Wigan Album
Ince
13 Comments
Photo: dk
Item #: 5163
The rucks in the background are where Falkirk Drive and Rathen Avenue are today and the photo is taken from the top field which was a slightly raised up patch of flat grass with the bottom field, much larger, stretching away to the left and towards the canal.
The rabbit rocks are caught almost in profile, the cylindrical slabs of slag haphazardly splayed about, and the railway features the grey water tank and the two signals - the single high white wooden post to the left and the platform signal with its iron leg unfortunately hidden behind the telegraph pole. The brick building wasn't a signal box but, I think, a secure store for supplies and tools - it had a concrete slab roof.
Finally, in the far distance the speck along the line is the back end of an engine puffing it's way along.
This is full of memories for me. The top field was for big lads and we had to keep off that and stick to the bottom field and no wandering over the rucks because they were loose and dangerous and had deep ponds scattered about within. The rucks reached almost to the waterside at the iron bridge lock.
We played Test Match cricket and staged our own Olympics on the top field in later years.
I have climbed the smaller signal, the water tower and the brick building and oh, well, literally three or four rungs up the ladder on the big signal - chicken.
I learned to ride a bike on the bottom field when I was about four and I can remember the feeling very clearly - whizzing along and not falling and wondering how. There was sunshine and it was evening.
I think these rucks are somehow connected with the Rose Bridge Pits which are still evident today, barbed wire bound and isolated in the fields approaching the cut.
In the late sixties the rubble was taken away and the field flattened out while a drainage ditch about ten feet deep was dug around the lower boundary following the backs of the houses in West Street towards Pennington Lane where it disappeared into a concrete drain. I have a faint memory that the fields had to be left to drain for ten years before building could take place. Of course, it duly has.
My first ever fish, a perch - surprise - from the locks, was taken home to show my Mam who gave me a belt and turned me straight round to take it back. Sad to confess but I put it in the drainage channel rather than traipse all the way back to the cut.
there was a rolled up shute on top of that water tower an one of our gang went up and let the shute down.
we then pulled on a long chain and drained the tank.
our house in hemfield rd backed onto this line. I remember my bedroom window rattling every time a train went past.
dk. some fantastic work has bin done by someone. who,s the cameraman.
must admit
me and my mates drained that tank a few times
brilliant playground was that
I often wondered who it was kept emtying that tank,lol we always had to wait to fill the tenders up when we were banking from bamfurlong through to standish, I havnt seen a picture of that tank before but used it a hell of a lot of times, thanks for the memory.
we never meant to empty it harold
its just that when we swung on the chain all the water came out
as a 10 year olds we couldnt understand why it did that
we used to call this area the green patch, in the red shale there was the famous burning sands ...push a piece of newspaper in and it burst into flames
well it may be forty years on but as they say , better late than never.
SORRY AICH
whose the little rascal in the picture,,,any bets thats dk,,
Thank you for your comments and interest. Pamker these slides were taken by my Grandad and there's a bit of his background on 'owd money'. He took a lot of pictures of Ince and steam engines and industry and I think they were taken to be seen which is why I've put them on ww. In 1950s there wasn't as many channels on Sky as there are now and a slideshow and home movies presented rare and rich entertainment for a gathering, moreso, if those present were starring. I have numerous Blackpool and Southport holiday slides from this era and a couple of hundred of the Isle of Man in 1957 - good photography but lacking a bit of local interest. WW seems to be a better place to keep these than in their boxes, I'm sure my Grandad would have wanted people to see them, and I'm very glad that the pictures of Ince have prompted happy memories for people living here today and touched that you've seen fit to comment. Thanks again.
Gerry, I'd really like to believe this. My Grandad once told me that the Wutchie was an extinct volcano and the red shale bit was too hot to stand on even today and it might erupt again - any minute. I only just realised that this wasn't true and now I've another burning shale story to deal with. Can it be true?
Mr Holding - there were that many local urchins wandering about here that you'd a job to take a picture without a grimy face creeping into shot.
Hello DK It certaily was true about the red shale bursting into flames when you pushed a newspaper in it but it was not a volcano it was good old internal combustion (just like you get in a haystack in summertime) I wish it had been a volcano .......... that would be summat else to tell the grand children
I lived in west st and that water tower was the view from my bed room window I would sit at my window and watch the old trains takeing on water and the field I think it was where we had our bonfires great memory's
this picture brought back a lot of memories from my childhood. i lived in tank st untill they knocked the houses down in the mid 60s,i loved living at the top of the lane, best childhood ever.
I remember the water tank and signals and I seem to remember the brick building.
There used to be a wooden fence that would be behind the photographer with one or two pieces missing where we used to take a short cut to the "Greenie".
I also used to climb to the platform of the signal and the first few steps of the taller signal.
I remember throwing pieces of shale along the ponds on the rucks and trying to get them to bounce as many times as I could off the water.
Another daring deed for the young lad was to jump the bywash of the canal lock.
I have a very vague memory of there being "buffers" on a part of the train tracks.
I now believe that they were situated where the rail branched off towards what had been the Iron and Steel Works.
I only vaguely remember them from blackberrying and watching the trains.
I was born (litterally) in 16, Ennerdale Place,Ince.
Around 1969/70 we moved to 16,West Street.
I remember seeing the trains going past as well with their lights on.
I had very blond hair when I was a small boy like the boy in the photograph and I used to go for walks with my Dad from Ennerdale Place to the canal regularly.
I do not think that the boy is me though.
In those days I would not have stopped to be photographed as I used to want to get to the canal.