Wigan Album
miscellaneous
6 CommentsPhoto: fred foster
Item #: 18497
I think it was made by the WATERHEYES? company, which was on the site of what is now the OAK HOTEL
We used to have watertight electrical plugs sockets and light fittings on the rigs in the north sea made by water heyes but I didnt see one like that.
Waterheyes Co manufactured flameproof electrical equipment mainly for the Mining industry.The bulkhead fitting in the photo was known as the Wigan fitting.
When I started work as a butcher in the wigan market, we had one like that in the fridge. I still have the key to it. it has wigan written on it.
Made in Wigan at Water Heyes, Green used to buy cheap stuff from Calderbanks scrap yard, thats where the lamp must have come from, They are the same that were used at the back of council houses,
It was made by Heyes of Wigan, a company founded by my great grandfather who had been a colliery electrician. Heyes became a major exporter selling lights, bells etc for coal mines and ships but more or less collapsed in the 1960s.