Bryn is a suburb of

Ashton-in-Makerfield Ashton-in-Makerfield is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester, England, south of Wigan. As of the 2021 census, there was a population of 26,380. Historically part of Lancashire, Ashton-in-Makerfield was a to ...

in the

Metropolitan Borough of Wigan The Metropolitan Borough of Wigan is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It is named after its largest town, Wigan, but covers a far larger area which includes the towns of Atherton, Greater Manchester, Atherton, Ashton-in-Ma ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

, England. The population of the suburb at the 2011 census was 11,662. Served by

Bryn railway station Bryn railway station is a railway station serving the suburb of Bryn, Greater Manchester, Bryn in Ashton-in-Makerfield, Greater Manchester, England. The station is situated on the electrified Liverpool–Wigan line northeast of Liverpool Lime ...

, Bryn is home to the

Three Sisters Recreation Area Three Sisters Recreation Area is located in Bryn, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Greater Manchester, England. In 2011 it was designated a Local Nature Reserve. The area was reclaimed from three coal mining spoil tips and an old golf course during t ...

which has been created from three large

spoil tip A spoil tip (also called a boney pile, culm bank, gob pile, waste tip or bing) is a pile built of accumulated ''spoil'' – waste material removed during mining. Spoil tips are not formed of slag, but in some areas, such as England and Wales, ...

s which remain from Bryn's role in

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

's coal mining past.

Etymology

The name ''Bryn'' is most likely derived from

Cumbric Cumbric is an extinct Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup spoken during the Early Middle Ages in the ''Hen Ogledd'' or "Old North", in Northern England and the southern Scottish Lowlands. It was closely related to Old Welsh and the ot ...

''brïnn'', meaning 'hill' (compare with modern ). Alternatively, the name may be derived directly from the Welsh equivalent, possibly reflecting Welsh settlement in the 12th century. A third explanation is that the name is derived from

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

''bryne'', 'burning, fire', suggestive of land cleared by burning.

History

The former Bryn (or Brynne) Hall was the seat of the Gerard family beginning in the thirteenth century or earlier. It was a "safe house" for the English Roman Catholic martyr and saint

Edmund Arrowsmith Edmund Arrowsmith, SJ (c. 1585 – 28 August 1628) was one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales of the Catholic Church. The main source of information on Arrowsmith is a contemporary account written by an eyewitness and published a short ...

and his hand was reportedly preserved there after his execution. The house, dating to the fourteenth century, has now completely collapsed and remaining stones have been cleared. The

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

parish of Our Lady of Good Counsel was founded in 1896. In 1902 the foundation stone of the church was laid by the

Bishop of Liverpool The Bishop of Liverpool is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Liverpool in the Province of York.''Crockford's Clerical Directory'', 100th edition, (2007), Church House Publishing. . The diocese stretches from Southport in the n ...

, Thomas Whiteside. The church, on Downall Green Road, opened on 21 October 1903. On 8 September 1955 the church was consecrated and the

holy relics In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains or personal effects of a saint or other person preserved for the purpose of veneration as a tangible memorial. Reli ...

of two early Roman martyrs – Saints Speciosi and Fructuosi, were placed in the

altar stone An altar stone is a piece of natural stone containing relics in a cavity and intended to serve as the essential part of an altar for the celebration of Mass in the Catholic Church. Consecration by a bishop of the same rite was required. In the Byz ...

. The Unitarian Park Lane Chapel in Wigan Road was built in 1697, though its congregation was founded in 1662. It is the oldest Non-conformist chapel and congregation in the whole district. By the nineteenth century Park Lane was only one of nine non-conformist chapels in the heavily recusant area.

References

Areas of Greater Manchester Geography of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan Ashton-in-Makerfield {{GreaterManchester-geo-stub