Wigan Album

I can't believe that this image has been "kidnapped" and put on "Wigan Nostagia" facebook page with no reference to Ron and wiganworld as the source.
I complained on the FB page and my post was removed. Ron has been researching the history of Timothy Coop:-
https://www.wiganlocalhistory.org/resources/the-life-of-timothy-coop

There was a write up about that gravestone in an issue of a Past Forward magazine, but I can't find the edition. Interestingly, but unconnected to this grave, when the townhouses were being built at the bottom of Lord Street and Duke Street ancient graves along with skeletons were found, and again when the last terraced house in Lord St was having extensions built they too found graves containing skeletons when digging for the foundations. There was a farm named St Domingo where St Michael's is now, and it was thought that there was also a Mediaeval church of St Domingo and this area of Lord Street, Earl Street and Duke Street was the graveyard. There is a letter/story about St Domingo farm, see Skeletons in the Cupboard by Muriel Sage, page 41 of Past Forward Issue 38 Nov 2004.
https://issuu.com/wlct/docs/38_nov-2004-march-2005/41

What a peculiar setting for a headstone. Whatever happened to it? I'll take a guess that when the houses we're demolished, so was this.

Facebook is full of pictures with no source information or credit. I never used to bother until it happened to me a couple of times and in some cases it was hard work getting the pictures in the first place just to see them copied.

I have noticed that photos from the album are put on facebook's Wigan Nostalgia page every day almost as soon as they appear on here.

No harm done in attaching credit, at the end of the day it's spreading awareness. It takes seconds to credit your source..

It’s a bit of a cheek if they don’t credit where they get the photo from. I know one of my photos have gone on there.

What a fascinating and mysterious photo.

Hi Ron, I guess you know Timothy Coop was my great x 3 Grandfather. Is the gravestone in the photo in anyway connected to him? Gill Clough, nee Marsden.

I presume it was some relation?

Ron. I think that there were more gravestones in gardens in this area. I believe, the terraced houses in the photograph were on the right side as you walked down Lord Street from Wigan Lane.
At one time, there was some type of dairy in this row of terraced houses where you could actually go to the house (or dairy) and purchase a bottle of milk.
Judging by the distance, it seems that the photographer took the photograph while standing on the pavement as I believe that these terraced houses had about a six metre front garden.

There is another image on the site showing three houses. There was a church ST DOMINGOS, which was on the site prior to the houses being built. Hence the gravestones.

Ron. I haven't 'yet' had a look at the other image. I am pulling on memory, which I tend to do, to give some information.
I remember old terraced houses with front gardens on the right side as I walked down Lord Street and I remember gravestones being in the front gardens. I am quite sure that at least one was a slab, which I believed covered the grave. As very small children, we often wondered whether there were bodies buried there.
I remember being sent, by my mum, to the dairy/house in Lord Street to get a bottle of milk or two bottles of milk, because we had either run out of milk or we were very low on milk. Naturally, we needed milk for cups of tea and we certainly needed milk for our cornflakes in the morning. Of course, we (my mum's kids) were sent when the shops had closed (there was at least one grocer's store on Wigan Lane, but they closed at about six o'clock) and sometimes this was in the evening. Therefore, the dairy must have served until late and I think that you could also get served on Sunday. When it was dark, we (very young kids) went together, because my mum insisted on us not going alone, and we were never comfortable with those gravestones.
Unfortunately, I don't think we ever considered it important to read the gravestones. Late in the evening, when it was dark, it was mostly important for us to get the milk as quickly as possible and get back home to watch television.
Other than the dairy being there, Lord Street wasn't an interesting place to be for us kids until they began to pull the terraced houses down and build new property there - then, it was an adventurous playground.