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Wigan Coal & Iron Co. Pit Plaque - Sovereign Pits, Westleigh
Wigan Coal & Iron Co. Pit Plaque - Sovereign Pits, Westleigh
Photo: Rev David Long
Views: 1,967
Item #: 30356
One of two plaques which are displayed in the porch of St Paul's Parish Church, Westleigh. The other is for the Priestner Pits. Also in Leigh is the plaque for the last former Wigan Coal & Iron Colliery to close - Parsonage (1992). That is on the back wall inside the Library in the Turnpike Centre.
Beneath the main plaque is another explaining that the plaques are in the church's safekeeping at the behest of the Wigan Coal Corporation, which succeeded the WC&I Co in 1930. The Sovereign Pits closed in 1927, and the Priestner Pits in 1934, so presumably the plaques arrived together sometime after the latter date.
Of the 19 plaques installed by the Wigan Coal & Iron Co. in June and July 1920, the largest number (9) are now installed on church properties; six are on Club premises; one is in a Library; and one is still on the wall of the Pay Office where it was first installed.
That leaves two which are presently unaccounted for - a combined one for Alexandra and Lindsay Pits at Whelley (closed under NCB in 1955), and one for Meadow Pit at Haigh (closed 1927 under WC&I Co).

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