Photo-a-Day  (Saturday, 14th May, 2022)

This is where the Dougie re- emerges after its half mile journey through the darkness of the Arley tunnel . The Mayflower cottages , still painted white , look over the bleach works lodge , a place we used to fish years ago .
Now modern housing stands on the old works site . Many will remember the tall chimney and the sound of the siren that you could hear miles away.

I like that very much....I like places that are a bit higgledy-piggledy with little huts and signs of industry, even though there are no people about at the time the photo was taken.

Dave, the white cottages are the Lakeside Cottages, Mayflower Cottages are a red brick continuation of them emerging on Red Rock brow.

The Arley tunnel to which Poet refers runs beneath Worthington Lake. I remember the chimney well, my father was part of a small team that erected a lightening conductor at its top. I also saw the chimney demolished in 2004 as probably Poet and loads of other folk did. Three generations of my paternal ancestors lived in Mayflower Cottages, all of them employed at the Bleachworks, my gt gt grandparents having moved from rural Shropshire in the 1890's looking for work.

Interesting post, Roy.
My father's side came from "Lancashire across the sands" i.e. Furness and Cumberland to Horwich in the 1880s for the work and two of their girls married into a family who had come from rural Buckinghamshire, Milton Keynes (!) at the same time. Hence there are two non native surnames in and around Horwich and Bolton which are now numerous and give the impression of having been there for ever.
The Wigan connection was on my mother's side - two sets of totally local names!

My grandad came from Wales looking for work so it seems that a lot of our families came from elsewhere. seeking jobs. He married my Grandma who was from Spring View. Unfortunately my singing voice is from the Spring View contingent, not from "the valleys"!

Gary's mention of ' Lancashire over the sands ' reminds me of the Millom poet Norman Nicholson who used to look out across the bay from his outpost at the rest of the county , so near and yet so far .
' Blackpool for holidays , Manchester for the Test , and Wigan for a damned good try ' .
He coined an expression common in Millom ' Giving it Wigan ' , (taken from a line in one of his poems ) meaning to give it your best shot even if you're not particularly talented . So Irene , clear your throat and Give it Wigan .

I have a voice like a cinder stuck under a door, Poet, but thankyou for your encouragement!

As long as you don’t accompany yourself on the bagpipes Irene, anything but the bagpipes! Or worse still, the piano accordion! OMG!

In my ancestry Irene they came from Wales, Ireland, Yorkshire, Lathom and Westmorland . All lovely places to get down and dirty in Wigan… what a culture shock!

My own personal thoughts on first seeing Dennis’s picture , was alarm , I must admit . Seeing housing close by I wondered where the children would venture. The ‘I dare you ‘ on those pipes , sprung back loudly , to the street kid I was . There is frequent mention on WW , how we as children , could roam freely , that was the innocence and beauty we shared . Danger , as seen by adults , was an adventure playground to us , as shown by Frank Orrell’s wonderful pictures on here .
Thank you for posting Dennis

Why is no one commenting on the dirty Wigan comment my family comes from Ireland Scotland My husband came from Anglsy and she calls Wigan dirty why is she on Wigan World

Hey up she’s back! Why do you constantly pick holes in people’s comments? Have you ever heard of figurative speech??? By the way it’s Anglesey not Anglsy.

Just to enlighten you
( and in short)in the 1800’s Wigan was part of an industrial landscape with smoke belching chimneys and deep coal mines not the cleanest place to come to for people who resided in the countryside and valleys of various counties. AS I said a ‘ cultural shock’ for many!

Annemarie, Re dirty Wigan, in my post on the Chamber of Commerce newspaper cutting on the Album I wrote a shorter version of this: Music Hall comedians jumped on the bandwagon of making Wigan out to be a squalid backwater of a place full of cloth cap wearing men with Whippets, and in all honesty it was with the many mountains of slag heaps from coal mining and mineral extraction, not forgetting the filthy blackening smoke from the trillions of chimneys of cotton mills and houses of the employees from the mines and mills etc. But this made Wigan didn't it, giving employment to folks who being able to get food and into newly built housing creating the reputable communities, they weren't daft they were honest, upright and dependable people wanting to get along in life.

George Formby Senior and later Frank Randle in their stage acts made Wiganers out to be gormless, especially so when in London - here's an extract from Wikipedia - "When he performed in London, Formby would change his act, introducing himself as "Good evening, I'm Formby fra' Wigan ... I've not been in England long"; he slightly modified his stage persona, and he played "the naïve boy trying to fit in with the sophisticated south". Smart and Boothroyd consider that "the contrast between his northern accent and metropolitan bravado was humorous, and the more urbane and sophisticated his audience the more George exaggerated his provincial gormlessness".

Thankfully the slag heaps have long gone and the quarries filled in with grass and trees growing where they once were, with Wiganers breathing in clean air whilst living in a modern and bright well renowned town.

Very true Cyril and even in the fifties/sixties the dirt and smoke was still around but it didn’t bother us kids. Looking back although basically healthy, we still suffered more illness I think with coughs and colds and other more serious illness such as TB. I remember my brother in hospital with ‘double’ pneumonia and there was a point when there wasn’t much hope for him….. “until he turned a corner”. As my mam and dad used to say. It’s a lot cleaner today - apart from the bone idle who enjoy throwing the rubbish about with food still in cartons. That really makes my blood boil. You would really have to come from Planet Zog if you didn’t remember how it was. Or possibly too young to remember.

Sorry for miss spelling I was a little angry at time at dirty Wigan comment and your references to where you had come from as if they where holy ground People in Wigan came from homes called slums and you comment smacked of Orwell .I will tell you for all your saying I came from this ect I have been to Saudi all Greek Islands Bahrain Finland Cyprus Estonia and lots more My son went to Stoneyhurst has 11 O levals 6 A levals university degree in English and Polatics and all from a slum and culture shock in Wallgate and if I miss spell i am still angry at your dirty wigan comment and dont call me she

Salford ...dirty old town . Edinburgh...auld reekie . In Middlesbrough the folk are known as smoggies . The industrial Revolution left its mark everywhere . It could be worse Annemarie . There's a Shitterton in Dorset , and perhaps dirtiest of all , a village in Orkney called Twatt .

Double standards showing - “ all from a slum and culture shock in Wallgate”. Tut… tut..
Thats no different to “Dirty Wigan comment”! Never mind Annemarie it’s nice to live in a bubble sometimes…a good way of retreating I do that sometimes. … Have a nice day.

Well my bubble has fantastic views wonderfulo house what have you got and where do you live