Tunstall Lane
Wigan (Pemberton), Greater Manchester, England
Tunstall Lane, Wigan (Pemberton), England — opened Not confirmed (in use by Feb 1915), 211 rugby league games hosted, home of Wigan Highfield (1902/1915-1932/33).
Sourcing caveat: Sources describe Tunstall Lane inconsistently: Total Rugby League says Wigan Highfield operated as a senior club 'between 1922-23 and 1932-33', while Rugby League Project's own results database shows Challenge Cup fixtures at the ground as early as February 1915, several years before the club's formal admission to the Northern Rugby League. Both are plausible (the Challenge Cup has historically been open to clubs below league level) but neither source reconciles the two dates, so the ground's actual opening year is left unconfirmed rather than guessed.
Ground facts
| Opened | Not confirmed (in use by Feb 1915) (No source found gives a firm opening date for the ground itself. It was already in use for Challenge Cup ties by February 1915, and was expanded ahead of Wigan Highfield's admission to the Northern Rugby League for 1922-23 — but neither date is confirmed as the ground's actual opening.) |
| Home club | Wigan Highfield (1902/1915-1932/33) |
| Games hosted (rugby league, on record) | 211 |
| Top recorded crowd | 2,000 |
| Years used | 1915–1933 |
| Location | Wigan (Pemberton), Greater Manchester |
Name history
- Tunstall Lane — in use by 1915-present; also referred to locally as Billinge Road
Rugby league history
Tunstall Lane, in Pemberton on the western edge of Wigan, was the home ground of Wigan Highfield, a club that traced its origins to 1880 and reformed in 1902. The venue was already hosting Challenge Cup ties by the 1914-15 season (Wigan Highfield lost 2-0 at home to Swinton on 27 February 1915, per Rugby League Project's results database), well before the club was itself admitted to full Northern Rugby League status. Highfield's application to join the league was initially rejected in 1921-22 for ground inadequacy; after expanding Tunstall Lane, the club was admitted for 1922-23, playing its first league match there on 2 September 1922, a 25-10 home defeat to neighbours Wigan. Highfield spent a decade as Wigan's 'second' professional rugby league club, memorably beating Wigan only once, 9-3 at Central Park on 13 September 1930. In 1932 new ownership relocated the struggling club to White City Stadium in London as London Highfield, ending its time at Tunstall Lane; after one season the club returned north as Liverpool Stanley, beginning a long series of further relocations that eventually ended with the club folding (as Prescot Panthers) in 1997.
Sources
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
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