Wanted: Wigan Stories

ThickSkin Charity recently became a resident company at The Old Courts. To celebrate, they’re creating an alternative audio guide App for Wigan town centre called Walk This Play®, and need stories about the local area.



More info: www.thickskintheatre.co.uk/wtp-wigan-stories/

I could tell them about me UFO encounter in Red Rock, but Tonker will say Red Rock is not in Wigan

Not much to tell either, it only lasted about three seconds

Cue contenders for the 'Red Clogs' story.

My Wigan(ish) Story:

Will not repeat, as I have posted on here in the past. It is when as kids we had located coal near to the surface: almost outcropping, in fact.

No one amongst the adults: parents, teachers.... would believe us. I particularly recall a teacher telling me No Way, that NCB had wasted Millions sinking drifts in the area only to find it extensively exhausted by Day-Eye miners in the previous century.

Then, they built the M6 through the spot.

The contractors handed over £3 Million worth of coal to NCB!

(TTS had posted pic of the seam, again exposed as the conversion of the motorway at this spot once again saw the scant overlay removed.)

M6 at Orrell?

No, where M6 is in shallow cutting close to Downall Green Road in Bryn.

However, I am familiar with the outcrop near Orrell. In late 1040's/1950's, I had an uncle living there. He was able to harvest the coal from within his back garden. He would hire a miner for a day to cut his Winter fuel stash.

My Wigan story is one I've told before and like a famous person who used to post here often said, "There's nowt up with repeats"

The situation was a Christmas day Party with loads of young and old in attendance and once the beer gets flowing stories are told all night long, When My turn came, I started my tale by saying as usual ." when i was a lad" and a sigh came from all around the room, here we go again says all the young uns but, I'm not discouraged and carried on,
We never used to get toys nor fancy gadgets and phones, we were glad of an apple and orange But we went on fantastic walks and enjoyed that and sometimes you saw realy great things, " like what Grandad" says the young nephew who had just got the latest iphone for Christmas,
Well let me think says I, ah yes, We once saw a crashed plane outside our house, sniggers and a few OH Yea's were heard all around the room untill the nephew with the new iphone said,
WOW its true and got all the details of the crashed jet fighter that crash landed in a field outside our house in Billinge, in 1955, He was going from the Netherlands to Glasgow but got into trouble and was looking for Burtonwood to land, He crashed in Billinge and survived the crash but the plane was in pieces and spread all over the field,
Sinse that day the young uns listen very closely to my party tales,

There was that time in the winter of 1979, when I went sledging one night late on in the Douglas Valley after a heavy snowfall, I hit a tree and knocked meself senseless, and when I came too, there was a white horse looking down at me, and nobody believed me, it was a really spooky experience.

Going to The Ritz cinema where we saw The Beatles live in 1964, we couldn’t hear them singing because of all the lasses screaming. The tickets were less than ten shillings. Went one night to see PJ Proby but the concert had been cancelled because he’d kept splitting his trousers and his replacement was the unknown Tom Jones. Across the road The Empress ballroom, sprung wooden floor and live music. The years have gone but again in the 60’s the best New Years Eve ever.

Brasstoft:

"M6 at Orrell?"

M6 at Downhall Green just before the slip road, you can see the coal outcrop, behind where they are building up that bank of gravel.



LINK

Ena, I worked with a couple of fellas at a place near Appley Bridge, it was late 60s. They told me that nearly every night they would drive to where they putting the slip - road in to join up to the M6 at Orrell. You could take as much as you wanted.
Happy days.

Tommy Tee , The Black horse Bank believed your story and they made an advert copied from your experience, Only its not a sleigh but a girl on a bike, she crashes into a tree and a big Black horse kisses her better and she goes on to be a world class BMX stunt rider,,

Cheers TTS

Hello TOMMY ,Just curious that photo you displayed ? Did you take it from your car ? GB.

Tom

A few years afterwards I was speaking to a lady who lived on Brock Mill Lane, who told me that there were horses kept in a field adjacent to the wooded area, and the horses were tied to a lump of concrete in the field, but one of the horses, knew how to undo the rope, and it used too jump over the fence and go and have a walk round in the middle of the night, but it never strayed far, because they reckoned it did not want to leave the other horse, there were two horses.

Golden Bear

"Hello TOMMY ,Just curious that photo you displayed ? Did you take it from your car ? GB"

No, I was on foot, I was on me morning jog, I took it on me phone