Eddie Waring's "Dark Satanic Mills End" was at Hilton Park, Leigh

Embed from Getty Images

I've a memory of Eddie Waring, the BBC's rugby league commentator between 1949 and 1981, referring to the "Dark Satanic Mills End" at one ground. I thought it was Leigh's and, having found the picture above, I think I was right.

The photo was published in Picture Post in 1949, and the caption on Getty Images says:

A group of young supporters accompany Rugby League players Bill Kingdon and Cec Ryan across allotments to the Kirkhall Lane rugby ground in Leigh, Lancashire. In the background is the Parsonage Pit.

In 1947 Leigh Rugby League Club started playing their home games at the town's Hilton Park stadium, which is indeed in Kirkhall Lane. It can't have been a bad ground: three internationals were played there between 1954 and 1964.

Leigh added Centurions to its name for the 1995–96 season and, as part of this rebranding, the stadium was renamed the Coliseum. The club moved to Leigh Sports Village for the 2009–10 season and Hilton Park was demolished to allow housing development on the site.

I don't remember seeing pit winding gear at Waring's Dark Satanic Mills End, but I do remember a forest of mill chimneys.