On the border of Merseyside, separated from Haydock and Billinge by the M6, lies the former coal mining village of Bryn.
According to locals, its name comes from a village in Neath Port Talbot in South Wales, which also became synonymous with heavy industry. But it could also come from the Welsh for 'hill' or Old English for 'burning fire'.
As with many northern mining towns, the village bears the scars of its industrial past - the Bryn Hall Colliery employed over 500 people at its peak in the early 1900 but was abandoned shortly after WWI. While the remains of the colliery are now under private land, it sits under the northeast corner of the town's nature reserve.
