Billinge (from 1927 Billinge and Winstanley) was, from 1872 to 1974, a local government district in the administrative county of Lancashire, England. The district was created in 1872 as a local government district, governed by a local board. It covered three separate parishes: Billinge Chapel End, Billinge Higher End and Winstanley. These had all previously been townships within the larger parish of Wigan, but as they appointed their own overseers of the poor they had each become separate civil parishes in 1866 with the passing of the Poor Law Amendment Act 1866. When sanitary districts were established in August 1872 the three parishes were briefly included in the Wigan Rural Sanitary District. A public meeting was held at the Stork Inn at Billinge Chapel End on 24 October 1872 where it w