Two Lowton landmarks have gone!

Two Lowton landmarks have disappeared in the last couple of weeks – at St Luke’s Church and on Newton Road, too.

Have you noticed?

First, the red phone box at the junction of Stone Cross Lane South and Newton Road disappeared. Remember it?

Red phone box on Newton Road, Lowton, now removed.

And yesterday (25 October), the weeping ash tree outside the entrance to St Luke’s Church was being felled.

St Luke’s Church had warned that this was going to happen back in August, after the tree was found to be no longer safe. Regrettably, the only safe option was to remove it – although the church is hopeful that it can replant something similar.

The landmark weeping ash tree outside St Luke’s Church, Lowton – now sadly felled.

It said at the time:

“St Luke’s Parochial Church Council would like to take the opportunity to inform the local community that, following advice from the Wigan tree officer and from an Arboricultural expert, that we have very reluctantly taken the decision to have the weeping ash tree, which stands at the entrance to the Churchyard by the stocks, felled.

“The tree is a well known local landmark that has been standing by the Church on Slag Lane for more than a century and will be sadly missed. However it is suffering severely from rot and after being carefully monitored for several years there is now a real danger it could fall.

“The tree is not subject to a preservation order and the work needs to be done as soon as possible. Another tree of a suitably similar type will be planted and hopefully will grow to become as well known as the weeping ash.”

Will you miss these Lowton landmarks?

Of course the tree felling was neccessary for safety, but it does seem such a shame to see it go. I’m sure everybody knew the tree and maybe had their own nickname for it – our children call it the ‘upside down tree’!

And I’ll miss the red phone box too – we noticed a few months ago that there was a sign saying that BT planned to remove it because, of course, it hardly gets used these days – but maybe it would have been nice to keep the red box?

What do you think?

Let us know in the comments below.