Wigan Album

There was a pit in that area of land behind the pub, it was on the other side of the line. It was called the Industrious Bee Colliery.
The photos you've put on over the last couple of days are great.

winders right about the industrious bee colliery
when we were kids we would spend hours playing around the ruins of the pit.
also remember the trains which would chug up and down the line.
just to the left of the train was a signal box
if only we could go back to those days

Second Winders comments about pictures. Engine is a ex-GC J10, from Springs Branch. Sheded at Lower Ince (GC),till it closed in 1952.

ohhhh my childhood !!!!!!!!!!!!!

I lived in West Street this train was at the top of my street I used to cross the lines on my way to Belle Green School I always thought the trains had stopped running by that date I never got stopped by them going to and from school great photo on I left Ince in1971

I was born in 1960. If you were to stand opposite the Oak Tree Pub and look at the front of the Pub today,there is now a grassed area with trees on it.
The house next door to the Oak to the left as you look was 154, Belle Green Lane.
My Grandfather John (known as "Jack") Sudworth lived there with my auntie Margaret, my mother Annie Walls (Nee Sudworth) and my uncle Tommy.
I think that there was only one more house to the left of 154 and this was occupied by a Mrs. Riley.
I think that the house on the right side of the photograph is Mrs. Riley`s.
There was a small arched and covered entry between the Oak and 154.
This had a flooring made up of small cobbles that hurt my feet when I walked on them as a boy.
A lot of my childhood was spent at 154 and I would have remebered the crossing if I had seen it, but I don`t.
I think that it must have gone before I was born.
The fencing near to Mrs. Riley`s was the same sort that was at the rear of the yard of 154.
Some of my earliest memories are of a fair, and I think a circus once,being on the open land behind 154.
I remember the ruins of the Pit at the rear.
I remember a large chimmey that used to have bats in it sometimes, I think, that used to come out at dusk/after dark.
I remember the chimney being demolished.
I was inside 154 and my auntie Margaret was worried in case the chimney came or way.
As it was, the only thing to "hit" us was mud/soil that she said hit the window.
If I remember correctly my Grandfather Jack Sudworth worked at the Pit.
I always thought that it was called the Longworth Pit.
I also went to Belle Green school.
The Whelley Loop Line ran alongside the Infants school as the Line crossed Belle Green Lane.
My sister who is 10 years older than me (she was Brenda Jean Walls then) told me that the engine drivers used to throw coins for them as they went past.
I just remember the smell of the smoke.