Wigan Album

On the left I am sure that is Brian McAuley and I am almost sure on the right is Bill Batchelor

Dave, You are right about Brian McAuley on the left of picture but on the right is darkroom assistant Godfrey Birtill.
Bill Batchelor had left previously to work at the Manchester Evening News.
Godfrey was the son of George Birtill, editor of the Chorley Guardian, and brother of Dave Birtill who was features editor of the Post and Chronicle.
Godfrey later was a photographer at the Lancashire Evening Post at Preston but is now a talented musician and gospel singer.
The reason that I know all this is that I took the picture and other Post and Chronicle pictures on this site and I would just like to ask Colin Harlow how he got these images.

Hey Frank, nice to hear from you after so long. It's a good image and what a memory of those days, sadly that's a badly under exposed roll of 120 B+W in the shot, but I love the creativity.

Hello David, I see your pictures and name quite a lot on the wiganworld site and always interesting they are too.
I'm sorry but I had to correct some information that you gave on a sports picture of the Orrell v Liverpool Lancs Cup Final from 1972.

Frank Orrell: the answer to your question is simple, they were reproduced in the Wigan Evening Post about five years ago. But my real labour of love is the Wigan Observer from 1853-1984. This all started back in the mid 1980s soon after Woods Street closed. I wanted to discover the fate of the paper's original rotary press on which two generations of my family had spent almost 100 years between them printing the Wigan Observer at Rowbottom Square until 1966. After years of detective work-including literally hundreds of letters and telephone calls I began to unravel its fate. For many months the press stayed silent and rumours were that it would be broken up for scrap. Then Liverpool City Museum stepped in but, having no room to store it, eventually handed it to the Science Museum on a long-term loan. Although the Museum said the Wigan's Victory-Kidder press illustrated a great step in the history in newspapers and wanted to preserve it, it lacked space and finance to display it. So the machine remained in pieces in store for several years. However, when this store close, the machine was moved to a former RAF base in Swindon, in Wiltshire. I went to see the press in it's very many parts in a old aircraft hanger there in 1994. Even though it was dark, seeing the grand old lady of printing history was marvellous. I was so impressed to be looking at the machine my family was so involved with and which produced the Wigan Observer for 82 years. It is considered to be the oldest and finest specimen of its kind, an outstanding example of British craftsmanship. Over the years I have read and copied anything that I felt might be of use to the press, from photos to reports of the machine in its working life at Wigan, and have campaigned for it to be saved. Anything that would help bring the press to life I sent to the London Science Museum for its technical files. Then, in 1999, came the great news that I had be waiting for in the form of a letter from Dr. John Griffiths, senior curator of media technologies of the National Science Museum. He wrote: "We now have a gallery called the Making of the Modern World" the Wigan Observer's old press will be reassembled by experts from Manchester and will be on show from 28 June 2000. So after almost 35 years in store and in pieces, this great old press finally went on show. My brothers and I headed down to the London Science Museum for what was certanly a very emotional moment. I'm just sorry my late grandad and dad aren't here to see it. The new printing gallery was opened by the Queen on the 28/6/2000.
Since that time I have met some very high profile people within the newspaper world. I went on to make a film called "History you'll remember" and "A small piece of history".

Thanks for that information Colin. I just think that it would be a good idea for people submitting pictures on the site to acknowledge where the images have been sourced from.

Does it really matter where colin got the picture from? there on here for all to see on ww. if frank orrell took the photos he should know where they are, but i for one woudn't like to put my name to these poor shots.

Garry, I'm not bothered personally about getting my name on the pictures submitted but just which publication they are from.
I agree the quality of the pictures as they appear on the site is poor but this is because they have probably been scanned from the newspaper pages and not the original photographs.

I have inherited very many photographs of the Wigan Observer over the years from people who worked at Woods Street in all departments. Many have sadly passed away, as you would imagine their top quality even from the 1960. But if you scan or copy contents from newspapers the clarity seems to fade, even with digital equipment. I'm sure the original photos were top draw quality.

Thanks for your comment Colin. I was a photographer at the Post and Chronicle from 1967 and us snappers were always envious of the reproduction quality in the Wigan Observer.
The two papers amalgamated in the early 1980s and we moved from Brock Mill to Martland Mill and so the photographers ended up taking pictures for both papers which I enjoyed until a split when the Wigan Evening Post was introduced. Redundancies and upset were caused by this but I was lucky and carried on snapping for the Wigan Observer and now also the Wigan Reporter group and Rugby Leaguer paper which were taken over.
Then would you believe we once again amalgamated with the Wigan Evening Post in the mid 1990s.
I carried on through all this and eventually took early retirement in 2009.
I'm probably getting cranky in old age and maybe bothering too much about where pictures are sourced from and it would be very interesting to see the old Observer photos that you have.

At the moment their are 76 photos on this site in printers, keep clicking and over the coming months you'll see them all.

Hi My dad John Bannister worked at Brock mill I would love to know if anyone has any pictures of him, he had a nasty accident with the press this may jog a few peoples memories!!

To Catherine Taylor.
Hi, my father Frank Taylor worked at the post & chronicle for many years. First at Powell Street and then Brock Mill from where he retired in 1983. As a youngster I would sometimes spend the day at work with him. I remember your dad John. A larger than life character! I can remember him coming home and telling Mum John had been in a bad accident with the press.

Dave Taylor, did you also work at the Wigan Observer?

Yes, Frank's right. Brings back memories of yellow fingernails from constantly being soaked in Dev & Fix. I'm sure these days would be a health and safety issue. :) Good to see you on here Frank. Remember going to the South of France in your mini & unhooking the speedometer before the journey. And getting incredibly lost en-route. All the best to you.

Hello David Simm,It's been a long time since we had a conversation between you and I. I hope you are well.Frank is quite correct in saying it's not me on the right in the picture. I must have left the P&C by the time it was taken. I've now retired and moved from Poynton in April last year and now living in Bournemouth. From your reply I guess you might be still in the Wigan area. It would be good to get an email from you. Best regards, Bill B

Hello Bill,
Congrats on the retirement, and move to sunny Bournemouth, I live on the outskirts of Chicago these day, married with four adult children. if you wish to catch up, and this goes for all former colleagues who might read this e-mail me pix4bux@gmail.com and/or find me on facebook.
Frank iy doesn't surprise me that my memory lost some info about the Orrell match at Waterloo.
I clearly remember , Gordon and I were there with only John Mounford I believe, not sure what I got wrong.

Strictly speaking Frank Orrell, I know I'm going back a bit, but those photos scanned from the WEP belonged to WEP and not to you. The EPC was never going to match the WO newspaper anyway, not many papers could.

Lovely to see the message from Bill Batchelor! A smashing photographer with a cracking sense of humour! He did my wedding pics in 1967, enjoy your Bournemouth retirement Bill!!