Wigan Album

I knew two Lang brothers
Rowland at WGS and Michael during his National Service

Great photo. One of the Lang brothers taught me English at the TLS.

Great picture

Number 3 Tunstall Lane. In the 1970s and '80s and possibly the early '90s it was John Greaves's butchers.
Last time I went past it was a hairdressers.

You can't beat the old English Bucher's shop.
Everything taste better then, and not in plastic packages that is difficult to open.

A different world then - reminds me of the Butcher’s shop in Dad’s Army.

My wife's Grandparents then Parents had the Off -Licence half way along Tunstall Lane in the early 1970's cannot remember the butchers shop?

Good photo. My husband Peter was a butcher's lad when he left school and wore the same type of overall and pinny, as did the boy I went out with just before him....I must have liked butcher's lads!! I remember they used to deliver orders on a bike with a basket on the front. Ron, what is the TLS, please?

Thomas Linacre School Irene, i went there but i don't remember a Mr Lang, mind you, i'm a tad older than Ron and had left before TLS got tied up with WGS, i presume that's when and where Ron knew him from.

Name: Rowland R Lang
Gender: Male
Marital Status: Married
Birth Date: 26 Oct 1898
Residence Date: 1939
Address: 3 Tunstall Lane
Residence Place: Wigan, Lancashire, England
Occupation: Butcher Own Account Household Members (Name) Age
Rowland R Lang 41 Butcher
Maud F Lang 42 Unpaid Domestic Duties


This record is officially closed.
This record is officially closed.
Barbara Lang 10 School
This record is officially closed.
This record is officially closed.
Thomas Blackburn 68 Coal Getter Retired

Irene, it's the Thomas Linacre School, now the Linacre Medical Centre.

Irene it was the Thomas Linacre school. If I’m correct it was the Catholic equivalent of the Grammar school. Also I believe he was one of the 40 English Martyrs . I seem to remember Thomas More and the John Rigby school were named after them as well. St Oswald included although he’s an Ashton ‘boy’, I’m sure the ‘nit pickers’ will say otherwise. Sorry for butting in Ron. We had four’houses’ at St Pat’s school.
Edmund Campion, John Arrowsmith, John Fisher and I think Thomas More. All canonised Saints. Wigan had a good share of Catholic schools and Churches at one time.

Actually thinking about it St Oswald was a Bryn lad.
Another who was condemned because of his faith.

Thankyou everyone for the information.

TLS was not a Catholic school. Thomas Linacre himself was a famous humanist scholar and an eminent physician, being appointed King's Physician (to Henry VIII) in 1509.

Linacre took holy orders in the same year, becoming Rector of Wigan in 1520, a post he held until his death in 1524.

His name should therefore appear on the list of Rectors of Wigan to be seen at the back of All Saints' Parish Church.

Linacre was by no means a Catholic martyr. He died comfortably in his bed in Wigan on 29th October 1524, at the age of 64.

The Thomas Linacre Technical School and the Grammar School were at one time two separate schools with the TLS being across the road from WGS. Ron and Stephen Craig Smith wrote a book about the TLS.
https://www.wiganlocalhistory.org/resources/history-of-thomas-linacre-technical-school-1953-1963

It's the first time I've heard of that Veronica, but with having had a mooch on the web there is this about why his name was chosen for the school:- The 15th century renaissance scholar Thomas Linacre was chosen because he was seen to represent the multidisciplinary and egalitarian spirit favoured by the Society, but no actual historical link exists between College and Thomas Linacre.

And there is this:- http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3044/1/3044_1068.pdf

There is still a confusion over these two separate schools i.e., TLS and WGS even though they have been discussed on here before: https://www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/photo.php?opt=2&id=23504

Thank you for that information I was going off the boys from St Pat’s who passed the scholarship. Yet again some went to Thornleigh at Bolton instead.

That photo brings back so many happy memories for me as i was born just round the corner in Ormskirk Road , thank you for publishing it .

Thomas Linacre School was a new concept in Grammar Schools i.e a TECHNICAL GRAMMAR SCHOOL where they taught Engineering and Engineering Drawing in stead of Latin It was also one of the first schools to teach Russian. Roy.. I was at the school 1957-1962 the year before the two schools combined. I remember Mr Lang in the first year. I think he may have left soon after ? He also played for Highfield Cricket team. He is on some of the photos of the TLSon the school, topic

Did they go so far to Bolton from St Pat's Veronica, I'd have thought they'd have gone to St Peter's High or St John Rigby at Orrell, but I can see now you earlier mentioned John Rigby.

Did you ever see the TV programme about St Oswald's presented by Ray Gosling (he did other good local programmes around the North West too) and it was going to show his mummified finger which apparently bleeds, but someone high up in the Diocese said no at the last minute. Also I remember going to some cottages at Bryn Gates, Ashton and there was an ancient cross in one of the gardens, and the occupiers said it had something to do with St Oswald.

Hi Ron, i posted earlier but it hasn't appeared !!!
I was in the very first intake in 1953 till 1957. My first ever lesson was German with Herr Gelling in the detention room, my dad didn't appreciate that only 8 years earlier we had defeated them in WW2 and there was his son and others learning their language. My first form master was Tricky Hilton, a brilliant bloke.

Was there a Bryn in Northumbria? Oswald died in battle - against a pagan enemy, which they decided made him a martyr. Not quite the helpless victim you associate with martyrdom.... I'm not sure how his death in 642 puts him among the Roman Catholic Martyrs of the Reformation years. Sadly, an unfortunate time for many hundreds of people of all denominations. RIP.

Ron

Where will find the photos you refer to at the end of your last post? I’m interested as Rowland and Michael were my uncles.

Simon, go to Album, Schools, Thomas Linacre.

Yes they did go to Thornleigh Cyril, some not all. They wore a brown blazer in the fifties. My son went in the eighties.
Rev David it’s not the same Oswald that you mention.

Beg pardon it’s Edmund Arrowsmith whose mummified hand is at St Oswald ‘s. church.

Mea Culpa
Edmund Arrowsmith came from Haydock!
(Not Bryn) before I am hung drawn and quartered! :0))

Veronica, his real name was Brian Arrowsmith.

I remember Mr Lang at the Thomas Linacre and he taught English. I was there from 1955 1960.

So I'm getting in twizzle Veronica and it was Edmund's hand and not Oswald's finger embalmed at the church, that's got me thinking of that cross now at Bryn Gates, is that to do with St Edmund or St Oswald, if Dougie reads this he'll know. I've looked for the documentary that Ray Gosling did on this and while some of his other documentaries are on you tube, that one doesn't seem to be.
Here some interesting info on the hand of Edmund.
https://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/other-mysteries/the-dead-hand/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36398287

Note in the in the first link that the hand was initially kept at Bryn Hall as you mentioned, and Bruce was not quite right, though his baptismal name was Bryan it is spelled with a y rather than i. see link:
http://www.brindlehistoricalsociety.org.uk/articles/the-death-of-saint-edmund-arrowsmith/

Sorry to get you in
a ‘ twizzle’ Cyril. Its St Edmund Arrowsmith’s mummified hand kept at St Oswald’s church as a relic. I don’t know of the other ‘finger’ you mention. I was in a ‘twizzle’ over the names of the other four martyrs. It’s an age thing with me these days. At school as I mentioned we had four ‘Houses’ Thomas More, Edmund Arrowsmith, Edmund Campion and John Fisher. All martyrs. The Catholic schools were named in honour of them.
In the fifties the school at Orrell was Blessed John Rigby , canonised later on to St John Rigby. (Another martyr to his Catholic faith). Plus there were many more. And yes St Edmund Arrowsmith was born in Haydock.
I naturally thought Thomas Linacre was also one of the Martyrs. I know some boys from St Patrick’s who passed their scholarship went there but some also went to Thornleigh at Bolton ( who I knew) probably because their parents would have wanted them to go to the Catholic school. It was so much different in the fifties. Nowadays non Catholics can attend a Catholic school. I hope I have sorted that out adequately and not misled anybody else.

Roy my first form master was Tricky Hilton based in the Art Room. Dennis Pegg was my first German teacher. First year I was top of the class, He left and we had Herr Gelling in subsequent years. My German went down hill after that.. Nominative, Accusative, Genitive, and Dative, cases.. I didn't know what they were in English???? All I worked out was the second verb in a sentence went to the end..
I could never understand why Das Mädchen wasn't Die Mädchen?? Just Googled it and found this...
Mädchen ends in 'chen' and nouns which are diminutives and end in 'chen' are always neuter. This is one of the easiest gender rule to remember.
If Google had been around 60 years ago I would probably have been fluent in German..

Veronics brian Arrowsmith was related to the Gerard family of Bryn. and Edmund was not his real name. I'm surprised there was no myrters from Shevington.

Where in the world except Wigan would a photo of a butcher's shop lead to historical fiction
WGS in my time always had a few score Roman Catholic boys
The most distinguished being the talented Kenneth Fleetwood dress designer with Hardy Amies to Her late Majesty

Simon Evans

You seem to refer to the Lang brothers in the past tense

Have they both passed away ?

Me too the real Mick.. I am very surprised..

Shhh Veronica, we'll be having Ozy coming on saying its not him and we're driving him to drink two cans of Shandy.

There is plenty of big Tomartyrs up in Shevvy, it's all that country air and fertiliser from Hoscar Moss sewage farm.

Well Andrew, I bet you didn't expect all these comments when you posted the photo of your grandfather Rowland Lang, even though unconnected to the shop. It's caused quite an interesting bit of banter.

Valiant attempt at 1407 but totally unconvincing . Next time , try not to overdo the mis-spelt words them even I might get sucked in like these other mugs .

We’ve not all got the time or interest Cyril to dissect every sentence or word of the real or phantom Mick..he’s best ignored. It’s all about attention seeking whatever he does. Irene has the best idea… at least we know who the genuine ones are. Again apologies for bringing this up on this post.

Veronica your getting in a twizzle again and again

Not as ‘twizzled ‘ as those poor flies that had their wings pulled off when you and Mick were frolicking around the fields of Shevvy eh Joan….. ;o)

I love a good floric v
Still do ,