Amy takes the past forward

Winstanley College History student, Amy Moss, has been selected as a winner in Wigan Council’s Past Forward magazine competition.

Entrants were challenged to write a piece on local history with the winning articles being published in Past Forward, the council’s long-standing magazine.

Amy, who is from Billinge, decided to use local landmark, the former ‘Stork Inn’ as her focus. The building has recently been in regional news as the site is being turned into apartments after centuries as a public house. Amy decided to research more about it’s intriguing, and even supernatural, past.

Amy discovered the site where The Stork now stands was originally a Cromwellian gaol called ‘Tower Prison’, and that the original crypt that housed the cells still exists in the form of the pub’s cellar. She also uncovered local legends around sightings of ghosts, including a man in a civil war uniform.

The article impressed judges from the council who contacted Amy to tell her she had been selected as a winner and invite her to an awards ceremony. At the ceremony, which was held at the local archives in Leigh Town Hall, Amy found out she had achieved first place in her age category winning a gift voucher.

Amy commented: ‘I walk past The Stork most days and my dad has always told me scary (and probably untrue!) tales of its history. When I heard about the competition, I thought it would be the perfect chance to find out the truth about the site and its fascinating past. I enjoyed researching and writing it so much - winning is just a bonus!’

Amy’s article is also published in the College’s Gaia magazine and can be read here, on page 19:

GIAI Magazine