Wigan Album

The houses in Low Bank road can be seen from the premises of J.W.Ratcliffe & Sons in this shot from about 1970....What appears to be a Perthshire registration on the S40 Foden would seem to indicate that the vehicle is relatively new. The unit is coupled to a four-in-line low loader trailer with knock out axles. The metallic object stood on the ground to the right, is one of two aluminium ' Tangye ' hydraulic toe jacks, used to raise the back of the trailer to remove the back wheels in order for the item of plant to access the trailer...., relatively Neanderthal nowadays.....If the plant was tracked, we would try to load it over the side wherever possible, to save all that faffing about,....definitely forbidden nowadays.....,but with certain items of equipment, such as road rollers for example, tarmac paviors or wheeled loaders, that wasn't possible, and the wheels would just have to come off. " bugger! ". The area behind the vehicle that appears to be full of junk, is now the car park of the Pit Pony. There used to be a colliery on this site evidently, hence the name of the pub. If this photograph holds little interest for you, as I suspect it quite well may, then could I respectfully suggest that you just move on?, there'll be another one along quite soon no doubt.