Photo-a-Day  (Wednesday, 5th February, 2025)

Watch out the scrappers are about

Ready for collection..

Mick is this place the former Evening Post and Chronicle newspaper plant, going in to Leyland Mill.

I am intrigued what that machinery is.
Mick, tell me the history of it please.

You'll find this object is bolted and secured to the floor.

I might need a lift with that one Veebs ….
How ya fixed ?

Big Harold’s gone upmarket. Ozy’s van will never get up Leyland Mill Lane with that in the back.

I reckon it’s come from Potters herbal supplies , having spent its life crushing ‘erbs … an’ tha’.

Ask mortarmill Bill … I would . He’ll know for sure … Or Cyril .

I’m sure the pretentious Mr Big H will only have the best equipment for removal of scrap. After all it’s a Shevvy company with all the Parish Council having shares in it.

There's a lot of backbiting with certain names on here. They hate it when it happens to them.
Very good photo Mick, shame it gets spoilt by foolish comments.

This is a fantastic photo Mick, this is what Wigan World is all about.
Many thank for sharing.
I can't wait to stroll up and down it and listen the birds in spring.

If Big Harold takes that back to Shevvy the locals will use it to crush HE’S ’erbs Ozy.
Then the Parish Council will hang them outside the Plough and Harrow as an example.

The trouble is Mick is one of the worst ones with his use of various names and put downs.

Mick has a great sense of humour, many don't understand that.
Not only is this a great photo, it's educational too.
I am not to sure if this is the exact location, but the Evening Chronicle was
near by.

Got it in one Veronica.

Mick, this was Leyland Mills aka the malt works and Potter's Herbal Supplies, Brock Mill where the WEP was is down Wingates Road and is now a housing estate, though the rail line to Brock Mill forge would have run along here and a bridge over the river behind the white buildings in the background.

It's almost fifty years ago the last I saw that machinery, and you're right with a mortar Ozy, it was used in the herb mixing room for grinding down roots, stalks and leaves for use in herbal mixtures, though the majority of weight would be the granite stones. It was an awful dust hole of a room to work in and I did go into there at times for bags of herbs, but wouldn't have like to have worked in there for any amount of time, in fact in the time I was at Potter's four people had worked in that room and had left, they did wear a respirator and they needed it too with the amount of dust, also a lot of the herbal mixes contained either Senna leaves or Senna pods.

The ancient iron foundry buildings at the rear were set on fire some years ago, and I'd read they were to be cleared and the land used for housing, but looking in the photo it looks as though it's to be used again for some sort of industrial use.

Well, my snowdrops are out and seen Crocuses out in the park. Spring is just round the corner.

With all that senna dust in the air , I’ll bet those four people that left went in a bit of a rush an’ all didn’t they Cyril ?
I reckon their jackets will still be there , hanging in the cloakroom .

Further to my initial post, I wasn't there when Fred Dibnah renovated the tall chimney stack to the rear of the buildings, (which were the offices) but heard that he was enthralled by the ancient steam worked engine and the Lancashire boiler, if Alec and Alf the fitters were still there then they all would have had a good natter about 'fettling things'.
https://www.wigantoday.net/business/medical-memories-archive-picture-gallery-celebrating-history-of-wigans-potters-herbal-remedies-4539875

Scroll down the pages of the above link, there aren't many as most are advertisements.

You could say that about most of us regarding a sense of humour …it tends to work both ways. The clangers Big H/ Mick el al comes out with is the exchange he gets back….
(The scrap business started with the trolleys dredged from the Douglas).
Maureen you know him well…

Cyril I posted a booklet from Potter’s Herbalists that belonged to my grandmother it was printed in the ‘40’s during Wartime and sent to her.. I don’t know whereabouts it is on Album. I have kept it as a keepsake to her as she used herbs for medicinal purposes. It was before the NHS came into being.

Veronica , Item 32885 . Posted 19th Jan 21

Thank you Dave I wouldn’t have known where to look.