Wigan Album

Don’t know about you Albert , but leaving school was such a shock for me, as I still felt like a child and was completely unprepared for the grown up world . I found it very scary indeed .
Career advice was non existent from the school and as for knowing what I wanted to be or do even less so . Like so many I ended up in a factory .
Thank you for posting . Very interesting set of pictures .

Rainh, thats just how I felt, when I left school.It was so scary.You were just thrown into the world of work, and had to get on with it.Like you say no Career advice, in fact no advice from anywhere.

Rainy. Left school on Friday. At the Maypole Colliery on The Monday.

Sorry. Rainh. The spelling programme in my iPad changed the spelling.

Left school on Friday and in work on Monday. I was told to go to the Employment Bureau by my mother to find a job. The Bureau was on the corner of Mesnes St the one leading to the out door market, the chap there told me they wanted a junior in Aspinall's Decorator's to work in the shop, just across the road. He pointed to the window to show me where it was. I was so peeved that I wouldn't have any holidays that year. We did get career advice at school one day before we left, it must have been some one from the Employment Bureau. Looking at my report he said I should go for work in an office! My mam said otherwise, I should go in the mill. No thanks! It was an eye opener though when leaving school and entering the world of work...it was far easier to find work as well, moving from job to job until you found the right one you were happy in.

No problem Albert.
Can I ask you, if you don't mind. What was the starting pay for young men like yourself, straight from school, going and working at the Colliery?

My first wage at the pit, in 1975, was £18.50. I thought I was bad done to.
I'll never forget my mum telling me what she got, when she left school and worked in a grocer's shop. 12 shillings a week. 60p in today's money.
Mind you, it was 1941.

Rainh. Thirty six shillings a week. 1949. I got five shillings spending money.

Thanks Albert . I got £4 . 10 in the factory.
£ 3 . 16 after tax . In 1971 . Must have been very scary going down the pit for a young lad starting his work days .
I’m sure I couldn’t have done it . Young uns today don’t know they’re are born ..