By Brian Gomm A START begins next week on Tyldesley RUFC's long-awaited new home.

At the end of next season they will bid farewell to their famous old Well Street ground and move quarter of a mile to the other side of Astley Street.

Work is starting on an eight month scheme to create five pitches on reclaimed land west of Astley Street opposite Tyldesley Park, with an entrance opposite Standish Street.

Excited Tyldesley RU spokesman Howard Hughes on Tuesday told The Journal : "Groundwork will begin in the next seven to 10 days, it's full steam ahead. Three pitches will be created with the main one being floodlit.

"There will also be two soccer pitches which we will sublet to the Council for the use of local teams.

"A start will be made on a new clubhouse building in November and that should be completed within six to eight months.

"It marks the start of an exciting future, a major step forward and something the town needs."

With under 7s, u'8s, u'9s, u'10s, u'16s, third, second and first teams the club is thriving and its new home alongside a main artery in to town promises a flourishing future.

Preliminary plans include increase social membership and making full use of facilities with functions to boost club fortunes.

But Well Street, earmarked for housing in a land deal which the Journal unearthed a decade ago, won't be forgotten.

The proud old ground at the bottom of the Jig Brow has a place in rugby history.

It was Tyldesley's home in the last century when they were founder members of the Northern Rugby Football Union and one of the big boys in the professional game which became the Rugby League.

But Howard promised: "We'll be saying goodbye to Well Street in style and with Terry Alexander as County president its possible we could mark the closure of Well Street or open the new ground with a match against a Lancashire Presidents' XV.

"Everything is scheduled to open the new ground in September 2001."