Wigan Album

Hasn't life got tedious.Great comparisons,Ian,thanks for sharing.

I'm pretty sure that you have made a mistake in thinking that the photographs show the same scene. I can understand the mistake but the first (old photo) is looking from the direction of St Matthews church at the first left hand bend. The second photo is looking from the direction of Winstanley (opposite direction) at the next bend in the road from the entrance to the old Pony Dick colliery entrance. I will be more precise the next time I go up there - there is of course a housing estate built on the site of the first photo and I will get the street name to make it clearer.

The new photo is from the exact same spot as the old one.

As the pantomime character said - Oh no it isn't.If you look at the hedges just before the distant row of houses, behind them was Venture lodge which belonged to the mine of that name as did the rails crossing the road. Pony Dick Colliery was further towards Winstanley at the site of the second photograph.

Oh yes they are. Check out the white houses. You can see the houses on the recent photo are on two levels. Look closely at the first photo and you can see that they are on two levels too.Also on the old maps of the area the Pony Dick pub is in the dip near the brook. as is shown in the photograph.

I went up there yesterday to prove that I was right and everyone else was wrong ................... I ended up with egg on my face. I remember Winstanley (or thought I did ) from way before all the estates were built. I regularly visited all the farms in that area and Tan Pit Cottages when they were in the middle of nowhere. I thought I knew every inch but just shows how the memory can play tricks. Apologies to all.

definately from the same spot . . . the bend in the road has changed slightly but the row of houses where the Starkeys lived has not . . .

My dad tommy cox worked at pony dick pit till it closed in the early 60,s

Deffo same I lived in the red houses on the right in the 60's and 70's Third from the right Ist on right Joe and Alice Starkey next the Cobleys then us the Longmores and then Margaret Starkey

I remember it well, even in the early 70’s the pit building was still standing I use to pass it going to work in Foundry Lane before the house were built.