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Pigeon Tower in Rivington

This is the Pigeon Tower in Rivington. It was built by Lord Leverhulme as part of his large estate. In 1886 he established a soap manufacturing company called Lever Brothers (now part of Unilever). He lived in the Rivington area of Bolton for many years. In 1913, his house there was destroyed by a suffragette — ironically, as he was in favour women's suffrage. He had a large mansion created to replace this original home, and turned a large portion of the grounds over to the town of Bolton as a public park, including a small zoo stocked with emu, yaks, zebra, wallabies and a lion cub. His own Japanese-style garden, based on the design of the willow-patterned plate, included a lake complete with its own flock of flamingos. The Pigeon Tower sits at the north-western edge of the Oriental Gardens, and originally had three stories, with the top room being Lady Lever's sewing room and the lower two levels housing ornamental doves and pigeons. Whilst structurally sound following renovation work in Spring 2006, the property has not been inhabited for many years.