Budgeons Cottages – plus Bridge House, Ivydale and Bradbourne (Lower Green)

Bridge House was built in 1978.  Next to Bridge House are Ivydale and Bradbourne.  These two properties replaced a pair of parish cottages knwon as no. 3 and no. 4 Lower Green, which in the 1872 drainage report were occupied by Mr Stalton and Mr Lawrence.  They were described at that time as well guttered, with sinks and discharge pipes and a cesspool and a common privy.  In 1901 they came under the aegis of Leigh United Charities, which continued to maintain them as ‘parish’ cottages but, with the ever increasing cost of maintenance, the Trust sold them in 1963.  In 1965 they were pulled down and Ivydale and Bradbourne were built.

Next to them is Budgeons Cottage (in fact a pair of cottages) which is one of the few pre-nineteenth century cottages still standing in Leigh. The name comes from Oliver Budgen, a Haysden farmer who in 1620 donated one of the charitable funds that now forms part of Leigh United Charities when it was set up in 1901.  The 1872 Drainage Report shows that these cottages then belonged to the Parish and were occupied by a Mr Jeffrey and Mr Draper.  They had two sinks with open channels to cesspools, one common privy, but not connected.  They also had a well and water butt.  The cottages remained part of leigh United Charities as ‘parish’ cottages until maintenance costs became too prohibitive and in 1958 they were sold and the funds raised re-invested by the Trust for the benefit of the poor of Leigh and the other properties that continued to be maintained by the Trust at that time, namely the two parish cottages mentioned above, nos.1-6 the High Street (i.e. the cottages formerly on the site of Saxby Wood) and Cherry Tree Cottages and Chestnuts.

Joyce Field (October 2021)