Wigan Album

Aunty Sally would have been a good model for the monument! She has got the stance of a model swinging along!

Oh, Thankyou, Veronica! Yes, Sally would have made a fine model for WHAMM'S Statue, but their lady is lovely, as is the man and the little lad....what a wonderful memorial it will be.

I can see your Dad smiling in that face Irene!

Yes, she's definitely got the makings of a model on the cat walk with her coat nonchalantly tossed over her shoulder! I bet she was fun to work with - her face says it all- what a jolly lady.

She looks a cheerful soul. You must be reminded of her everytime you see this photo Irene.
Anyone able to identify the pit with certainty?

Yes, she was the image of him, Dennis, and always smiling, even under the coal-dust! She was a joy.

Is that Charlie Chaplin peeping along the rail from the back?

Someone suggested that it may be Giant's Hall Pit, Neil, but Sally's grand-daughter says that Sally told her it was The Maypole in Abram. That would make sense as Sally lived in Spring View in the 1950s and would probably have walked to work, but we'll never be absolutely sure. I'm not sure if there were pit-buses then, although I remember them in the sixties with destination boards showing rather romantic-sounding names such as Daisy Nook....I'm sure the colliers didn't find them romantic! My dear Dad Bob, (Sally's brother), was down The Maypole at twelve years old! I see his eyes, and Sally's, every day in my mirror. Four members of our 1940s re-enactment group dress as miners and pit-brow lasses and I am proud that they have asked for copies of this photo to use in their demonstrations and talks. They are also in touch with a Bevin Boy, (now in his nineties), who has provided much information; it is so important that the miners are remembered.

A lovely photograph Irene, thank you for posting it.

If this is the Maypole. I worked with these dear ladies,in 1949/50, prior to going to Low Hall, for underground training. It is so long ago, that I cannot remember faces. I recollect somewhere on W.W.A. there is a Picture Post photograph, taken of the Maypole girls', in 1950, on the grass, near to No.1 shaft. I caught the bus to the Maypole, at Abram, at the Alf Taylor bus stop, in Spring View, then when we move to Lower Ince, at the Manley Street bus stop.

We had pit brow girls at Stones colliery when I started work there in 1949. I remember a lot of their names, I wonder if they are still alive. Agnes and Nellie Cunliffe, Peggy Carney,Hilda and Jennie Thomas, Olive Simpkin Joyce Hill, Sally Stockley,Jean Mather, Hilda Crank. Annie Lowe, to name a few.

She isn’t on that pic, Albert. When I was in hospital having my second child, Sally was also in, sadly not to live much longer. When my daughter was born, I called her Ashley but gave her the middle name Sarah, after Sally. News came via the family that it had made her happy. I never saw her again but her name lives on.

I was wondering Irene if any of the girls' shown in the background are on the Picture Post photograph. To give some idea as to whether, or not it is The Maypole.

Good idea, Albert, but could have been taken months or years apart, and even if taken on same day could be on different shifts. You would have to study them side by side. You must feel proud to have known those ladies, truly the salt of the earth.

No truer words have you mentioned Irene. They were always sincere, and dependable. I met up with several of them, when we were altogether, when I was with my mates, spending our weeks holiday wake, away in Douglas, I.O.M. Had a smashing week. 1950.

We don't see much of Michael Barrymore these days but he once compared a Game Show that I can't remember the name of and he had two Wigan Ex Pit brow Lassies as Contestants. He was so fascinated talking to these two Ladies that he abandoned the Game Show and spent the whole programme just chatting with these two women.
Does anyone remember the name of the show or, better still does anyone remember who the two ladies were?

The photograph of the pit brow girls, working at The Maypole in the forties, and fifties, can be found in the column, WORK. "Colliery lassies, and pit brow girls'

My dad, James Callaghan worked at the Maypole from around 1943ish to 1952. He was a "Bevin Boy". He may well have known some or all of these lasses. Hope you and Peter are keeping well Irene. By the way he caught buses from Pemberton each day to Abram. So that was a shift and a half wasn't it?