Wigan Album

I am very pleased with the improvement to the pictures. Thanks very much. These were taken when I was about l6 with a Brownie 127 my first camera. The Excavator was a 110 RB and the dump trucks were Euclid B9's.

My Dad worked on here at this time as banksman,a large rock fell off a Euclid and broke his leg.I am sure it was Mcalpines he worked for.I was facinated watching all these machines.My Dad told me one of the large excavators went to South Africa to work in the asbestos mines.Were the other machines on the photo called draglines?

The dragline is the RB110 Geoff referred to. It is the machine to the right that says McAlpine on the back.

Was RB Ruston Bucyrus or something similar,My Dad bought contruction news in the60/70s .It was a great paper but I never went into this industry.

Broady...The cranes with the long jibs are the draglines,
the crane in the foreground is a "Face Shovel". Ray.

Correct Ray. Not paying attention. RB did stand for Ruston Bucyrus.

Hi Great Photo. The RB 110 is an electric face shovel. If you look carefully you can see the power cable snaking out from under the machine. The other end would be connected into a sub-station somewhere on the site. As noted already, the machine in the background is more than likely to be a dragline rather than a crane. It is too far away for me to identify the make, but the superstructure is smaller than the 110 RB and is probably diesel powered.

Are the dark layers the coal seams.I remember seeing a fossilised tree trunk.Years later I found another on the Millers Lane site in Atherton and took piece home but left it in the garden when I moved.

The lower black layer will be a coal seam, but I can't say with any certainty which one. It will be one of the Ince Series which were the ones worked at the Amberswood Site. In descending order: Ince Riding, Ashclough, Park Yard, Top Ince Yard, Bottom Ince Yard and the Ince Deep Yard. These were the same seams that were worked in the late 70's & 80's At Albert, Tan Pit Slip, Millers Lane and again at Amberswood. The 1980's Amberswood Site, went back to the area to recover the coal situated under the old Central Railway Line which was still operational then. (The 58-63 Amberswood Site was in 2 parts - either side of the railway). The upper black layer isn't a coal seam because the RB 110 is digging it, and it is part of the overburden. It's probably a bed of darker mudstone or shale. Hope this helps!

I only recall the mechanical shovels being called one thing: 'NAVIES'.

You lads certainly know your stuff, and will almost certainly have forgotten more about this particular industry than I am ever likely to possess; I did, however, enjoy the encouragement that I received from the posts of Mike Barton, Aubrey, and Ozy - and fine mirth from Cyril -, at Item 29037 last year. Thanks.

Apologies for misspelling. My post should have read: NAVVIES

Mike Barton,thanks for that interesting information.There is someone on places asking about an open cast called Roughley Brow,I have never heard of it.

Hi. Here's what I know about Roughley's Brow Opencast Site - which isn't a great lot - but feel free to pass it on!
The site was situated just to the north of Prescot, east of the B5201 Burrows Lane, more or less opposite the resevoirs. The old maps show a Roughley's Brow Farm in the vicinity - hence the name. On up to date Google maps the farm doesn't seem to be there so I assume it was demolished at some time in the past. The site worked in 1955-57, and there appear to be 2 separate coaling areas within it. Using the published British Geological Survey Maps and other bits of geological info - leads me to think that one of the coal areas worked the Prescot Main seam, which is correlates across the coalfield as being equivalent to the Plodder of the Wigan area. Just to confuse things in some Wigan area coal mines the Plodder was called different names: The Ravine, the Ravin and the Raven. The other coal area probably worked the Prescot equivalents of the Smith, Bone, Yard, Arley sequence. In his book: "The Sunshine Miners" Peter Grimshaw gives list of all the opencast sites in Lancashire and North wales that were worked by Sir Alfred Mc'Alpines and Roughley's Brow isn't one of them; therefore it must have been worked by a different contractor - Sir Lindsay Parkinson's maybe? I don't know, and neither do I have any information of the tonnages of coal recovered etc.
Mike.

Thanks Mike,passed it on.

Thank you greatly for that information, Mike Barton. Tis I who asked for the information on the places message board.

Cheers, and thanks to PW for relaying my search to here.

Roughley Brow Farm,
Burrows Lane,
Eccleston,
St Helens,
Merseyside
L34 6JW

Thanks for that. The Farm still does exist then. Apologies to the owners!

Dear A Spencer. I am putting an interpretation board together for Amberswood. Please can I use this heritage photo and can you send me the highest res version you have? I work for Lancashire Wildlife Trust and the photo will be credited to you jgriggs@lancswt.org.uk