Wigan Album

When you work in a factory for so many years the people become like your family, you form a bond day after day , then someone comes along and cuts it . I suppose it’s like when your schooldays end and you are standing outside the gates thinking what do I do now ! Well that’s what I was doing , Work? I was still in play time !

Mark exactly.. When you have been in close proximity with people for years. In fact you probably see more of them than you own family. To walk out of your place of work for the last time and think "I will probably never see the majority of these people again" is heartbreaking. Especially true if you work a distance from your home. I worked in Liverpool, and knew that except for a few really good friends. I would never see the other people again. Took me years to get over a feeling of 'loss' akin to a bereavement.

I get your sentiment totally Ron, I felt the same . It does feel like that and like you say , like a bereavement.
I still can’t let go of it Ron, and it still comes to mind most days, no matter how many over layers I have . .

alice woodcock sitting far left / annete woodcock holding the young girls arm far right married two brothers harold & peter woodcock

david higham behind annete woodcock david lived at 29 swan meadow rd in the 50s/60s i think he was an electrician?

I worked with David, when I had just left school at Falmers, down mansell way Horwich in 79. I was gutted when it shut down thanks to cheap imports from abroad.

My first job at age 15. Did only one day in weaving shed. I was scared to death. Went to sewing room. There were always machines on fire or broken. Tom used drag a spare machine out to replace the damaged one. The buttonhole machine was a love/hate thing. In many respects was a good machine but no guards, deadly with its very quick upward slicing blade. Seen many really bad accidents there. Jean used to run about shovin trucks piled so high wi stuff got her foot speared from big toe to top of ankle wi a shard of wood from the floor (she had sandals on). Union girl got her hand fried int pocket press (again no safety release)...she was teachin me how to use it at the time but misjudged only slightly.. I remember Ann West and overlocker, Mary who loved Marc Bolan.... also Mr.Hughes.....