Wigan Album

Look at the size of that spade!!

The story of the Pit brow lassies is very interesting.The Wigan Coal Field had more than other areas. Some Posh ladies in London wanted to stop them, one of the reasons was, shock! Horror! Some of them wore trousers over their skirts! This was stopped by the women themselves, some went to London, they were dressed "properly" and managed to persuade the people that they were quite respectable. Sadly, they were stopped. When the post war Labour Government was in power, the N.U.M. managed to have them stopped - I knew 2 women who lost their jobs.

The spade is a no3 colliers spade, used by most colliers underground. My grandfather worked at Douglas Bank Colliery. He called it Lambs, as the owners were Lamb and moore

One of the pit brow girls who went to London was Ken Gee's mother Polly

Hi Fred, Have you have any information regarding the underlookers at douglas bank colliery and rose bridge colliery in the 1890's . I think my G G Father worked under John Grant who was the owner .
how is Sid these days .

Peter, I have no knowledge of the undermanagers there except a little snippet told to me by my grandfather. The undermanager was asking who worked in a certain place and was told that it was Mr Smith. He said "tell Mr smith to take his tools out, there is only one mister here and that's me!" As for Sid, he has had a heart valve replacement done and then had a new hip, from which he is now recovering