THIS week we take a look back at a photograph of the Leigh Union workhouse.

Built by the Leigh Poor Law Union on Leigh Road, Atherton, it was much maligned – often for good reason – by literary writers including Charles Dickens and George Orwell.

The union was set up in 1837 and initially encompassed the three Leigh townships of Atherton, Tyldesley and Astley, with Culcheth, Lowton, Golborne and Kenyon added by 1846.

A smaller Leigh workhouse was previously on the east side of King Street, where Spinning Jenny Way is now. It closed in 1855 due to increasing levels of poverty among the industrial populace and the need for larger premises.

The much larger workhouse on Leigh Road opened in the same year and was built at a cost of £8,212 to accommodate a rising number of Poor Law claims.

In 1885 a 122-bed infirmary was added to the building as well as imposing offices.

By 1930 it had become Atherleigh Hospital, which was part of the NHS from 1948.

It was closed in 1990 and then demolished in August 1991.

If you have a photograph you would like us to use in Look back at Leigh, send it to newsdesk@leighjournal.co.uk with your name, address and a daytime telephone number, plus details of when the picture was taken and what it shows.