Wigan Album

Is that the company who had depot's in Silver St & Leyland Mill Lane? The vehicle is a QL Bedford...correct?

Art; Yes it is a QL. South Lancs started life as the Star Boring Co in King Street, Wigan. They were bought by Oliver Rigby and moved to Windy Arbour Colliery in the late 50s. I left their employment in 1967 and as far as I know they were there until the mid 1970s after which time I have no knowledge of their whereabouts, save to say they fielded a team which won the Ken Gee Cup sometime mid to late 70s.

Just had a thought, I may be on the wrong horse. It was the Cementation Co, my cousin worked for, who worked from Silver St & Leyland Mill Lane. He was the mechanic,& ended up taking over the garage in Leyland ML for car repairs.
I remember the QL rigs tho'

This photo was taken about the same time I joined South Lancs, initially as holiday work during my Geology course. If Lime Street was in Scholes then maybe I worked on the rig: it's an (old!) Edeco and was used to investigate shallow mining tunnels. Charlie Roscoe was a pioneer in this work. I remember Kevin Higgins too, but he left before I joined full-time in 1970. South Lancs moved to Pemberton in 1973 after Murphy's in London bought out Rigby - he owned Windy Arbour Collioery where South Lancs was based.

Hello Kevin and Neil, I worked for SLB from May 1966 in the soils lab at Windy Arbour to September 1971 and remember you both ,also Alan Priestley & Derek Oliver, it was you Kevin who tutored me on how to operate the triaxial apparatus.Keith Pennington was there also. I ended up on the Wayfarer percussion Rigs & the Sullivan Edeco. The work was tough but great fun with Big Arnold Thompson Tommy Dickens Jimmy Stephens Colin Nolan & the one & only Johnnie Burns amongst many others. Tommy Dickens & myself carried out the site investigation for the Conway Tunnel on the River estuary on floating pontoons, happy days.
John H.

Hello Kevin and Neil, I worked for SLB from May 1966 in the soils lab at Windy Arbour to September 1971 and remember you both ,also Alan Priestley & Derek Oliver, it was you Kevin who tutored me on how to operate the triaxial apparatus.Keith Pennington was there also. I ended up on the Wayfarer percussion Rigs & the Sullivan Edeco. The work was tough but great fun with Big Arnold Thompson Tommy Dickens Jimmy Stephens Colin Nolan & the one & only Johnnie Burns amongst many others. Tommy Dickens & myself carried out the site investigation for the Conway Tunnel on the River estuary on floating pontoons, happy days.
John H.

Hello John, you’re bringing back great memories of South Lancs in the early 70’s - doing stuff that just wouldn’t be allowed these days: I was in the dinghy at Conway with Tommy Dickens and the dead outboard engine, being swept out to sea on the tide. And knocking down the standing lining of a shaft at Laffak with the back of the Atkinson rig and seeing the water in the shaft boiling with trapped methane released when the brickwork hit the water. And...the collapsing shaft at Platt Lane where the crater grew wider and wider, taking our fencing down as quickly as we erected it. You’ll remember the Soils Laboratory Ford Anglia van too, but who was the cheerful fitter with the A40 ? Bob...?

Can any former employees of South Lancs Boring please get in touch. I used to work for them as a soils/geotechnical engineer & would like to reconnect with anyone who worked for them. It was a good company with great people. Cheers Peter Bentham

My dad (Dennis Grainger) used to work at Windy Arbour when we lived in Orrell. I wasn't sure about the drilling company name but mention of Johnny Burns cracked it. I knew him as a kid (about 8 or 9).
Dad eventually went to Cementation, I think, and after a spell in Morrocco we moved to Chesterfield where my parents ran a pub.
Prior to working at Windy Arbour and previously working at the toffee factory in Southport, Dad was a footballer.
Cheers, Rob