Wigan Album

Can’t recall the last time I saw one of these things … they were certainly built to last .

I recall back in 1973 , there was one being used as an emergency bothy about 1500 feet up in the Cheviots alongside the Pennine Way at a location named on the map as Hen Hole , a few miles south of Kirk Yetholm ; It could still be there for all I know .

I have no idea how they managed to get the thing up to such a remote spot . I can only imagine it was airlifted up there by a Chinook helicopter or summat’ similar , as I fancy they must be going on for 3 or 4 ton in weight .

That's recycling at its best, made for the job, and plenty room.

When the old rolling stock was scrapped by BR, many had a second life and lots were bought by farmers.

When we were younger an old bloke let us use his pen(like an allotment)and on was one of these and a old guards van complete with stove.We used for years as a meeting place and was always warm on cold winter nights.

Brilliant idea! These were the days when people were allowed to use their common sense....it would have to be "inspected" by the "health and safety" people these days and probably not be allowed to be used as a garage/shed, so money would have to be spent unnecessarily on purpose. built shed and the old wagon would be scrapped. We have gone backwards instead of forward!

There’s a chap who lives on Bradley lane in Eccleston has a complete guard’s van in his front garden . He also has a red telephone box and a Bedford green goddess fire engine on his driveway .
You can see most of his stuff on street view.

In his back garden he has a few items of ex - m.o.d narrow gauge rolling stock .
I believe he works as an eye specialist at the R.A.E.I.

What rubbish, Irene - you see the modern equivalent - steel containers, and the boxes off delivery lorries - being used all over the place for storage, horse stables, etc..

Many years ago we used to break road wagons up at a site at Edge Green near Golborne , some of them being ex -Ripponden & District , and Evancrest parcel delivery vehicles .

The unique truck bodies on these wagons were made at R&D’s own workshops from mainly wood and fibreglass , and although they were excellent bodies , the very low metal content rendered their scrap value practically worthless .

As a consequence of this fact , we were willing to donate them f.o.c. including delivery to anyone who was prepared to take them off our hands , the only other alternative being to torch them .

I got rid of loads of the things , many of them going to pigeon fanciers in the area … although I suspect they’ll all be long gone by now … along with their owners no doubt .

I do beg your pardon, Rev Long...I didn't realise that. What I said was what I truly believed......that containers such as the one in the photo being used as garages would have to be "passed" these days before being allowed to be used for something other than their original purpose. I truly thought that was correct or I wouldn't have said it. I just hate to see things go to waste and hadn't realised I was talking rubbish. My apologies.

Pay - if you were working there in the 1980s we may have met. I've just posted a pic of a fibreglass Atkinson radiator cover I cadged from there when rooting for bits for a fleet of old buses I ran in my Warrington parish. At one point I stuck it on the front of an electric float we used to collect waste paper to raise money.

I remember something about poor people living in these sort of ‘shacks’ after the first WW according to Mr Orwell in his famous book about Wigan. You can bet there were no standards then for such as this being good enough to live in. Or perhaps it was the railway carriages??? Yes it would have done quite nicely for that era.

Predictive text strikes again - 'Pay' should have read 'Ozy'!
"I must read before I click 'send'" (x100)

My dad lived in a converted railway carriage in Tunley lane Wrightington I can remember it still being there in the 1950's 60's but in a bad state. Then later when the woodwork had rotted and disappeared. I remember that the bogie was still there. I don't know if it's still there? It was next to a pond, on the right as you go down Tunley Lane from Mossy Lea. I think there is now a stone house built on the land. I used to got fishing in the pond when I stayed at my Grandmas for a couple of weeks in the summer holidays..HAPPY DAYS

Veronica - Orwell certainly would have found caravans - if you look up item 18163 in the Album there's a few Comments about residents in Little Westwood, by Kays Houses. The caravan in the background of that image looks like a purpose-built living van, with a clerestory roof, but others would have been the sort of van pulled behind steam wagons by road-menders (Fred Dinah used to haul one around with his traction engine).

I looked at the photo of the ‘caravan’ and I hope those poor people who lived in them are in a better place in eternity. They certainly had to put up with a miserable existence to eke out a living. As my dad used to say “ you don’t know you’re born” … Thanks Reverend for the reminder to be grateful for what we have today compared to what those stoical folk had then.