. He boasts of building the haystacks as high as possible next to the high walls of the colony so that he and his men could take a peak over.

- Although he worked hard he was also a keen rugby player and it was him that offered land for the first Orrell Rugby Club team to play on. He was a founder player at the club but was later  cut off because he turned to Rugby League.

Gradually, over the years, tractors took over from horses, the number of men employed dropped as the tractors and machines became bigger. The crops changed due to economic climate and demand. At one time peas were grown on a large scale and sold to the Birds Eye Factory. Potatoes were once grown with a packing station on the farm employing over a dozen women to clean, weigh and pack them, as well as dozens of women and children who toiled hard in all weather to pick them from the fields.

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Poultry was introduced and Lawns Farm was one of the biggest poultry units in Lancashire, grading and packing the eggs on site. Times changed again, and in the mid 70’s cattle once again had a place on the farm, taking over from pigs and eggs.

At the height of the booming cattle industry Lawns Farm was at the forefront of the cattle world. Cattle were imported from Belgium and young stock, semen and embryos were exported all over the world including Australia, New Zealand, Canada and USA. Lawns cattle had won many major show victories including the coveted Royal Show champion in Warwickshire. Gone were the days that cattle used to arrive at Orrell Siding by train and walked to the local agricultural show at Abbey Lakes.

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When the butchers’ shops were closing in the village - at one time there was at least six in Orrell alone - Lawns Farm opened a shop which was launched on the popularity of the freezer by the housewife. This thrived for many years but once wives started working and supermarkets opened, forcing the closure of many local shops and the local petrol station. Ashtons Freezer Centre was open from 1976 to 2000.

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Perhaps this tale should have started in 1666. Roger Lowe, a shopkeeper and nonconformist wrote in his diary of his visit to Lawns Farm on 2nd February 1666.

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"ffriday. I went with John Potter and his wife to his wives sisters who lived att a place called Lawnes and we ware much made of. After dinner we went to Holland to Thomas Prescotts and ware merry and then to Humphrey Naylors and stayd awhile and so came to Lawnes againe where all of us supt....

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In Upholland Parish Church there is a plaque entitled Gifts to the poor. It records that in the year 1638 Henry Prefcot of the Lawnes gave the sum of 20.00. I wonder if he is related to the Thomas Prescott that Roger Lowe visited 28 years later?

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