Wigan Album
Roburite Works, Gathurst
5 CommentsPhoto: Dave 1624
Item #: 30080
Front Row, 7th from Left, Edna Tickle, 9th Agnes Stopforth.
Photo courtesy of Doreen Tickle.
sixth from the left front row looks like my auntie Bessie. Elizabeth Tripp/Gidlow lane wigan.
The first item about Roburite appeared some years ago - and I have posted most of the following beneath that image, but you would need to have found that image to see it - so I thought I'd also attach it to this series of photos:
The Roburite Company was only established in 1887, buying up the patents and rights to manufacture a 'safe' explosive for use in deep mines which had been invented the year before by a German, Dr. von Roth. (I assume the name incorporates the first two letters of his name.)
Lt. Gen. Sir John Stokes, and Army Engineer who represented Britain in the building of the Suez Canal, bought into the new company and, according to his autobiography, became a Director of the company in 1887. He inspected the site at Gathurst prior to its purchase, and was involved in decisions about the construction of the buildings - such as the elevated tramway linking the factory to the explosives facilities over the canal.
Part of the reason for choosing Gathurst was its proximity to its customers - the mines of the Wigan coalfield being the nearest.
Its manager from the outset was Stokes' son-in-law, Harris Bigg-Wither - who married his daughter Constance. Bigg-Wither had by then been employed for 27 years on the International Commission on the Danube, and Stokes preferred his daughter not to have to go and live abroad, Hence the offer of the new post.
Bigg-Wither promptly moved north to set up the new factory. The family lived in Park View, and the first of their four children, Margaret, was Baptised at St Michael's Swinley in 1888. She is why I became interested in the family, as she was a nurse at The Beeches - No.3 Woodlands VAD Hospital in WW1, which I'm presently researching.
Bigg-Wither died in July 1918, having resigned from Roburite on 1st January. He was 70, and died in a nursing home in Rusholme. According to his Obituary in the Wigan Observer, he was a pioneer in electric shot-firing, which presumably added to the safety of underground blasting.
The most famous link, however, is that he was a grandson of the Harris Bigg-Wither who proposed to Jane Austen in 1802. She accepted his proposal (they had known one another since childhood, and his sisters remained her friends until her death) - but changed her mind overnight, and remained a spinster.
Very smart, elegant and distinguished.
Mr Sherringtons wife is in the white dress in front of him.
Back row right is Bill Goadsby who was the joiner.Back row extreme left is Bert Boyd commercial manager and next to him is Tom Forrester Works manager.I think front row 3rd from right is Agnes canteen manageress.I think back row 3rd from left is Harry Fairhurst who lived on site.