Welcome to the home of the Athertonians. Atherton is a small town in Lancashire but it is getting bigger by the day. The skyline is dominated by St John the Baptist Church which sits right in the centre of town. Large development projects in the town have meant a lot of new homes as well as a new pub and shop are already complete with flats springing up like daisys. A commercial park has been built on what was an unspoiled area of trees and fields and also on what was an open cast mine. Though before being an open cast mine it was open fields and countryside. A new roadway is now open that cuts right across the land that will give access to and from the commercial area, even more traffic! This area is home to the Guide Dogs for the Blind training centre and the Driving Test Centre. Athertonians are quite proud of their town. We more or less have most of the things we need. Maybe not so much of what we want! But being in the northwest we aren't far away from major cities and really major countryside. You only need to trip up twice and you're in sensational scenery. So we are not too badly off here.
There are a lot of people round the Atherton area who give freely of thier time and efforts to improve the area for the benefit of all. The people of the area are lucky to have an enthusiastic group of people who call themselves 'The Bridgers' who meet every month at the Scout hut on Leigh Road Howe Bridge. They are a community group whose concern is the promotion and improvement of the area and the welfare of it's residents. They have a web site too Another group of people who are giving children the opprortunity to play sport and learn the skills involved in playing rugby league are the Atherton Dragons ARLFC. Who knows, they may well be coaching the rugby league superstars of the future right now! They have a really good web site you can visit by going to http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/athertondragonsarlfc/.
Atherton Cenotaph
In 2007 Atherton Cenotaph was completely refurbished due to efforts by the Services organisations - British Legion and Naval Association as well as The Bridgers Community Group. Lots of input from the local community was sought and the result is impressive. Athertonians turn out in large numbers for the Remembrance Service every year and it is one of the best attended in the whole of Wigan Borough. A dedicated web site was created for the project but once the project was completed the site was taken down. However I have moved it across to this site, pretty much in its entirety. You can view the site HERE. Please be aware the site is no longer updated, it is mainly useful for its information on our local fallen heroes involved in the two world wars.
Please take time to look around our site for an insight into the town and area.
Our county is called Lancashire, not Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Merseyside or part of Cheshire.
Atherton is in the County of Lancashire, don't get confused with local government administrative districts, the County Palatine has never been changed by local government reorganisations and council boundary changes.
