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Bedford Colliery disaster
The Bedford Colliery disaster occurred on Friday 13 August 1886 when an explosion of firedamp caused the death of 38 miners at Bedford No.2 Pit, at Bedford, Leigh in what then was Lancashire. The colliery, sunk in 1884 and known to be a "fiery pit", was owned by John Speakman.
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Bedford Colliery
Bedford Colliery, also known as Wood End Pit, was a coal mine on the Manchester Coalfield in Bedford, Leigh, Lancashire, England. The colliery was owned by John Speakman, who started sinking two shafts on land at Wood End Farm in the northeast part of Bedford, south of the London and North Western Railway's Tyldesley Loopline in about 1874. Speakman's father owned Priestners, Bankfield, and Broadoak collieries in Westleigh. Bedford Colliery remained in the possession of the Speakman family until it was amalgamated with Manchester Collieries in 1929.
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Leigh East (ward)
Leigh East is an electoral ward in Leigh, England. It forms part of Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council, as well as the parliamentary constituency of Leigh.
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Red Rose Forest
Red Rose Forest is the previous name for the charity City of Trees, the charity underwent a rebranding in 2016. City of Trees is the community forest for Greater Manchester, part of a national network of community forests across England - www.communityforest-trust.org
Red Rose Forest was founded as a community forest in western and central Greater Manchester, England. It was established in 1991, as the Greater Manchester Community Forest – one of 12 community forests across England. In 1994 the Red Rose Forest Plan was approved by Government and launched to the public. It aimed to be a mechanism for the economic, social, and environmental regeneration of the countryside around our towns and cities.
Achieving this by involving communities in creating and preserving a woodland flora for the future. The population within the forest boundary amounted to 2.5 million, at the time the community was founded, making it the largest urban community forest in the United Kingdom.
The main aim of Red Rose Forest was to get greenery where people can appreciate it every day. This included street trees, green roofs and green spaces. Red Rose Forest's Green Streets team worked with local communities on unique and innovative greening projects to improve the quality of life for urban communities. The value of greening as a means of tackling a range of social, health and economic issues is huge. Red Rose Forest offered many ways for the people to get involved in their environment including the general public through their Friends of the Forest scheme, businesses through sponsorship and communities through the Green Streets project.
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Leigh (UK Parliament constituency)
Leigh was a constituency in Greater Manchester represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament.
From 2019 to 2024, Leigh was held by James Grundy of the Conservative Party. Before this, the seat was represented by Andy Burnham of the Labour Party, who served as the MP from 2001, and Shadow Home Secretary in Jeremy Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet until October 2016. Burnham stood down following his victory at the 2017 Greater Manchester mayoral election, and was succeeded by the Labour and Co-operative Party's Jo Platt who was MP from 2017 to 2019. Burnham, who was re-elected as Mayor of Greater Manchester in 2021 with an increased majority, still resides in the Leigh constituency.
The constituency was abolished as a result of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies. With the addition of the town of Atherton, it was reformed as Leigh and Atherton, and was first contested in the 2024 general election.