Featured Collections
Welcome to Wigan & Leigh Archives Online
our new photographic and collections website
You will find thousands of new resources, improved viewing and searching, and over time we'll be adding new collections from the Archives and Museums.
A small minority of images on our site contain offensive content. Archives: Wigan & Leigh have provided captions to contextualise these images. If you discover any content you deem offensive, please get in touch.
We hope you enjoy our new website and would be pleased to hear from you with any ideas and suggestions or donations of new archives or photographs for us to add to the site.
News
Migration Stories: Henry James Langlois
Posted on 14th Oct 2025 by Archive Volunteer
Henry James Langlois was born 27 th April 1927 on Guernsey in the Channel Islands. At the age of 13, with the fall of France to the Nazis, the Channel Islands were evacuated. Henry arrived in Weymouth and was sent by train to Wigan with other...
The Ghost Sign of Ashton's Past
Posted on 6th Oct 2025 by AWL Team
The Ghost Sign of Ashton’s Past You might have noticed the mural that’s gone up on the side of Andy’s All-Day Breakfast in Ashton-in-Makerfield. It shows a traditional cobbled street, the sort common in Ashton 100 years...
Migration Stories: Belgian Refugees
Posted on 22nd Sep 2025 by AWL Team
During the First World War, following the German invasion of Belgium in August 1914, around 250,000 Belgians came to Britain to escape the conflict. Refugees were mainly civilians but also included wounded and discharged Belgian...