LATH

About Us

Who We Are ?

The Leigh, Atherton and Tyldesley Heritage Trust (LATH) was established by a group of local residents concerned about the erosion of our local heritage and recognising that many people view our heritage as important to them and for the future of the area. Our purposes are:

TO PROMOTE HERITAGETo promote the heritage of Leigh, Atherton and Tyldesley for the benefit of local residents and visitors
TO PROTECT HERITAGETo provide information and education to protect the heritage of Leigh, Atherton and Tyldesley.
TO PROTECT ASSETSWherever possible and necessary to acquire, restore and manage heritage assets within Leigh, Atherton and Tyldesley.
TO SECURE AND MANAGETo secure and manage resources to achieve the objects set out above

Our heritage defines who we are and many of our buildings are of high quality and can be retained and used for modern purposes. We do not believe it is adequately recognized and formally protected and will be working to ensure our key heritage is maintained for future generations.
Our group contains people who bring expertise to the objectives of LATH including volunteers at Wigan and Leigh Archives, conservation experts and people already active in preserving and promoting our heritage. We are seeking additional members but do not need specific expertise as all that is needed is enthusiasm.

Our heritage defines who we are

The Value of Heritage

Many surveys show how important heritage is to the population of the country.
A Cebr survey showed that 69% of UK adults felt that local heritage buildings are important to the local community.
The BBC Restoration series found that 64% of respondents felt that they preferred older buildings to new whilst 63% said we do not look after our heritage buildings in the UK well enough.
English Heritage found that 81% of the population were concerned about the quality of the built environment and 34% of people interviewed said they were very interested in this issue. Heritage offers much to the local economy, generating tourism, economic benefits from the re-use of historic buildings and additional jobs through their maintenance and repair.

So why not support local heritage!

Our heritage defines who we are

Our Projects

Many of our volunteers are already active in promoting and supporting heritage and we intend to work with other groups to achieve this. Currently we are supporting the Atherton Cemetery Chapels Group and For Tyldesley. Our members are active on local facebook sites promoting heritage including publishing many old photographs of our area. Members have given talks on local heritage including the life of James Hilton and the history of the English Civil War in the area. Whilst not our initial primary purpose we have begun work to restore three key buildings in our area and are working with the owners to achieve this. These buildings are:

Former College on Upper George Street, Tyldesley.
Currently vacant but with a unique underground Mines Training Centre, we are seeking funding to develop the building for community and commercial uses

Bedford St Thomas’s Church, Chapel Street, Leigh.
This building which is listed Grade II has been vacant for several years and has suffered considerably from vandalism. There have been initiatives to bring it back into use but these have not progressed and the Trust is now in dialogue with the Church authorities and Council to develop a scheme to restore the building and develop some residential units to the rear of the building to support its restoration.

Butts Mill, Butts Street, Leigh.
The bulk of the building which is listed Grade II is in active use and in good condition but parts of the building which were neglected by previous owners are vacant and in need of restoration and the Trust is working with the current owner to bring these back into use.

We are actively pursuing the opportunity to add more of our important buildings to the register of listed buildings in both Leigh and Tyldesley town centres – are there any buildings you would wish to see have added protection?

We are working with other groups on heritage activities supporting their efforts. Local groups we are working with include For Tyldesley and the Atherton Cemetery Chapels Group.

We participate in local events to pass our message on including attendance at Atherton Carnival and events in Leigh and Lowton are planned.

Our heritage defines who we are