THIS week we look back at a time when Westleigh was far more rural.

The aerial photograph was sent in by Brian Molyneux, of Hanover Street, Leigh.

Brian believes it was taken in the late 1950s.

He lived in the area from 1960.

In the centre of the photograph are new houses on Boston Grove.

The old pit houses close to a dam on the right have since been demolished and built over.

Westleigh Lane dominates the photograph as it winds its way up to the left on a sharp bend, past what was the Church Inn pub and St Paul’s Church.

Across the lane are the buildings of Twelve Apostles RC Primary School, which has extended its premises over the years.

To the immediate right of the school is a footpath, which previously formed part of a railway.

If you follow it across Westleigh Lane going northwards it winds its way past the lower end of Boston Grove and terraced housing before taking a sharp turn to the right.

In its day the line linked various collieries to each other.

Trains ran from Parsonage Colliery half-a-mile west of Leigh to Eatock Colliery close to Daisy Hill in the north and many collieries in between.

The tallest building on the top right of the photograph, on the lane itself, is Westleigh Methodist Church, which has also since been demolished.

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.