Wigan Album
Highfield
1 CommentPhoto: Fred Foster
Item #: 4961
I noticed on Forum that there was an argument over the whereabouts of the various quarries or delphs as they were known locally. Thwaites Delph stretched right across the present Billinge road into the back field. If you walk round there you can see the edge of it. On Billinge Road, all the houses from 126 are built on the old quarry and across the road the Spinney is also on the quarry. The builders had to pile drive before building commenced. The quarry where the dog training took place was filled in with rubble from the slum clearance in Wallgate and Cox Lump. Before this however, Summersales colliery dumped their waste there. That is where coal picking took place. The colliery waste ignited and the Coal Board had to smother it with stonedust. This quarry was still working up to the start of WW11. We could hear the stone saws as we went to school.