Wigan Album

Never heard of this, do you know where it was?

where was pem power station?

The power station was in the old Slipper Works in Campbell Street. Lord and Sharman took it over after the power station had finished. The site is now covered with a housing estate

Campbell St Pemberton,old slipper works off Tunstall Lane.

Was this power station built as a source for Wigan Corporation Tramways in the early 1900s?

If you read page 127 of Ray Winstanley's jottings in "Stuff" he tells that the hall at Winstanley was lit by a cable from Pemberton Power Station. The cable was exposed as it crossed the valley at Summersales

My Nana Doris Heaton, grew up on 32 Campbell Street. she was born in February, 1914. She has often told a tale of a horrible accident at Pemberton Power station in it's early years. She recalls the following: Nana: Oh yes, the little girl at the Power station. She lived in the next row of houses. Little May, she was the same age as me...and it was the electrical Power House across the road...and they had these big vats of acid in these like “swimming pools” and I guess somebody didn’t lock the gate and she went in and ran around and fell in! Acid! May, Turner,Meadows... no Maddox..May Maddox. Yeah she was the same age as me, she was 4. Of course one of the men ran into the pub (Hare and Hounds)my dad happened to be in there and the man said, “there’s a lil'un on Campbell street that fell in” Well my dad ran out of there fast....and the fella from the power house came through and he put his hands in to get her out and Oooh burned his hands it was bad....there was a catch on the gate but whoever should’ve done it didn’t. It was tragic really. Just tragic."