Photo-a-Day  (Tuesday, 5th July, 2022)

Thats so nice that people give their time to do this sort of thing. 2 stations I know of have volunteers to keep the places looking nice. Well done to them all.

Most stations are kept looking spruce by volunteers. I can’t understand why railway company’s can’t employ people for this work. Although the volunteers do a superb job.

Veronica at one time the railways employed Stationmasters and porters. Now a lot of stations are unmanned so rely on volunteers to keep them tidy.

As I don't live on the Orrell side of Wigan, I hadn't realised it had a railway station. but it looks really nice. Well done to the volunteers of Orrell and all other railway stations for the effort they put in to keep them looking so nice. I like Dennis's interesting viewing point, too, looking down onto the sunlit platform.

Veronica, I do not wish to sound sarcastic, but there is no reason for a railway company to employ people to do this work when there are volunteers willing to do the work and to do the work extremely well.

Hopefully, these volunteers are given the respect they deserve and the railway executives show their appreciation.

A number of weeks ago, I was on the train as it stopped at Hindley railway station, which gave me time to admire the station. This was certainly not my first time to be passing through Hindley railway station and hopefully, not the last time. It has always been a pleasure to see the station in the way it is and I find the old stations much more pleasing to the eye than the modern stations I have seen.
I believe that Hindley station is also kept looking nice by volunteers.

I would like to say, thank you to those people who are willing to give up their time and all which goes with this work to greatly help in keeping those visual treasures of our society and to offer us these things which bring comfort and such joy to behold.

Yes I do understand Ian the volunteers are saving money on the Railway’s behalf. I do think they deserve a reward for what they do.
At least the cost of the plants and expenses they accrue. I agree Hindley Station is outstanding for the show there, even in Winter it looks ‘prig meat’. I’m not averse myself at pulling weeds out of the tubs at Daisy Hill waiting for a train. There’s no comparison with Hindley Station though. A remarkable breed all those volunteers who give of their time.

It’s amazing how much loyalty local Railway Stations inspire.
I wonder if it has something to do with childhood memories of day trips to Southport and Blackpool?
I remember my old Mam telling me that when she was a child (born 1923) during the summer and as a special treat the school would collect a penny from each child and the Teacher would take the whole class on the train to Gathurst for the day.
I believe there was a playground of some sort there at that time.
It must have made a big impression on her because she never failed to tell us about it every time she took us to Southport when my brothers and I were kids.

They both look like women who are doing the work.

The one on the brush, wearing a hat, is Mick Byre from Shevington.

There was sand in the back streets of the town ,
Buckets and spades and inflatable sharks ,
And saucy postcards on revolving stands .

The telescope's cinematic purr ,
Sixpence for a cheeky spy
At girls in bikinis , stacks of deckchairs
And windbreaks for hire
From a man with a ticket machine .

The under towel struggle to put on your trunks ,
The limp across shells and stones
To reach the ocean ,
And at the afternoon's end
The crab pink shoulders and legs
Smeared in itchy white calamine lotion .

The wash of the waves on the pebble beach ,
That time of day at early eve
When the pier lights flicker on
And look like an ocean liner come to shore ,
The promenade festooned with bulbs ,
The Edwardian shelter where we went
To eat our fish and chips
And breathe the sea .

Poet ( age 12)

I remember Hindley South had some nice flower beds when it closed.The man in the ticket office said we could take which plants we wanted,this got me interested in gardening.

Dolly dear, (Veronica), I haven't heard the expression "prig meat" for YEARS....my Mam used to say that. You took me straight back to her.....Thankyou! DTease, that same lady, (my Mam), told me of day trips by boat to Gathurst where there were Swing-boats and somewhere where you could buy a cup of tea. It was their "day out", and was all they could afford. "Away-day", that's a lovely poem, and, "Bruce Almighty"....is that really "Our" Mick Byrne from Shevington?....amazing!

Makes you wonder where these sayings come from Irene….
I could understand ‘pig meat’ but ‘prig’ meat doesn’t make sense.

Hindley Station is indeed kept in such attractive condition with the army of volunteers there,so colourful and uplifting.

My cousin is one of the Friends of Orrell Station. The Friends have done a sterling job, despite the steep embankments. Similar, but not quite so steep, is Westhoughton station, where, about 10 years ago, volunteers began the task of clearing the ground, and planting flowering shrubs and plants. They were no doubt encouraged by the success of the transformation of Hindley Station. We should be grateful to these volunteers, who freely give their time and effort to make our visits railway stations a pleasant experience. Well done!!!

I too thought that Bruce, it certainly looks like him wearing his Panama. Wonder if he was on his bike leading the London LGBT pride parade at the weekend and wearing his collection of village people hats, should have took a copy of the photo of those hats that he put on the Forum.

Irene, I too was told by my mother of the great days out to be had at Gathurst, she said it was a very popular and cheap place to go especially with the many large families that abounded at the time that didn't have the money to spend on seaside holidays.

Although it doesn’t affect me personally , or at least as yet it doesn’t anyway, I’ve more than once wondered how the…“ railways “, ...( in inverted commas, as I’m in a state of terminal bewilderment to comprehend who it is that either owns the railways or runs them nowadays )…

….How do they manage to legally avoid providing access for passengers with physical disabilities.

In an age when same sex marriage ,….“ Black Lives Matter “,..LGBT rights , etc. etc. feature prominently ….( ad nauseam )..in the media, then how come a person in a wheelchair let’s say , is unable to access the platform at either Hindley or Daisy Hill stations ?…just to quote a couple of examples.

Greenfield westbound being another one,….or in either direction in fact depending on one’s destination….It’s bad enough with a pushbike, but if we’re talking wheelchairs….well, my advice would be to just forget it and catch the bus.

Garswood’s another prime example. ..32 steps to negotiate by my last reckoning. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me…….
……Well it does if you compare the initial financial outlay against the value to the community in general.

There are so many more stations that to my own knowledge fall within the same category , but space precludes their inclusion here.

I once counted the number of disabled parking spaces in Wigan’s Tesco. I forget the precise number, somewhere around the 40 mark if memory serves, possibly a few less or a few more, but suffice to say, an overseas visitor to Wigan Tesco could well be forgiven for thinking that a quarter of Wigan’s population were wheelchair bound.

Now I wouldn’t know whether providing parking spaces for disabled customers at supermarkets is a legal requirement or not…or whether providing access for disabled passengers on the railways isn’t ,……..and I’m not looking for an argument either, I’m merely highlighting the situation as it stands.

Still, with any luck, I may never need a wheelchair ramp to access the platform at Hindley…..and with a little bit more luck, I may never have to suffer the misfortune of ever having to even visit Hindley.

Right then!..that’s me done! .I’m off!…destination No 1 , Tin Shelter Row , Dolly Tub Alley.

Bruce almighty, the one with the hat is a lady.

Poet 12 , who ever you are , Thank you !

Is it not supposed to be prig neat.

Dtease, well, yes, Mick is a bit effeminate.

You may be right there Maureen , sounds sensible ….

Further to my previous missive ; I recall speaking with a group of people, ( three to be precise, two males and one female ) on the westbound platform of Hindley station.

One of the males was wheelchair bound. They had boarded a train in Nottingham ( I think ) having purchased tickets to travel to Kirkby.

An hour or two later, having failed to arrive at their expected destination in Kirkby in Ashfield, they disembarked at Hindley following the advice from a not unsympathetic ticket inspector to bugger off back the way they came.

Being unable to cross the track to the eastbound side , they were obliged to hang around for several days to wait for the next train into Wigan in order to cross the tracks.

If memory serves , this would have been around about the time that Northern Rail were in dispute with management…….( sound familiar ? )…..and were operating limited services.

Now this would have been about twelve months before the first Covid lockdown , so I have to assume that they’ll be arriving in Kirkby in Ashfield any time soon…..or at least before bonfire night at the very latest.

Nice photo Dennis, I love looking at all the different plants, while stationery on the train, I'm curious were you was Dennis when you took the photo?

Edna, I was on the footbridge that goes across the tracks from one platform to the other.

Could the saying even be 'Prim neat' ??? Makes more sense !

I've never heard the expression prig meat, however I have heard of priggish, and according to slang dictionaries:

What does prig mean in slang?
Prig definition: A person who demonstrates an exaggerated conformity or propriety, especially in an irritatingly arrogant or smug manner. noun.

Another ones definition is:

A prig is someone who is annoyingly smug in his or her moral behaviour or attitudes. The word also can refer to one who is annoyingly fastidious about rules and small details.

So prig neat could well be right, maybe it came about in the army with those billet inspections, that being if anything wasn't neat and orderly in the eyes of an arrogant or prig of a sergeant, then he'd tip everything upside down and they would have to put everything back to his expectations or neatness, just my thoughts and maybe not to do with army life at all, could just as well have been the same at boarding schools and convents. Those nuns could be right so and so's, ask Mick.