“The cyclical nature of this tree gives me a solid and reassuring feeling”: share your Wigan TreeStory

Wigan’s story is unique. Much of its green space has been reclaimed from post-industrial sites, transforming former coalfields into thriving natural habitats. The Flashes of Wigan and Leigh – now a National Nature Reserve spanning 738 hectares – stands as a remarkable testament to nature’s resilience. These wetlands support nationally significant wildlife and represent our community’s ability to reimagine and restore our landscape.

The new TreeStory Wigan website is now live and provides a platform for everyone in the area to share their own personal TreeStory and help build an interactive map to tell the story of Wigan through its trees.

Through photography, creative workshops, school visits and outdoor adventures, the project is bringing together local schools, community groups, and residents to share their TreeStories and connect with Wigan’s unique natural and industrial heritage. Together, they are ensuring this legacy thrives for generations to come.

Purple Beech

 

He stands with his friends, watching over the park and all that passes, he has been there for a long time. If you have the opportunity to see this Beech, on a late spring morning, you will see the wonder of his coloured crown and leaves. It looks like a purple balloon trying to escape from the line of trees, or a purple spinnaker billowing in the wind. What a wonderful sight.

 

John Broomhead

Friends of Alexandra Park

The TreeStory project started in 2020, when Open Eye Gallery and dot-art started inviting people in the Liverpool City Region to share personal stories about trees that mattered to them. Tees are powerful vehicles for understanding a region’s resilience and character – from their role in the city’s founding and growth to their survival through hardship and renewal. By 2022, with support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the project expanded to work with schools and community groups across the region, creating resources, planting trees, and building an interactive online platform for sharing TreeStories.

The success of this work inspired a bold vision: to engage communities in other places. Wigan was an obvious choice, with an ambitious commitment to the borough’s post-industrial Green Heart, and in 2025, we launched TreeStory: The Story of Wigan Through its Trees in partnership with Wigan Council, celebrating Wigan’s 50th anniversary. 

Horse Chestnut

 

The tree is named ‘Long Jenny’ due to its extended bottom boughs that run parallel to the ground. Long Jenny is a well-known tree with several local primary schools whose classes regularly visit her to sit on her long arms. She’s well over a hundred years old and possibly planted along with many other trees during the ‘Cotton Famine’. This was due to the American Civil war when many cotton factories in the North West had to close due to no cotton being harvested. This left many cotton workers without a job and the Earl of Crawford employed some to plant a new woodland. 

 

Marcus Workman

We invited eight community members – our TreeStory Tellers – to share the trees that are important to them. Their stories reflect Wigan’s diverse heritage, from cherished family memories to connections with the transforming landscape. Photographer Lizzie King captured images of these significant trees. Photographer Andy Yates worked with students from local schools and Wigan & Leigh College to add more TreeStories.

A selection of Wigan TreeStories also got to be exhibited at Open Eye Gallery’s LOOK Climate Lab 2026 (open until 29 March 2026).

Sarah Fisher, Director of Open Eye Gallery, stated, “TreeStory Wigan is an outstanding opportunity to celebrate and preserve our local natural and industrial heritage while engaging communities in a meaningful way. Through our collaborative approach with dot-art and Wigan Council, and with the vital support of The National Lottery Heritage Fund, we are committed to ensuring that this distinctive heritage site continues to inspire and benefit future generations.”

Sweet Chestnut

 

In March, it is always the first tree to show the signs of new life, with its sticky buds that will grow into huge broad leaves, making a comforting green canopy. And in the autumn, its broad leaves are the first to turn yellow as it releases hundreds of conkers which delight passing children. The cyclical nature of this tree gives me a solid and reassuring feeling as the years roll by in all their busyness, with children growing up and the changes that life brings me. In a chaotic world with lots of changes, this tree is a silent, life-giving presence and I can always count on it to do the same thing in season.  

 

Madeleine Pires

Artist

You can submit your Wigan TreeStory at wigan.treestory.me.

TreeStory: The Story of Wigan Through its Trees is funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Installation images by Rob Battersby.