After welcoming Ledingham to last night’s training session, Brown said: “He has a lot of natural ability and I’m looking forward to seeing how he develops in the weeks ahead.

“They are a talented family and his brother Fergus was our scrum-half last season. I know Alistair will be keen to get into the side alongside him.”

Ledingham took a year out after completing his studies at Wigton Nelson Thomlinson and spent it in Germany, staying with his uncle.

“I was playing football for a lot of the time, at a high standard as well. I was the only Englishman in a team of Germans but it was very enjoyable.

“The last game of rugby union I played was at Aspatria right at the end of the 2010/11 season when I was in the Cumbria team which met Surrey in the County Shield semi-final.

“It was good to get a training session under my belt and I’m looking forward to getting back into the groove at Wigton. It would be good to play alongside Fergus in the first team.

“I started with the Colts and played a few first team games before going off to Germany. I played mainly at fly-half but was at full-back for Cumbria,” he says.

He had been approached to join another club in the county but given the Ledingham ties with the Wigton club there wasn’t much doubt about who he would join.

The third member of the family – elder brother Fraser is a former Wigton player, operating at number eight, but is currently living and working in France.

Head coach Brown added: “He made his senior debut in October 2010 in a 26-10 win at Kirkby Lonsdale when he stood out as one for the future. He grabbed a hat trick of tries playing right wing and in all played eight matches that season, mainly as wing / full-back.”

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Stand-off David Hanabury opts to stay with Wigton

Wigton stand-off David Hanabury has handed the club a major boost by opting to stay at Lowmoor Road.

The Greens had been extremely hopeful of retaining their entire squad, despite last season’s relegation from North One West, even though players had received financial offers to move elsewhere.

But it looked as though they would have to resign themselves to losing 22-year-old Hanabury when he accepted invitations to train with Penrith and Tynedale.

In the end, however, he decided to stay with Wigton for at least another season and help them achieve their target of getting back into North One West.

“I am in my last 18 months of studies to become a chartered accountant and obviously it’s an important time for me. Having trained with Penrith and Tynedale I decided that it would be better if I did the least possible travelling this coming season so that I could concentrate on my studies,” said the Moresby-based fly-half.

Both Penrith and Tynedale clubs fully respected Hanabury’s decision and why he had chosen to stay at Lowmoor Road.

“I’ve been with Wigton for seven years so it would have been a wrench as I came through from the Colts team to the first XV. I was in the team that gained promotion from North Lancs Cumbria three years ago and it would be nice to do that again.

“We have a good squad of players capable of winning promotion again and it’s looking particularly good now that we have so much strength in depth on the coaching side.

“It’s good that so many experienced former Wigton players are part of the coaching set-up now,” he added.

Hanabury had hamstring problems last season when Wigton were relegated into North Lancs Cumbria and had a couple of spells on the sidelines, but he’s back in training again and feels fine.

He made his senior Wigton debut against Vale of Lune in September 2007 and has made 113 senior appearances. He was voted players’ player of the year last season.

Wigton have also announced that they have re-signed two of their former players who have been more recently playing with Silloth.

Back-row forward Liam Graves, 25 and stand-off Willie Miller, 19, both live in the town and were brought through the various age group sides to the Colts.

Miller had a particularly good season at Silloth where he caught the eye of the Cumbria selectors and was a stand-out player for the County Under-20s.

Head coach Malcolm Brown said: “It’s good that these lads are coming home as they are talented players. Miller, in particular, shone for Silloth last year and has a lot of potential.

“At 6ft 3in he’s a lovely runner and I’m sure he has a lot to offer.”