Wigan Album

That Eddie that loves truck stuff will enjoy this one Ozzy!

Will keep it very brief Oz do you ever come across 'treasure trove' when all that earth is disturbed..?

I didn't actually work on this job veebee, I was doing a bit of trespass.

When opencast working was being carried out around St Helens I went to a talk by someone from the contractors. Among his illustrations were shots of stuff the original miners had left behind in the seams when they were being mined as underground workings. No treasure trove - but interesting all the same to view objects left decades before and which their owners thought would never see the light of day again. Some was stuff which was obviously rubbish throw into the gob - old boots, battered snap tins, broken tool shafts - but other stuff like coats hung on nails, tools in good condition - showed that the men expected to return there next shift, but didn't for some reason. Not quite 'fragments huge' - but tangible reminders of 'the powerful and unrecorded race (that) once dwelt in that annihilated place'.
Incidentally, O Mighty Ramesses, what was the red Bedford TK which appears in some of your shots? A mobile maintenance facility for the machines? Or a fuel and water bowser?

It may have served both purposes David. I have little doubt there would have been a generator and welding equipment on board, oil as well no doubt. Whether or not it served as a fuel bowser, I'm not too sure. I'm also not sure if the wagon was a TK or a KM, but it would have been a 4x4 without a doubt. Either way, it's academic. The opencast's gone, nought but the ' ochre lagoons ' remain to disclose the site of this forgotten Babylon.

I reckon their ya'"lone and level sands stretching far away" Ozzy.