I like the town of Horwich,

To me it seems the best.

Happen 'cos I've lived here

For 50 years and t'rest.

You get to feel for places,

That you can call your home.

I reckon that I'll stay here,

I've no desire to roam.

But nothing stays the way it was,

Change is everywhere,

And just like many other folks,

We've had to take our share.

We've houses now in places

That locals can't explain,

Like t'duck??? pond down Vale Avenue,

And t'pipe works up Green Lane.

Our cinemas (we once had three)

Don't show "flicks", instead

One's now a funeral parlour -

Who said that films are dead?

One's a kiddies' playroom,

Where t'youngsters can go mad,

And t'last's a supermarket;

I suppose it's rather sad.

But we've Middlebrook wi' stadium,

And t'Multiplex, the lot,

All th'adverts say it's Bowton,

But we know as it's not.

?In winter when the snow comes,

All t'roads once were cleared.

Now it's just the bus routes,

Exactly as we feared

Aye, the main thing wrong wi' Horwich,

Just like Farnorth and Westhowton -

We don't stand on our own no more,

We've been swallowed up bi Bowton. By Alan Johnson

Winter Hey Lane

Horwich

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.