Wigan Album

What a brilliant find, I'm from the area. Preston market is just down the road from where we are now living. Was it one of the 'tables' under the old cover?

Yes, Carol - in the smaller market. This usually has more of the collectables stalls on it than the larger one, which has more car boot stuff.
There were a number of the opencast pics to choose from, some similar to the two I've put up here. At 3 for a pound, they're affordable....

Rev.David; You are right about it being St. Matthew's Church, Highfield, in the background to the pictures of the Pemberton opencast site.
I took the pictures as part of a feature about opencast mining for the Wigan Observer in June 1986.
I think I might have overdramatized the sky a tad with graduated and starburst filters.
I don't know how the prints ended up on Preston Market but whoever is selling them is not going to get rich quick at 3 for a pound.

Thanks for owning up to the pics, Frank. Sadly, newspapers are not very good custodians of our history. A friend in Warrington retrieved a number of interesting historical photographs from the tip there which had obviously been thrown out by the local rag. Presumably this happened with your pics here. I can't believe that the local museums wouldn't have been pleased to take them into their archives. Mind you, we might never see most of them again if that had happened - at least your artistry has been given a public airing once again thanks to my lucky find.
I hope you were paid more than three for a quid back in 1986!