Photo-a-Day  (Monday, 22nd March, 2021)

I like knowing about bygone times Dennis, were is it in Haigh please?

Grand photo is that Dennis and a fond reminder of childhood days when we would walk down the line past an active pit. My wife's father worked at this pit 1950/60s. I can recall being able to pick large chunks of coal, taking them home for the fire on winter's days. Thanks Dennis, sad to see the only thing left is its headstone.

I have visited this site, and similar ones, (one memorable day!), with a friend who has an interest in the old pits in Haigh and it is amazing how many there were. It is strange to think of all the noise there must have been where there is just birdsong now.

My father worked there early 1950s. Not deep but a "wet" pit. My memory is slipping, but I recall him telling me of having to run from the face and up a metal ladder - the canal was coming in.
Evocative photo Dennis. The number of men who worked there over the years - and now, mention a modern coal mine for coking coal up in Cumbria and everyone is having hissy fits.

It looks well hidden back then in the wooded area .. unlike other pits.
Pity the graffiti artists have made their mark....no respect. I wonder how many men and boys died at that pit - if any.

This Pit was connected with the Bridge Pit which was further up the canal next to Shedfield Bridge.
I believe that the men went up and down the Pit at the Bridge Pit and the coal came up at the Dairy Pit where it was loaded onto large NCB lorries. These lorries turned off Wigan Road, New Springs near the boundary and ran up the road to Shedfield Bridge. Over the bridge they turned sharp left and ran down a tarmac road to the Dairy Pit.
I seem to remember reading in Joe Gormley’s book that when talks were going on about the closure of the Pit, the men were in favour of keeping it going, but Joe Gormley was in favour of closure because of the terrible conditions the men were working in (they were, sometimes, working up to there knees in water). As Walt says the lorries would very often lose large lumps of coal on the rough road back to the main road and coal was precious then.

My Dad used to work at the Dairy Pit and the Alexander Pit at Whelley
Good one Dennis , I uploaded a photo of a fishing match on the canal, the Dairy Pit is in the background in the trees......here..>
https://www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/photo.php?opt=7&id=11325&gallery=Fishing+Match+New+Springs+Wigan&page=1

My father worked there in the 50’s. I used to walk down the line with him on Friday lunch times from school, when he went on afternoon shift, to take his wages home to my Mother.
Thanks for the memories Dennis.

Lovely photo Dennis, I love these 'then' and 'now' pics. Thanks.

One of the 3000 mine shafts in and around Wigan. When coal was king

Good photo Dennis, of before and after, seen this lots of times on our walks through the woods.Thanks for the memory.

Back to Nature I retreat
From back break graft in shafts so deep ,
Where chambers lit by lanterns held ,
and colleagues met then brothers gelled ,
That held the walls from timbers felled ,
as buckets rolled till tolling bells , fell still to chime no more .
So spill your silence on these walls ,
As withered leaf may drift and fall ,
But from a boy a man would call ,
to turn the wheels of cotton shawl ,
as engines burned and steam would boil ,
From faces black once dug this soil..

Lovely photo Dennis. Great to see old pics of pits.