Produced by Wigan Archives & Museums Issue No. 82 August – November 2019 £2

RESTORING LEIGH TOWN HALL

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Contents Letter from the 4-5 The Reluctant Baronet Editorial Team 6-7 The Up and Downs of Billinge Beacon Welcome to Past Forward Issue 82 and to our summer ‘long read’ edition. 8-9 Remembering We are always receiving fascinating local history articles into the PF in-tray and 10-12 The Worswicks sometimes the stories need a bit more space to stretch out and tell the full tale. With this in mind the PF editorial team decided to run a special ‘long read’ and the Greens issue, so whether you’re sitting with the magazine in Paris, Prague or Pennington, you’ll have some summer reading to enjoy. 13-17 A Capital Example – Posters representing the three main political parties contesting the 1910 General Election, the Liberal Party, the Conservative Party and the Labour Party (Wigan Archives & Local Studies) the case of Posters, Power & Parliament: The Wigan John Wainwright Borough 1910 General Election Collection Write 1000 words - Win £100! 18-19 Leigh Town Hall and the Wigan Archives The Archives & Local Studies are delighted to reveal the completion of the Posters, Power and Parliament project. Do you have a passion for local Project history? Is there a local history With the kind support of The National Manuscript Conservation Trust and the topic that you would love to 20-21 Uncovering the Pilgrim Trust, it has been possible to have the posters professionally conserved see featured in Past Forward? and restored, to make them available to researchers for the first time. Then why not take part in Borough's Statue Wigan Borough Environment The collection consists of 141 political election posters; 55 of the posters are Collection and Heritage Network’s Local directly linked to local constituencies – Wigan, Ince, Chorley, Newton – with the History Writing Competition? remainder part of nationwide circulation. 22-23 Igniting the Local History Fire Within Whilst all the posters give a unique insight into the political in-fighting of the Writing Competition day, the most interesting part of the collection is a series of some fifty coloured pictorial posters, many in the form of political cartoons. 1st Prize - £100 24-27 Did the Bodysnatchers 2nd Prize - £75 Come to Leigh? 1910 was one of the rare occasions on which two elections were called in one year; the elections arriving as a consequence of the refusal of the House of 3rd Prize - £50 Lords to pass Lloyd George’s Peoples Budget of 1909. The main points at issue Five Runners-Up Prizes of £25 28-29 All's Well That were reform of the House of Lords, Free Trade, the rights of working people Ends Well and Irish Home rule – all of which are illustrated in the campaign posters. The Essay Writing Competition is kindly sponsored by Mr and The collection is of national as well as local importance, including Mrs J. O'Neill. Winners from the Past Forward Essay Competition 2018 30-32 The Strange Tale of electoral campaign material that does not survive elsewhere but helps Edwin Lindsay to chart the history of British and Irish democracy and the changing Criteria How to enter • It will not be possible for articles to be returned. nature of political representation in the period. Thanks to our generous • Articles must be a maximum of 1000 words. • Articles must be received by e-mail or post • You are welcome to include photographs 33 funders and the conservation team at Archives+, Manchester, the posters • Articles must focus on a local history topic by Tuesday 1 October 2019. Peterloo or images however they cannot are once again accessible to researchers. within the geographical boundaries of • Electronic submissions are preferred be returned. Wigan Borough. although handwritten ones will be accepted. 34 Over the next few months all the posters Events and Talks • By entering the competition you agree to • You must state clearly that your article Submit to will be digitised and made available your work being published in Past Forward. is an entry into the Local History [email protected] online at Wigan & Leigh Archives Online The winning article will be published in Writing Competition. 35 Society News OR – to keep track with progress visit Past Forward and other submissions may also • You must include your name, address, https://archives.wigan.gov.uk be published. telephone number and e-mail address Local History Writing Competition, FRONT COVER If selected for publication the Past Forward (if applicable). We will not pass your details Past Forward, Museum of Wigan Life, Editorial Team may edit your submission. on to anyone. Library Street, Wigan WN1 1NU Original contract drawings for Leigh Town Hall. Information for contributors, please see page 19

2 3 You can see from his picture that he was from a very different age. It is fascinating to think that the man buried beneath that stone was born in The Reluctant Baronet the year Bonnie Prince Charlie led the Jacobite rebellion and was someone who fought in the war that resulted in the birth of America as a BY JIM MEEHAN nation. Incidentally the gate lodge to Adlington hall can St Wilfrid’s churchyard in Standish is the resting still be seen on Chorley Road between Platt Lane place of many distinguished people. I recently and the White Crow. Another remnant of the noticed the fairly modest grave of Sir Robert Hall are the plinths on either side of the Clayton. I could see from his headstone that he driveway. These were once topped by Sphinxes. It was the Baronet of Adlington and had died in is believed Henrietta’s husband, General Robert 1839 at the age of 93. I was intrigued and did Browne, built them. His distinguished military The inscription on the headstone some more research. I discovered he was the last career included a period in Egypt which gave him Baronet of Adlington and didn’t inherit the title an affinity with the country. until the age of 82 when his brother Richard died without a male heir. Although Adlington and It is incredible the history we can find when we Worthington Manors became his, he left them in simply look around us. the hands of his niece and her husband who were living there at the time. He continued to lead a relatively modest life in the Larches which was his home on Wigan Lane near the Boar’s Head. His early life was interesting. He was an army Major and fought in the American War of Independence. He was involved in many notable battles and held captive by American forces on two occasions. On his return to England in 1786 he married Christophora Baldwin, the daughter of the local Rector. He remained a Major on half pay until he died. Dame Christophora shares his resting place in St Wilfrid’s churchyard. They had no children, Sir Robert Clayton’s funerary hatchment hanging in so the title became extinct. Following the death Sir Robert Clayton the last Baronet of Adlington Entrance to Adlington Hall, circa 1905 St Wilfrid’s Church, Standish of his niece Henrietta and her husband, General demolished in the 1960s. Robert Browne, Adlington and Worthington Manors were inherited by more distant relatives Robert’s reluctance to take on the Manor may and rented out. Wigan Corporation eventually have been an act of kindness towards his niece became the owners of Adlington Hall and it was or perhaps he was reluctant to displace her husband who out-ranked him in their military careers. Or perhaps at the age of 82 he was simply set in his ways. His funeral plaque which still hangs inside the church may give another clue to his nature. The moto reads ‘Probitatem Quam Divitias’ which translates as ‘integrity rather than riches’. The inscription at the head and foot of his and Christophora’s resting place reads: ‘Not with our lips – but in our lives’. In other words, it is not what we say, but what we do, and how we live The plinths remain today at the entrance on Chorley Road Final resting place of Sir Robert and Dame Christophora our lives that matters.

4 5 Lookout Point, Transmission Station, By Dr. Stephen beacons extending from Land’s End Whilst the tower today lacks to John o’Groats. aesthetic charm it still deserves Navigation Aid and Recreation Attraction: Craig Smith respect and the view, if not the The Wigan Observer and District building, is well worth the climb. Advertiser reported on Saturday 11 Despite its unpromising appearance May 1935: the beacon is still a popular The Ups and Downs of ‘At exactly ten o’clock on Monday destination. The view from the tower night a few minutes after the King is second to none. Splendid views of had set alight the first Jubilee the two Liverpool cathedrals, the beacon in Hyde Park, Wigan’s Mersey Estuary, the Wirral Peninsula, beacons burst into flames to form a the Dee Estuary and the Mountains Billinge Beacon connecting chain of fires across the of North Wales liberally reward the country. Wigan’s part in the beacon effort of a visit. Introduction have a summit large and flat enough chain was an important one for few When you are next thinking of a to allow for a bonfire, surplus districts could claim as many as four summer evening stroll, walk from On the western periphery of the combustible fuel storage and room burning bonfires within the one Crank Road through the beech woods ancient ecclesiastical parish of for lookout guards on duty in times district. Thousands of people of Billinge Plantation and up to the Wigan, approximately five miles of emergency. Billinge Hill fulfilled all journeyed out of town to see them.’ tower, something done by others for south west of the Parish Church, lies these requirements: a clear view of ‘The Billinge Beacon bonfire the last four hundred years. Billinge Hill. Upon this hill stands a the South Lancashire coastline and contained 50 to 60 tons of timber Billinge Beacon the day after the fire, stone tower ignominiously capped Mersey Estuary which could be May 1935 References William Harrison’s map showing and other flammable material all by a slab of concrete, known as threatened by possible foreign Lancashire beacons generously given and transported Ancient Beacons of Lancashire and Billinge Beacon. The appearance of attack; relatively easy access by horse free of cost and had been in the including the Rector of Wigan Canon Cheshire by William Harrison, this relatively un-prepossessing and cart for the transport of the same name) was erected in 1788 process of erection for several weeks Thicknesse and members of his Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian tower, covered with a patina of combustible material to its summit; at a height of 587 feet above sea- by Rover Scouts of St. Helens, Orrell, family. The crowd lingered until well Society, Volume 15 (1897) graffiti, belies its considerable and clear visibility to adjacent level. It is uncertain if any earlier Pemberton and Upholland under the after midnight.’ historic significance. Both the hill beacons to the south, the south- Wigan Observer and District structure predated the present one. guidance of Mr. Mather (Group upon which the tower stands and west and the north. Billinge Hill Unfortunately, the bonfire was sited Advertiser, Saturday 30 March 1935 The present beacon was originally a Scout Master, Orrell). The structure the tower itself enjoy an interesting provides panoramic views across too close to the beacon and the summer house belonging to past. southwest Lancashire, North Wales, intense heat from the bonfire set the Wigan Observer and District Winstanley Hall and had a pyramidal the Derbyshire Peak District, and ceiling laths and roof rafters alight; Advertiser, Saturday 11 May 1935 roof. With its original roof capped by Confusingly, both the hill and the Winter Hill to the northeast. the roof was completely destroyed, tower on top of it are known by the a small chimney the building looks and the entire beacon became Acknowledgements The map above based on the work more preposing than it does today. name Billinge Beacon, so what is structurally unsafe. Although of very Thanks to Kathryn Pass and meant by a ‘beacon’? of William Harrison (1897) shows the There was originally a door on one poor quality the photograph above Alex Miller of Wigan Archives and distribution of beacons (marked with side of the tower and recessed shows the state of the beacon on Local Studies Many English beacons were a cross) and major towns (marked windows on the other three sides. the day after the fire – a roofless established during the sixteenth with a dot) across south west The door and windows have long burnt out structure. century as a national ‘early warning Lancashire. system’ in the face of imminent been bricked up and the original Subsequent repairs to the beacon attack by the Spanish Amada sent by By good fortune, poor planning on stone inscription above the door has have made the building structurally King Phillip II of Spain in 1588. His the part of the Spanish and much also sadly disappeared. For many safe once more but the flat concrete plan was to invade England and help from inclement weather, the years the tower was used as a cap replacing the original roof gives overthrow Queen Elizabeth I. planned attack was prevented and landmark for ships entering the River the building a less interesting image ‘Beacon’ was the name given to any the ships of the Armada that did not Mersey. as can be seen in the photograph prominent hill commanding a clear flounder on rocky coasts, limped The use of beacons as signalling below. view of many miles and visible to back to Spain with their mission stations to warn of enemy maritime other beacons in a chain. This unaccomplished. During the height of the Cold War, threats is long past, but the hill top enabled messages to be transmitted Billinge Hill came into its own once along with many other beacons is by lighted bonfires along or across A more recent military threat more. In 1960 the Royal Observer still utilised on national celebratory Billinge Beacon, c. 1925 the country. Transmission by line of requiring good management and Corps built a bunker 60 yards to the occasions. It was on one of these sight – one bonfire followed by maintenance of English beacons west and slightly below the tower. occasions that serious and another – was much quicker than a arose following the French had a base 30 feet square and was The bunker would have been used, permanent damage was done to the rider and a relay team of fresh Revolution of 1789 and the war with over 30 feet in height.’ had it been necessary, to monitor the tower. horses. Napoleonic France. It was around location of nuclear blasts and the this time that Billinge Beacon ‘For half an hour after the lighting of To celebrate King George V’s Silver resulting fallout over Lancashire in A beacon required sufficient height experienced considerable interest. the fire coloured rockets were fired Jubilee in May 1935 a massive the event of a nuclear war. The post to view distances of tens of miles, by Col. Guy Pilkington. Many visitors bonfire was lit on top of Billinge Hill. opened in January 1960 and was enjoy 360-degree visibility both to The stone tower set on top of from outlying districts were present Billinge Beacon as it looks This was part of a network of closed as in October 1968. see and be seen from all angles, and Billinge Beacon (and also known by today, 2019

6 7 Remembering By Ted Dakin happiness to passers-by and neighbours alike, in an age when the simple things in life Miry Lane in the 1930s was a run-down, prams commandeered by thankful Miry Laners, seemed to matter most. landlord owned place of jostling, hard up folk, who took their chances. Some got lucky, Ted Dakin has written many short stories, all who lived in a simple world devoid of others got collared by railway security guards based on his upbringing, the locality and the advanced technology. Their world was a wall- or a bobby on his beat. But it didn’t stop many characters he encountered along the to-wall existence of terraced houses, with wall- them. way. Ted is a member of Age UK and does to-wall outside communal lavatories, Poverty and strife didn’t diminish the lust for readings taken from his books, ‘Tales from a somewhere up a cobbled backyard, whose living. Camaraderie and community spirit were Dead-End Paradise’ and ‘More Tales from a good-humoured camaraderie and a ‘Love Thy there, and broods of kids played street games Dead-End Paradise’. The books are on sale Neighbour’ attitude helped them survive the and ran wild with the joy of freedom. after the readings at £5 per copy with all continual hardship of poverty. And there’s no doubt about it, poverty and the proceeds going to the Alzheimer’s Society. The tail-end of Miry Lane is still etched hardships that come with it create robust and Ted also makes oral history recordings for somewhere in the dusty memories of those unforgettable characters, without whom life anyone wishing to record their lives for who once lived there. Crammed within this would have been bereft of humour and posterity. These are transferred on to CDs ‘Paradise’ and just a spit away from those compassion. Luckily, the tail-end of Miry Lane which are embossed with their names. The terraced dwellers, several places of work in those early years had its fair share. discs are £5 each and once again the proceeds thrived, leaving indelible recollections of a Leading the field was James ‘Daggie’ Dagnall. go to the Alzheimer’s Society. past age. Ted Dakin at home at 102 Miry Lane Daggie worked down the pit, but once above Gallagher’s glue and hide works, known locally ground spent some considerable time teaching Father Rimmer was a Catholic priest and apart Centenary Commemoration as the ‘boneworks’. This was a business that rough and ready local kids the manly art of from delivering mass and taking confessions at produced sausage skins made from pig guts, pugilism. Every weekend Daggie dug out two St Joseph’s Catholic Church, his other two at St Peter’s Church bonemeal to be used as fertilizer, and glue and pair of boxing gloves and set about giving missions in life were seeking out lapsed St Peter's Church, Firs Lane, Leigh, will be cowhide for sheet leather; with this produce essential lessons on self-defence, lessons that Catholics and Sunday afternoon house holding a Commemorative Service on came an obnoxious stench, swarms of flies and meant fitness and respect for other people collections for the waifs and strays. He was like Sunday 29 September 2019 at 4.00pm in hordes of rats, who drank their fill from a that would stay with them for the rest of their a bloodhound after its prey. A knock on a recognition of exactly 100 years since the nearby pond called ‘Owd Nicks’. lives. door, a lift of the latch and in he went, War Memorial was unveiled in the beautiful collection bag at the ready. If the door was Church Gardens. All are welcome to attend Thankfully they never strayed from their In an age when gambling was illegal, the locked (and many were) he’d go down the this poignant Service to pay tribute to the homes: a brickyard, with noisy, dusty grinding bookie’s runner was the only place to turn for 129 men from the Parish who lost their lives those who risked their hard-earned pennies on passage, through the back door and catch the machines churning out fine and coarse pebble in the Great War, 1914-1918, and in horses and dogs in the wild hope of making a occupants sitting there in petrified silence. from discarded flags and cobbles; the railway particular relatives of men who are named sheds into which steam engines were shunted little extra cash. One runner, whose alias title Mrs Clark had three sons, Bill, Tom and Peter on the War Memorial. Many families have for maintenance and cleaning; and nearby, was ‘Jack Dash’, was the best. Jack was more and all of them were keen fishermen. Mrs already come forward with information, close to the shunting lines, where coal from elusive than The Scarlet Pimpernel. He toured Clark too had a hobby, a pastime she shared photographs and artefacts concerning their local pits was dumped to await collection and the cobbled streets like a predator, in and out with everyone. Mrs Clark owned an organ (a loved ones and cataloguing of all these distribution. Inevitably, for a poor, dole of houses, and down narrow passage ways pedal type one) which she played at regular details has been undertaken by the Church. with a speed that belied his years. Jack’s only intervals. On summer days especially, with her queueing few, the temptation was just too For further details please contact lament was legendary, ‘I was only ever copped much. As quoted by Oscar Wilde, ‘The only sash window down and the front door ajar, all Valerie Molyneux by email: once and ended up wi’ a life sentence, and mi way to beat temptation is to give in to it’, and the favourite tunes of the day were belted out [email protected] that is what happened. Bicycles, barrows and wife’s got the wedding ring to prove it.’ with gusto and pomp, bringing joy and

8 9 a happy marriage. He had eldest sons aged thirteen and Mr Beresford, paced up and announced that he and his wife twelve, who had started work in down the front room of the were never going to leave each the mine with him. The father Worswick home for several hours other, and sure enough three had his arms round his two sons untill the parents consented to Family Histories: days after Martha died, William and they had awaited death Tom’s taking up the scholarship. also died. The two of them were together. James, understandably, The youngest child, presumably carried out of the house and refused to become a miner and born shortly after this incident, The Worswicks and the Greens buried on the same day and we instead worked on the surface was named Beresford Worswick. recently visited their handsome with mining machinery. He was Tom shone at Ashton-in- gravestone in the churchyard at also a keen amateur gardener By Tom Stanier Makerfield Grammar School St David’s, Haigh, which contains and propagated agapanthus especially in maths and he the touching inscription, ‘In their plants. Amazingly, thanks to features in a memoir of a local My wife’s maiden name was He was a self-made man, as his Johnny, who baked his own death they were not divided’. Eleanor’s mother who retained writer, who as a young man had Eleanor Worswick and her obituary in the Wigan Observer bread, had just pulled a batch cuttings from Eveline Green’s William’s family household taught at the Grammar School paternal grandparents – (19 February 1891) makes out of the oven, when he heard plants which were in turn included my wife’s Granny, while studying for his degree. Worswicks and Greens – both abundantly clear: that a rioting gang of tub cuttings from the Lancashire came from near Wigan. When I drawers were on their way form Eveline Green, who had been The teacher’s Achilles Heel was ‘A week ago one of the most garden, we have a descendant did some research into their Wigan, plundering every shop as born in 1887. The census of 1891 maths and, as the writer explains, remarkable funerals ever seen in from the original. backgrounds, I found that I had they passed. Johnny didn’t like describes Eveline as William’s Tom Worswick came to his this neighbourhood took place at stumbled on a rich seam – not the thought of losing his bread, daughter, but by the time of the A happier chapter in this family rescue: Aspull. The deceased was the late just of coal, but of family history. so when he heard the news, he 1901 census she is described as story is provided by Eleanor’s ‘I knew from the Head that a Jonathan Green who has been Are there any Worswicks or put his bread on the bed, pulled his grand-daughter. We tracked paternal grandfather, Tom boy in the Sixth Form named one of the most prominent men Greens amongst Past Forward his blinds down, put the shop down Eveline’s birth certificate Worswick. Aged eleven he Worswick whom I taught English in Aspull for many years. readers who have also been shutters up, and wrote on the and this explains all. Her mother passed the exam for Ashton in – not his strong point – was delving into their ancestors’ Starting life in a very poor and outside ‘This shop is let.’ was in fact not Martha, but Makerfield Grammar School but brilliant at Maths. I used to histories? If so, I would love to humble way, his shrewdness and Accordingly, the rioters went past Margaret, another of William and his parents wanted him to earn invite some of the senior boys to hear from you! foresight enabled him to in ignorance and left old Johnny Martha’s daughters (born 1866). money and were minded not to tea and one Sunday afternoon it overcome endless difficulties, and and his bread in peace. The father was inscribed as John send him. The local minister, one occurred to me that he might be The Greens to realise a very considerable Taylor but a line had been fortune. ‘Old Johnny’ was born at During his life he bought and crossed through his name, and the corner of Cale Lane, Aspull, sold a large number of houses, presumably he had fled the scene and actually built 81 buildings One of Eleanor’s Green ancestors where his father kept a little never to reappear. Eveline was from scratch. Johnny’s merits as deserves a special mention. grocer’s shop, and at the age of discreetly referred to as the an enterprising man were much Jonathan Green was born in 1806 ten Johnny found employment as youngest of the family. In days esteemed by his neighbours, to a typical working class a drawer in the local pit. Down before birth control events of this which is shown by the fact that Lancashire family in Aspull, a the pit things were in a very sort were quite a common for a long period of 28 years he township just outside Wigan. primitive state, as there were no occurrence. rails to un on, and Johnny had to was overseer for Aspull, 17 years run in front with a belt round him, guardian, and a collector of taxes The Worswicks and as he dragged at the tub, a for 12 years. His wife, who died a woman pushed behind him. few years ago, bore him ten children, and at the time of his The Worswicks lived in Bryn at A few years later found Johnny death Old Johnny left behind 78 149 Wigan Road. My wife’s carting market stuff up and down [sic] grand-children and about 80 great-great-grandfather, James the country for his father. His great grand-children, making a Worswick, married Eliza wages now were 10s a week, but total of 168; and of these 118 Derbishire and they had twelve he managed to save half a crown attended his funeral. Old Johnny children who all survived infancy. every week, his wife encouraging will be much missed, as he knew him in his carefulness by going everyone in and out the place, Eleanor’s grandfather Tom was out washing for 6d a day. On the and his advice was sought by the fourth child. James’ elder death of his father in in 1842 he young and old, rich and poor.’ brother, William, was a coalminer took over the business with who was killed in the Wigan energy and shrewdness. As One of Jonathan’s sons, William, mining disaster of 1869. evidence of this, the following took over the building business, Poignantly his body was found and enjoyed both prosperity and along with the bodies of his two Memorial stone for William and Martha Green at Haigh St. David’s Church Tom Worswick true story is told:

10 11 the answer to my problem. Most scholarship to Liverpool rough an education on German unusual, surely, for a schoolboy University where he not only lines, that is a technical to coach a master! He was very studied hard but played football education. The Poly was diffident when I broached the so well that Liverpool Football progressive in outlook and Tom subject but agreed to give me Club wanted to sign him up. was instrumental in starting the ‘A Capital Example’: two evenings a week. It was Poly tours to other parts of soon clear that not only did he At six foot tall, clever and good Britain and abroad. These must know his Maths, but the boy looking he was a catch, but he be the first ever package could teach. With his help, I seems to have remained The Case of John Wainwright holidays for tourists and they actually grew to like quadratic interested only in Eveline Green. proved very popular! Tom acted equations, and in June of my Unusually for the time, they both as a courier and would proudly second year, I took the London BY BRIAN JOYCE AND MARLENE NOLAN graduated from university – Tom say that he could travel all the Matric and got through. All at Liverpool and Eveline at way to Italy without having to thanks to my colleague and Manchester University. They met show his passport, as he was so As he stood trembling on the scaffold lauded or mobbed candidates, later, a fellow avenger claimed that, pupil, Worswick.’ through the local church at Holy well known. at Lancaster Castle in September cheering or booing them as they as they hurried to catch the Culcheth Trinity in Ashton-in-Makerfield 1826, 29 year-old John Wainwright were paraded through the town men, Wainwright had said, ‘If he Tom Worswick would often and were married there on 25 Before the tours took off, and as was about to become what he had raised high on chairs, frequently could not manage with his hands, he speak affectionately of the March 1913. The courtship was a simple maths teacher, Tom was probably never been before – an scattering coins at the excited should use his knife’. Andrew Carnegie Library in example to others. His execution, for crowds. Effigies of unpopular not without problems. The poor. He paid for his lunch every When they heard the Millstone group Ashton-in-Makerfield. It was only a non-fatal stabbing which he may or candidates were often carried Greens thought themselves a cut day by winning a game of approaching, the Culcheth men fled, a few minutes’ walk from the may not have committed, was through the streets and ceremonially but three were not quick enough, above the Worswicks but their auction bridge with colleagues. Worswick home, and as there intended to deter other labouring burned. These frenzied rituals and were savagely attacked. The efforts to dissuade Eveline from But once he was Director of men from resorting to violence. As were usually accompanied by were over ten people living in unluckiest of the trio was a young marrying were in vain, and Education at the Poly his the Marquis of Halifax, a seventeenth mass drunkenness; violence their two-up-two-down, the weaver named Thomas Pomfret. Eveline was to have the last financial problems were over; century Lord President of the Council was commonplace. He was set upon and knocked to library would have been an oasis laugh as Tom’s career went from indeed, he was as wealthy as any had claimed two hundred years The prospect of experiencing and the ground several times. The last of quiet for a studious boy who strength to strength. of the Greens, if not more so. before: ‘Men are not hanged for participating in such rare and exciting attack on him could easily have wished to pursue his studies. Altogether it was a loving, stealing horses, but that horses may events attracted a party of weavers proved fatal. [Andrew Carnegie was the Scot not be stolen’. His first post was as a maths prosperous and happy home. from Culcheth to walk to Newton on In court he later claimed, “The man who came from Dunfermline and teacher at the Regent Street John Wainwright’s downfall began at 9 June. We do not know, but can who knocked me down afterwards made a fortune in Canada at the Polytechnic in London. The Poly Tom’s life was, cut tragically twilight on the evening of Friday 9 reasonably guess, how they spent the stabbed me and I bled very much. I end of the nineteenth century; (as the family always called it) short in 1931 when he June 1826, the day chosen by the day and the state of excitement and did not feel the stabs until I began returning officer for the voters of inebriation they were in when it he used this wealth to endow was the brainchild of Quintin contracted streptococcal running ... I was bleeding all over. I Newton Le Willows to cast their votes was over. What we know for sure libraries in Scotland and the Hogg (subsequently Lord meningitis and died on 26 was stabbed until my bowels came in the general election. As a so-called is that as twilight closed in at out. There were besides four stabs in north of England.] From Hailsham). The idea was to give March, leaving his family so ‘rotten borough’ (i.e. a town entitled around 9pm they were on the road my arm and four stabs about my Grammar School Tom won a boys in London found sleeping bereft of his presence that they to two members of parliament back to Culcheth. neck and head ...” never really recovered. The despite its small population, the great It was then that a fight broke out, Pomfret staggered to a nearby obituaries are eloquent majority of whom were not entitled the causes of which are unknown, cottage and was unable to work or to vote anyway), there was not much testimony to his vision and between one of the group and an even stand for another month, his life at stake. The constituency was owned abilities. He was a much agricultural labourer. The struggle hanging in the balance. by Thomas Legh, who stood himself. took place in semi darkness and the loved man. Ambrose Bate later claimed that, The other candidate was Thomas participants may well have been when the fight was over, John Alcock. They had no rivals, so their drunk. It is hard to know what Editor’s Note: If you share Wainwright had shown him a election was a foregone conclusion. happened in the ensuing chaos, but a any family history with bloodstained clasp knife and had All the tiny electorate had to do in labourer named Ambrose Bate got Tom’s wife and would like confided, “This knife, Ambrose, I have the absence of a secret ballot was to the worst of it. He staggered back to get in touch with him, run into a man three or four times”. publically register their vote with the down the road to the Millstone please contact us at returning officer. public house where he knew his When he returned to his lodgings [email protected] Despite this a borough election was a brother was drinking with half a Wainwright apparently made the popular and colourful spectacle. This dozen fellow farm labourers. After same claim, brandishing a bloody was street theatre with a backdrop of hearing of Bate’s humiliation, the knife and boasting to another bands, flags and banners. It provided group struggled to their feet, labourer, “This knife has been in one of the few opportunities for the swearing to seek revenge. Among a man’s belly many times”, disenfranchised majority to this crowd of drinkers was John although he did not specify the Carnegie Library, Ashton-in-Makerfield participate in politics. The crowds Wainwright. In court a few months precise circumstances.

12 13 John Wainwright was tried in early know who the man was. I am quite The same newspaper account In the Wainwright case petitions were August at the Assizes in Lancaster. In sure I gave no provocation to any claimed that ‘... the learned judge sent to Sir Robert Peel, the Home order to get a guilty verdict under the person to attack me”. This was was much affected during this Secretary, the most notable being Ellenborough Act, the prosecution corroborated by George Dickinson, painful ceremony, which was from the Reverend Peter Legh and a needed to prove that Wainwright another of the Culcheth men. rendered extremely impressive’, but Mr Powell. Legh was the curate of maliciously intended to kill, disable or The accused was an agricultural understandably Wainwright was the chapel of ease at Newton Le inflict grievous bodily harm on labourer; he had no defence counsel affected rather more. ‘The prisoner, Willows and a member of the Legh Thomas Pomfret. In the past, defence and called no witnesses. According to who appears rather a weak man, family who had been lords of the lawyers had often successfully used the London Courier newspaper, he wept bitterly and many persons in manor for centuries. It will be drunkenness in mitigation because, simply denied everything and ‘... said the court were melted to tears.’ remembered that Thomas Legh was they argued, alcohol made the in his defence that the Bates owed Another account remarked that: ‘He one of the candidates in the recent violent perpetrator act irrationally him a spite and that all the witnesses sobbed and cried aloud and begged general election attended by Thomas and spontaneously. In these had sworn falsely against him’. for mercy on account of his wife and Pomfret. The chapel was under his patronage, so it was he who had circumstances premeditation was less There had been more than a dozen family.’ This was to no avail though, appointed the Reverend Peter Legh. likely. In the late Georgian and early protagonists in the affray on that and John Wainwright was led away Victorian period, however, courts gloomy stretch of road. None of still weeping uncontrollably. Powell was the keeper of the fearing the apparent threat to order them, including Pomfret himself, Traditionally offenders had been Bridewell at Warrington, where John Lancaster Castle Tower and property stressed the need for could identify Wainwright or anybody hanged close to the scene of their Wainwright had spent the first nine The following morning, Wainwright interpreted as a symptom of this fear, discipline and self-control. The fact else as the knife-wielding assailant. crime to deter other local residents days of his captivity before being was arrested by Richard Owen, the as can attacks on traditional leisure that Wainwright was probably drunk The testimony of William Bate and from committing the same offences. taken to Lancaster for trial. part-time parish constable, who was pursuits of the labouring poor, which was unlikely to convince the jury to John Killshaw, Wainwright’s fellow However, from the late eighteenth The petitions claimed that probably the bailiff at the farm where often involved drunkenness and be lenient with him. lodger, together with the century, Lancashire’s executions were Wainwright was ‘of weak intellect Wainwright worked. Owen found a violence. Harsh penalties for what Besides, Ambrose Bate’s brother bloodstained shirt and knife, are concentrated at Lancaster Castle, the almost approaching insanity’, bloodstained knife in Wainwright’s seem to us comparatively minor William was able to prove what convicted him. site of the county gaol and the only possibly caused by a head injury in pocket, and the shirt he had been offences were often imposed. premeditation by his claim that After summing up the evidence Assize town in Lancashire until 1835. his youth. Furthermore, Powell had wearing the previous day covered in In a case heard in the same court Wainwright had threatened to use his against Wainwright, the judge, Sir Wainwright languished in a received certificates from a number blood. He was charged with ‘cutting at which Wainwright appeared, knife even before they had caught up James Park, reminded the jurymen condemned cell there for the last of respectable people declaring that and stabbing Thomas Pomfret with a man received the death penalty for with the fleeing Culcheth weavers. “I that to deliver a guilty verdict, they remaining weeks of his life. The they had known Wainwright for intent to kill, maim or do him some horse stealing. said it was an unlawful weapon and should be sure that the defendant authorities could have put him to several years and, ‘that he has never grievous bodily harm’. If the poor, whether rural or urban, that there would be no occasion for not only wounded Pomfret, but that work on one of the recently installed given reason to regard him in any Wainwright was charged under the were to be civilised and prevented it”, claimed Bate, with perhaps a he intended to kill, maim or inflict treadmills which powered the other light than that of an honest, Malicious Shooting and Stabbing Act from causing violence and disorder, touch of self-interest. grievous bodily harm. prison’s calico looms and helped kind-hearted and inoffensive man.’ of 1803, also known as the they must be deterred. Bloody affrays draw water from the wells. More On this basis, Wainwright’s life Pomfret himself added to this claim According to the newspapers, the Ellenborough Act after the Lord Chief such as that which occurred on the likely, they left him alone in solitary should be spared. of premeditation: “I asked the man if jury took merely a single minute to Justice who had proposed it. Among Newton to Culcheth road in June confinement to contemplate the he was going to murder me; he said decide that Wainwright was guilty of Peel and his officials gave short shrift other aims, the law’s preamble stated 1826 must be dealt with by the full wickedness of his crimes and to he would. I said I was a stranger and wounding Pomfret with the intention to this plea for mercy. Had Powell that it was ‘for further prevention of force of the law. repent before it was too late. asked him to leave me alone. I don’t of causing grievous bodily harm. consulted any doctors as to malicious shooting and attempting to What we do know is that Wainwright Wainwright’s state of mind? Had he A second indictment was then read, discharge loaded firearms, stabbing, and other condemned prisoners talked to anyone who had known the charging the tearful Wainwright with cutting, wounding, poisoning ...’ In attended a service for them in the prisoner longer than the nine days a second offence, that of feloniously effect, the Act introduced a new gaol’s chapel in mid-August. The Wainwright had been in his custody? stabbing Joseph Moors, another offence of attempted murder; those newspapers reported that, ‘one of ‘If you did not, Mr Peel thinks you Culcheth weaver, with a single knife found guilty faced the death penalty. these, Wainwright seemed completely acted very improperly in sending up thrust to his thigh. Again, the jury of Its context had been the unease felt overpowered with a sense of his the certificates you have sent us.’ Lancaster property owners delivered a by the middle and upper classes after awful situation and was in tears verdict of guilty. Peel’s office sent the petitions to the the French Revolution of 1789, and during the whole service.’ The Chester trial judge Sir James Park, for his In accordance with the ritual the apparent spread of the alien Chronicle agreed, observing that, observations, stating that there was associated with such proceedings, Mr values of Liberty, Equality and ‘Wainwright ... wept like a child.’ nothing in them to justify Justice Park placed a black cap over Fraternity among the lower orders. At this time, there were no formal commutation of the death sentence. his long wig, ‘... and then in an Industrialisation and urbanisation means to appeal against a conviction On the same day, 2 September 1826, extremely solemn and impressive were leading to large concentrations or sentence. Instead, individuals or a letter was written to the Rev Peter manner passed the awful sentence of of poor people. If they were not to those acting for them could petition Legh as follows: Death on the prisoner, expatiating on become a threat to the established the Home Secretary who, if he chose, the enormous cruelty and wickedness ‘I have received and considered the order, they needed to be disciplined could consult the trial judge, clergy of his crime.’ Park then urged various papers relating to the case of and civilised. The attacks by the and other interested parties about Wainwright to prepare to meet his John Wainwright now under Yeomanry on protesting poor people the details of the case and the fate of death, ‘imploring the mercy of sentence of Death in the Gaol of the at ‘Peterloo’ in 1819 may be the prisoner. Lancaster Court House, by Morag Burton Almighty God upon his guilty soul.’ Castle of Lancaster, which

14 15 and the mother of his two children, home. At 50 miles or more, the had visited him at Lancaster Castle to journey by wagon from Newton to say goodbye for the last time. Lancaster was a long one and would According to the Manchester have involved unaccustomed Mercury, ‘... their parting was expense. One is tempted to speculate extremely affecting.’ Mary probably whether the Legh family, which as we remained in Lancaster with some of have seen was hugely influential in Wainwright’s friends for the next 24 the Newton area, organised this hours or so. rather than allowing Wainwright’s At this time, executions were public remains to suffer the same fate as affairs and tended to take place on Rafferty’s or, worse still, to be sold for Saturday afternoons, presumably to dissection. He was buried in the encourage as large a throng as graveyard of the chapel at Sankey in possible. Wainwright and his fellow the parish of Prescot three days after condemned prisoner Rafferty his death. probably listened in fear all morning Her husband’s execution left Mary while the vast crowd of spectators Wainwright, his widow, to bring up Newton Street, Leigh and the Obelisk on Market Place (PC2009.138, was assembling. On this Saturday their three year-old son William and Wigan & Leigh Archives Online) morning, 9 September 1826, the pair six month-old daughter Betty alone. accompanied your letter to me of the all hope of a reprieve gone, received Holy Communion at about As a widow with two infant children, 30th ult. I regret that I see nothing in Wainwright was probably involved in eleven o’clock from the Reverend John Wainwright’s funeral, by Morag Burton she was likely to become a financial Joseph Rowley, the prison’s chaplain. burden on Burtonwood, the those papers which can warrant me an escape plot of a different kind. thousands may do if it found leaders hinged halves. After some final Rowley was at Lancaster from township in which she was living. in interfering with the discretion of This was a conspiracy to enable the or became riotous, there were prayers from Rowley, the executioner 1804 to 1858 and, in all, officiated at Fortunately for the authorities there, the Judge by whom the Prisoner was mass break-out of all the condemned already voices calling for the end of turned a handle which was supposed 168 executions. she had no legal right of settlement tried, and who appears to have prisoners including Wainwright and public executions. to release both halves simultaneously thought it fit that in his case a Capital Patrick Rafferty, with whom he was Rowley would therefore have been and was removed to Newton, which Not that any of this mattered to and hurtle the condemned men to example should be made.’ due to share the scaffold the well acquainted with the so-called had to take responsibility for the John Wainwright that September their deaths. Unfortunately only the following morning. According to the Hanging Corner, a small round tower widow and her dependents. Mary However, Peel’s thinking went afternoon as the executioner placed unoccupied half dropped noisily on Lancaster Gazette, a prisoner at the east side of the castle. The appears never to have remarried; the beyond Wainwright’s case. Three the noose round his neck. All he its hinges. The portion on which entrusted to read to the illiterate tower contained the so called ‘Drop census of 1871 reveals that 74 year- years before, Samuel Horrocks, an MP could see were thousands of baying Wainwright and Rafferty stood Wainwright had in fact made copies Room’ on its ground floor. After old Mary was living with her brother and mill owner had been attacked people, including children taken for together shook under their feet but of the keys to the condemned cells. receiving the Sacrament Wainwright George Warburton in Winwick. The and badly injured outside his home an afternoon out, waiting to see did not drop. The crowd gasped and Meanwhile, Rafferty, who could read, and Rafferty were led from their cells enumerator listed her as an near Preston. His attacker had him twisting at the end of the rope. then yelled abuse at the officials. had been allowed a candle by the into this room where Rowley led agricultural labourer. escaped execution for attempted The scaffold at Lancaster was John Wainwright and his companion light of which the cell doors would more prayers and the pair were murder under the Ellenborough Act surrounded by high railings, but stood rooted to the spot, petrified Meanwhile, the weaver Thomas be opened. The prison chaplain had tightly pinioned. after a plea of insanity. Peel clearly spectators keen enough to have with fear. Pomfret appears to have fully arranged to visit Wainwright. He It was now about midday. The Drop felt he had been deceived in that arrived early or bribed officials, Two workmen hurried to help the recovered from his knife wounds, would be overpowered and the keys Room’s double doors were case; it was not going to happen could have got a few feet from the executioner before things got out of marrying Mary Garner at Winwick to the outer door seized from the dramatically flung open and the again. The Home Secretary, who is platform. No doubt some were hand. They pushed and pulled and in 1832. guard accompanying him. The condemned men were led out often credited with liberalising the disappointed that the black cloth hammered at the platform under the condemned prisoners would burst straight onto the scaffold. One can In the 1820s, the lower orders judicial system, was to show no draped over it would prevent them horrified prisoners’ feet until it finally out into the prison yard and scale the assume that there was a collective appeared to be escaping the control mercy in this instance. He wrote from gawping at his final kicking crashed open and Wainwright and outer walls. This convoluted plot was gasp from the thousands of people of their betters, becoming privately to Sir James Park: death throes. If he could not see Rafferty plunged downwards. uncovered when suspicious staff pushing and shoving for a better increasingly violent and undisciplined. ‘I never felt more happy at not the excitement in their eyes, he searched Wainwright’s ‘reader’ view. All this ritual was what the The so-called short drop method of As Sir Robert Peel had written in his having been duped by lying could certainly hear their shouts and found wooden keys and a historian Clive Emsley has called hanging was the standard technique private note to Sir James Park, certificates of imbecility of mind. It of encouragement or screams bundle of clothing. ‘didactic theatre’. It had been devised used at this time. Wainwright would deterrent examples were needed. should have done irreparable of hatred. therefore have been strangled rather If widespread disorder, whether in ‘It is truly lamentable’, claimed the by the ruling class ‘... to provide mischief if I had respected this man The accounts of Wainwright’s than suffering a broken neck or the countryside or the new towns, Gazette, ‘that Rafferty and lessons and warnings for other for a day after the escape from behaviour on the scaffold make no spinal column, and this would have was to be prevented, the poor Wainwright should have been would-be transgressors of the law’. execution on the ground of insanity mention of either a penitential taken between 10 and 20 minutes. must be taught not to resort to of the man who attempted in open employing their time in this way However, even at this stage, there speech or last minute bravado. He was left hanging for an hour violence. In this climate of fear, day to murder Horrocks of Preston. If instead of preparing for that was concern in some quarters that Perhaps any reaction on his part was before being taken down. While John Wainwright’s execution this man had also escaped, we awful change they were in a few the entertainment value of these outweighed by what happened next. Rafferty was buried within the was inevitable. should have had plenty of imbecile hours to undergo.’ spectacles had become far more Wainwright and Rafferty stood side confines of Lancaster Gaol, murders in Lancashire.’ Shortly before the would-be escape important to audiences than any With thanks to Kath Graham possible moral lesson. Given the fear by side on the platform, which was Wainwright’s friends (and perhaps his A week later, on the evening before plot had been foiled, Mary of what an excited crowd of divided in the middle into two wife Mary), were waiting to take him he was due to be hanged, and with Wainwright, John’s wife of four years

16 17 protected during the preparation phase and will Leigh Town Hall and the be professionally conserved as the project Information for progresses. Contributors Revealing Wigan Archives Project Our ground floor Archives & Local Studies searchroom will be opposite the exhibition area with We always welcome articles and letters The scaffolding is up, hard hats are on heads and space for over 20 researchers and volunteers, fully for publication from both new and existing contributors. work is now well underway on the Revealing accessible with new equipment and more hands on Wigan Archives Project at Leigh Town Hall. access to local studies reference collections. If you would like to submit an article Supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Down in the basement is where much of the for PAST FORWARD , please note that: the project will create a new home for the progress so far has been made. The existing • Publication is at discretion of Borough’s archive collections. archive strongrooms have been stripped back Editorial Team ready for modern environmental control systems Our main building contractor, Carefoot, are • The Editorial Team may edit nearing the completion of the first stage of the Numbers 4 and 6 Market Street, with new entrances to be installed and new bespoke archival shelving your submission work, removing out of date heating systems, linking the spaces to be transformed into the new designed to make best use of the spaces. In the museum exhibition area • Published and rejected submissions stripping out many of the alterations and Market Street shop units, numbers 8-12, the exhibition space. We have now appointed will be disposed of, unless you additions made to the inside of the building in the ground floors have been removed to open up a specialist exhibition designers – Creative Core request for them to be returned years since it was built, and getting the Town Hall double-height space, ready to be converted into Group – to help realise our ambitions for our new ready to be restored and refreshed. our new archives collections storage areas. • Submissions may be held on file for museum space. Part of the work carried out by the publication in a future edition The project will not just focus on the Archives Creative Core team will be to engage local groups, • Articles must be received by the service, but the full renovation of the Grade II organisations and individuals in helping to shape copy date if inclusion in the next listed Town Hall structure. This will include work to the design of the space and the contents of the issue is desired the exterior of the building, including the shop new museum. fronts on Market Street. Little will change in the Submission Guidelines Elsewhere in the building, new openings are being appearance of the building, but it will be carefully created in the ground floor entrance foyer to • Electronic submissions are restored. allow access into the exhibition space and new preferred, although handwritten The Market Street shop units (numbers 2-6) will be toilets. The historic details of the ground floor ones will be accepted the home of our new museum and archive interior and first floor civic rooms have all be • We prefer articles to have a maximum length of 1,000 words Shop units 12 and 8, showing the removal of the ground floor structures • Include photographs or images where possible – these can be Whilst much of the work on the scheme is returned if requested happening behind closed doors at the moment, • Include your name and address – the full project includes events, activities and we will not pass on your details to engagement work to promote the collections and anyone unless you have given us share the Borough’s heritage and the stories of permission to do so local people. If you would like to register an We aim to acknowledge receipt of interest in the community engagement work with all submissions. the new exhibition space or get involved with volunteering opportunities on the project once we CONTACT DETAILS: reopen, please get in touch at [email protected] or [email protected] The Editor at PAST FORWARD , Museum of Wigan Life, Library Street, Wigan WN1 1NU. Archives & Local Studies searchroom under restoration

18 19 of original contemporary art Marjan Wouda, a bust entitled are the five sculptures by Ted works. Ranging from paintings, ‘Pride’ by Kevin Johnson, two Roocroft (1918-1991). Described prints and sketches to sculpture, pieces by British contemporary by some as the ‘Michelangelo of Uncovering the Borough’s ceramics and jewellery this sculptor Glenys Latham as well as wood’, this pig farmer turned included pieces from such artist a large Northern Soul throne. sculptor’s work often features as Patrick Hughes, Michael Entitled ‘Casino King’ this piece detailed depictions of the animals Rothenstein, Sir Eduardo Paolozzi was created by artist and educator he used to work with. Sculpture Collection and Lucy Jones. When the Gaye Chorlton in 1999 and was gallery closed in 2011 the inspired by the artist’s love of vast majority of these artworks Northern Soul music, in particular All pieces have now been At the beginning of the year the the end 39 sculptural pieces were were transferred to the Wigan’s legendary Casino Club catalogued and photographed museum collection was asked to identified for this initial stage, museum collection. and their All-Nighters which took and should be available to view take part in a nationwide with the hope of adding more in place from 1973 to 1981. later in the year. For more Some of the Drumcroon ite ms to sculpture cataloguing project, the future. information visit be showcased in this project Some of the Museum team’s organised by Art UK. Based on the https://artuk.org/about/projects These items range from traditional include a ceramic chicken by favourite pieces in this collection success of a similar scheme with busts depicting national figures, oil paintings which ran a few for example, Shakespeare, years ago, this three-year plan Viscount Palmerston and Robert aims to digitise all sculpture from Burns to more local individuals, the last 1,000 years held in UK such as mill owners Timothy Coop public collections and outdoor and Thomas Taylor. In 1873, locations. This will then be used Thomas Taylor gave £12,000 to to create an online database, build Wigan Free Public Library capturing seldom-seen works and today this bust, created by from collections across the Joan Livesey cleaning the Shakespeare French sculptor Jules Dalou, can country and making them freely bust ready for photographing be seen within that very building available to view online. in Wigan Local Studies. wood carver, as well as a portrait With our museum collection of the Earl of Crawford and a bust Other local pieces include wooden comprising of around 35,000 of Henry VIII, both sculpted from sculptures of a boy and a kestrel pieces, narrowing down suitable cannel coal mined in Haigh. The made in the 1930s by John objects to fit in with the project’s bust was made by Robert Towne Griffins, a miner and amateur specifications was quite a task. In for the Earl in 1756, reputedly for one guinea.

Further afield, we will also be Marble bust of Thomas Taylor 'Pride' ceramic sculpture by Bust of Henry VIII, carved in cannel showcasing some of our World by Jules Dalou Kevin Johnson (C18.05/231, coal by Robert Towne, 1756 Culture objects, such as a West (A77.001, Wigan Museum Collection) Wigan Museum Collection). (B83.110, Wigan Museum Collection) African wooden Juju figure, a Ghanaian tribal statue and a carving of Ikenga and his wife. This horned deity is found among the Igbo people in South- eastern Nigeria and is a common cultural artefact.

However, the majority of the works to be displayed belong to the Drumcroon collection. This gallery, opened in 1980 at Parson’s Walk in Wigan, aimed to give younger generations their first taste of visual arts. To do so they built up an extensive range Wooden pig sculpture, made Portrait of Earl of Crawford, 'Barnacle' abstract stone sculpture from Lime wood, by Ted Roocroft carved in cannel coal by Glenys Latham (C18.05/237, Official project photographer Derek with the Ikenga statue. (C18.05/231, Wigan (B30.020, Wigan Museum Collection) Wigan Museum Collection). Museum Collection). 20 21 and Darren Henley, Chief Executive of the the Wigan-born judge who ended Egyptian Arts Council England. slavery. His portrait is shown next to a glass IGNITING THE FIRE WITHIN pyramid containing the priceless Egyptian gold The Fire Within manifesto, developed through mask he gifted to the town’s treasured consultation with cultural organisations and collection. Kathleen Mary Drew Baker, the partners across the borough, sets out a five- botanist born in Leigh, is worshipped as a year strategy for arts, culture and heritage. Goddess in Japan for saving the sushi industry Each year will have a different focus with 2019 with her ground-breaking research. Kathleen is being ‘Wigan’s Future Artists’. In creating The seen in a beautiful new portrait with her Fire Within new and emerging artists were delicate sketches of seaweed. Theodore Major, engaged with and Wigan & Leigh College one of the greatest artists of the 20th Century students studying art, film, photography and was born and worked his whole life in Wigan. fashion design were worked closely with. The ICONS exhibition features a world premiere Future years will focus on ‘Digital Wigan’, of his final vivid Monster paintings created in ‘Health and Happiness’, ‘Every Community the last year of his life. Many people visiting Needs a Stage’ and ‘A New Heritage’. One of have enjoyed sharing stories of him and his life the highlights will be the ‘Revealing Wigan in Wigan. The Fire Within also includes four Archives’ project which will see the newly curated exhibitions produced with works refurbishment and upgrade of the archives from over 25 local artists. facilities and state-of-the-art storage, an BY SALLY SMITH enhanced activity and volunteer programme, Another innovative aspect to the exhibitions is and a new archives-focused exhibition in Leigh that they open debate about public use of If you caught the spring edition of Wigan organisations and partners. As well as Town Hall funded by the National Lottery space within The Galleries – leading to a Council’s magazine, Borough Life, you will exhibition displays The Fire Within spaces Heritage Fund and Wigan Council. meaningful conversation with residents about have read the article about the new cultural include a vibrant cultural hub featuring neon their needs and desires for the future of the The new exhibition spaces at The Fire Within manifesto for the borough and the plans for artworks and a 20 metre yellow stage in the town centre. In addition, a new business showcase some of Wigan Boroughs artefacts its launch. A few months on and The Fire form of two giant emojis and a catwalk! This approached to host a café area during the and heritage items owned by the borough’s Within has well and truly been ignited with former retail unit is now a magnificent launch event ‘The Little Kitchen’ has been museum collection. The collection houses over sparks of creativity and cultural excitement performance space with regular events. highly successful and is developing further. spreading across the borough like wild fire! 30,000 objects and the desire has been to get The festival launch day on 11 May saw the This article explains what’s been going on and these on public display for a long time. The public reaction to The Fire Within has been Galleries bursting at the seams with people what to expect for culture, arts and heritage in Utilising the former retail space in a new and phenomenal with many residents, visitors and who had travelled far and wide to celebrate the next five years. innovative way has enabled the council to shoppers engaging with art, heritage and culture, experience the spaces and watch bring the collection and some rare local film culture for the very first time, literally taking The cultural manifesto was launched with a performances from local groups such as footage back to its people. The ICONS their first step into a cultural space, engaging spectacular Fire Within festival which saw six Wigle Dance, Wigan Music Service, the exhibition rediscovers five icons from Wigan’s with cultural experiences, and loving it! The empty shop units in the Galleries Shopping Greater Manchester Police Orchestra and magnificent heritage including Sir John Scott, team of Council staff and volunteers who have Centre in Wigan town centre transformed into local band The Lynches. Since its spectacular been manning the spaces have been inspired unique and exciting cultural spaces. Designed launch the manifesto has raised the profile by the public’s enthusiasm and thirst for more. and choreographed by international artists of culture in Wigan dramatically, not only There have been events and gatherings to and curators Al and Al from Standish, the locally but attracting attention from cultural perform and share music, poetry, dance, and a redundant shop units took on a new role filled leaders and organisations across the UK who monthly children’s film club showing free with a selection of items from Wigan Council’s are impressed with the installation in the Disney films coordinated by Leigh Film Society, museum and art collection alongside shopping centre and the collaborative but this is just the start. Funding is being inspirational work by local artists and exciting approach bringing together the many sought to extend and refresh the spaces in the new work by Al and Al themselves. The people and organisations dedicated to next few months, however the emoji stage is innovative creation was a truly collaborative inspiring and creating high quality arts in here to stay for another five years, so watch approach utilising a taskforce of council staff, the borough. Visitors have included George this space… shopping centre management, cultural Orwell’s son Richard Blair, Stuart Maconie,

22 23 By Kath Graham and Marlene Nolan (Culcheth Local History Group)

undergoing a programme of modernisation Did the Body Snatchers overseen by Thomas Ellames Withington, famous in this area for having read the Riot Act at the Market Cross in Leigh in 1839 during the ‘Leythe Fight’. The Withington family originated in Come to Leigh? Liverpool, which is where Thomas Ellames had been baptised in 1804, the son of Peter Withington and Ann Ellames. Peter Withington died within two years of buying the property, which passed to his son who completed the restoration just in time for the birth of his first son, another Thomas Ellames, in 1831. Culcheth Hall had undergone a number of restorations and in some parts the thirteenth century walls, four Culcheth Hall feet thick, were still standing in the 1950s. buried at St Mary Leigh on 23 May along with a Robinson, on his first day on site, was working stillborn child of William Adamson from Bedford. with two other men, attempting to place the cornice stone at the top of the building, when A month later two boys were playing in a culvert the rope holding the stone slipped and Major fell which passed under Manchester Road, at Rose heavily onto the grass below. He fell about ten Hill in Bolton. They found a sack which proved to yards and being a corpulent man he rebounded contain a body and speculation was rife about from the ground to a height of nearly a yard, the possibility of it being deposited there by dying instantly from hitting his head on a piece ‘resurrection men’ to be recovered at a later date. of brick. The Manchester Mercury reporting on The body was initially claimed to be that of the his death describes Major Robinson as a unfortunate Major Robinson, recently buried at ‘respectable mason of Chowbent’, who was, ‘a Leigh. A Coroner’s Inquest was arranged to verify Most people have heard the gruesome tales of both men were arrested and tried for their crimes useful and honest member of society and [to] his this information and Major Robinson’s coffin was the ‘body snatchers’ who operated during the on Christmas Eve 1828. William Burke was found family a kind and affectionate parent’. duly exhumed and found still to contain his body early part of the nineteenth century but what led guilty and hanged on 28 January 1829 at the but strangely no mention was made of the to this macabre trade? Lawnmarket, Edinburgh, in front of a boisterous, An inquest was held two days after his stillborn infant. cheering crowd of over 25,000 and fittingly death on 22 May and the Jury brought in a Hospitals had traditionally used the bodies of No one came forward to claim the body found in perhaps, after being put on public display, his verdict of ‘accidentally killed’ and commented executed criminals for teaching anatomy to the culvert so it was interred in a pauper’s grave. body was donated to medical science. William that ‘this is another accident arising from medical students but the Judgement of Death Act It was only in June 1831 that Mrs Elizabeth Hare, after turning King’s evidence, was released the want of due circumspection on the part of of 1823 had reduced the number of crimes Hooper, having reported her husband John in February 1829 and escaped over the border workmen’. However, no further recommendations punishable by death, which in turn led to a Hooper, a saddlemaker, missing, heard about the into England, never to be heard of again. By appear to have been made. Major was duly shortage of bodies which could legally be used Rose Hill body. John had been employed by a 1831, the activity of ‘burking’ had ceased but it for dissection. Bolton saddler, Walter Paulson, and had didn’t put a stop to the stealing of newly interred disappeared on his way to Knutsford to sell some By the beginning of the nineteenth century only bodies from graveyards. saddles two years before. She described him as 55 hangings were taking place each year and the While tracing my family tree I had come across a ‘broad set, with a prominent forehead, black hair anatomists required nearer 500. This shortage character called Major Robinson. He had such an and a missing front tooth’ and upon the produced the so called ‘resurrection men’ who unusual Christian name that I decided to disinterment of his coffin the corpse was stole newly buried bodies from local graveyards. investigate further and found that the name recognised from this description and he was When this activity didn’t fulfil the required Major had been passed down through the family. formerly identified and re-interred in the Trinity number of bodies, some of these men, such as I also uncovered the following story of a fatal churchyard in Bolton under his own name. the notorious Burke & Hare, set about murdering accident and reputed body snatching in Leigh. people to sell bodies to the hospitals. In total So how did John Hooper meet his sad end? Steve Major Robinson was a stonemason and had they are said to have killed at least 16 people, Fielding in his book ‘Murderous Bolton’ worked on the restoration of Culcheth Hall in although the real total is likely to be a lot higher. speculates that he was murdered in order to be 1829. The house had been bought by the The Hanging of William Burke – Eventually their killing spree came to an end and sold for dissection by a man called Hannah, who Withington family in 1824 and was currently Mary Evans Picture Library

24 25 regularly appeared in the Manchester newspapers outside the pub by a Constable Booth and later accomplices walked into the Quaker burial safes to prevent the resurrectionists from digging at that time. prosecuted by the churchwardens. No comment ground at Jackson’s Row. The men quickly dug up up the coffin. We shall never know. was made on his reasons for leaving the body and removed the body of a lady named Mary William Hannah had been tried at Lancaster However, in response to the cases of Burke and behind so we can only speculate that he had Howcroft, placing it in a trunk. Once the men Assizes in January 1830 for having in his Hare in Edinburgh and later the London Burkers, been extremely drunk at the time. returned to Massey’s house, they loaded the possession the body of one George Dean, aged in 1831, Parliament was forced to debate the trunk onto a horse and cart and left for the Star 17, who had recently been buried in Bolton Parish When Hannah/Hulme was arrested in 1830, issue of supplying the hospitals with suitable Coach Office, where they were planning to send Church graveyard on the 30 December 1829. At papers were found in his possession which bodies for teaching and research. A select the body to London. A clerk at the office his trial evidence came to light that Hannah had indicated that he had supplied a good many committee reported that the solution would be became suspicious and sent for the police who made over £80 for the sale of seven bodies which ‘subjects’ to a Doctor Ferguson of Edinburgh, to allow the bodies of paupers who had died in quickly arrested the four men who were later had been sent to Dr Knox in Edinburgh. He never and to the celebrated Doctor Knox, of Burke & the workhouses to be used for teaching placed on trial. admitted to killing John Hooper but was Hare notoriety. He had come south from purposes. While this greatly increased the number sentenced to six months imprisonment for being Edinburgh specifically on a body snatching Four years later, in 1832, a missing body was of bodies available for dissection and made body in the possession of stolen corpses. The Court expedition and over the last few weeks had again reported in Bolton. The body was that of snatching less of a financial incentive for documents for William Hannah’s trial record his sent six or eight boxes containing six bodies each Elizabeth Todd aged 69, who had been buried at resurrectionists, presumably no one consulted the use of an alias, that of James William Hulme or back to Edinburgh. the Ridgeway Gates Wesleyan Chapel. Her grave families of the paupers on their feelings in the Holme, who is described in the newspapers as a was found open with her coffin lid split and matter. The poor had no more right over the The same year the Manchester Courier reported ‘genteel looking man’. An article in the grave clothes left at the scene. Her body was ownership of their bodies than those of criminals. the snatching of the body of ‘Old Tom’, a well Nottingham Journal dated 30 January 1830 never recovered. known vagrant, who had two wooden legs and Sources: reported that a man, using the name James walked on crutches and who had died in Bolton Although cases of body snatching in Manchester William Hulme, had been arrested when police Manchester Courier in February 1830. After being found deceased in and Bolton are extensively and well reported I found him in possession of a dead body in Manchester Mercury Deansgate his body was removed to an empty have not found any instances of body snatching Shudehill Manchester. He was the same ‘genteel’ Bolton Chronicle house while a coffin was procured. Three men in Leigh. Perhaps the churches and individuals in looking man who had stolen the body of George Ancestry arrived at the house who, although having the the latter were much more proactive in Dean from Bolton a month before. The History of Leigh by Dr John Lunn appearance of ‘travelling tinkers’, professed to be preventing the taking of bodies either by keeping That same month he had again been tried for relatives of the deceased. After viewing his body watch for a few days after someone was buried ‘Murderous Bolton’ by Steve Fielding. stealing a body, the trial this time taking place at these ‘relatives’ disappeared along with the body in order to make the body useless to the ‘Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in the New Bailey in Salford. Hannah had visited a of Old Tom, no doubt to the dissecting table of anatomists or using heavy stone slabs or mort Bolton’ by Glynis Cooper local hostelry and when leaving had left behind a Doctor Knox or even one of the local surgeons box which, when opened, was found to contain involved in teaching anatomy. Manchester’s the body of a female recently removed from the leading figure in anatomy during the 1820s was PAST FORWARD Copy Deadline for Issue 83 old church at Bolton. He had been apprehended Dr Joseph Jordan who had a school on Bridge Contributors please note the deadline for the Street. When another anatomist named Thomas receipt of material for publication is Turner opened a second school on Pine Street in Subscription Form Friday, 18th October 2019. 1824, the price of bodies in Manchester reached an all-time high. Past Forward Subscription Name Magazine subscription is £9 for Two years prior to this episode it had three issues (incl. UK delivery). Address been reported that several attempts had Payment by cheque (payable to been made to disinter the body of a young Wigan Council), postal order or female from the graveyard at the Catholic Chapel credit/debit card (telephone 01942 828128). Postcode in Bolton. A hole had been made in the grave and For worldwide subscription prices and the Sexton, who had been keeping watch, information, please contact us. Telephone No. pursued a man seen at the graveside but was Digital subscription (delivered by email, Email unable to catch him. A further watch was kept on worldwide) is £6 per year. Payment options as above. the graveyard and it was claimed that no one Please state which issue you wish Signed Date returned to collect the body. your subscription to begin at: K Please tick here if you would like to receive information regarding Wigan Museums & Archives activities and John Massey, from Manchester, was tried that events.We do not pass your details to other organisations. same year and sentenced to 3 months in gaol for Return to: The Museum of Wigan Life, Past Forward Subscription, Library Street, Wigan WN1 1NU stealing a body. On 2 May 1828, he had left his or email us at [email protected] Resurrection Men by Thomas Rowlandson lodgings in Deansgate and with his three

26 27 Then on Saturday 8 October 1892 at 2:45pm Local Board members together with leading residents, assembled at the Board’s Offices in All’s Well That Ends Well: Church Street passing as they entered that building under a motto placed over the entrance which said, The story of Standish Well and the arrival ‘Pure Water and Good Health’. To indicate their appreciation of the of piped water in the Township, Part Two smooth way in which the whole operation had been completed, the Local Board presented Mr Hewlett BY JOHN O'NEILL with a solid silver flagon from which he was instructed to take the first draught of the piped water. Republished with permission from through the district from 1726 by that of a lion) fixed to its top That flagon had been ornamented John O’Neill’s history of Standish the Wigan & Preston Turnpike Trust, through a stone wall and the unused with the ancient Runic knot emblem Well and Market House, and account it not only supplied limited local water returned to source via a of the Celtic tribe which had of how piped water replaced the need, (the population had only risen drainage channel. To assist those inhabited the slopes of the Rivington unreliable and polluted supplies to 300 by 1542) but also served to drawing water, a stone ledge was hills from which the new water had obtained for centuries from local slake the thirst of peddlers, beggars, provided on each side of the its source. wells and pumps, including that pilgrims, soldiers, monks, nuns and entrance on which full containers from the town well in Market Place. entertainers passing through the could be rested. The Yarrow Reservoir near Rivington, Lancashire (PopUpPirate at the English Then in pouring rain and headed by village. language Wikipedia) St Wilfrid’s Brass Band, the Local Board members and their guests How Piped Drinking From the end of the fourteenth Half the area covered by the Well- awareness of the need for improved residents leading to the possible assembled on a platform close to Water Reached Standish century travellers could also have House roof, and just beyond the public health and hygiene, there was outbreak of a cholera epidemic, gave the town well where an improvised taken the opportunity to rest their water supply, was used as a market growing concern on the part of greater impetus to the search for a fountain had been erected. weary limbs on the steps of the area where the fish stone was Standish with Langtree Local Board satisfactory solution. The historic origins of the well are It seemed that the entire village Market Cross and pass the time of situated for the cutting up and of Health, established in 1872, that lost in the mists of time, but it is Driven by that anxiety the Local filled Market Place to overflowing to day with any local resident selling of fish. the demands of the township’s reasonable to assume that the Board, spearheaded by its forceful witness the official ceremony and at unfortunate enough to have been increased population from 3698 in discovery and use of fresh water Apart from the ‘town’ well as it and enthusiastic Chairman Mr H W a given signal and by means of a placed in the stocks by order of the 1871 to 5416 by the 1891 census from a spring brought close to the became known from the Hewlett, negotiated with Liverpool turncock, Mr Hewlett turned on the Manor Court sited to the rear of and expanding mining and textile surface coincided with the birth of seventeenth century following Corporation to supply water from its water. what later became the Eagle & Child industries in particular, could not be Standish as a settlement which, over residents’ reference to the Market Chorley Reservoir at Rivington. The fountain it created took those Inn. adequately met by the existing water many centuries, spread outwards Place area with its regular markets, The reservoir was selected because it standing at the front of the crowd How the well itself was developed supply. from that spot. stalls, fairs and later its shops, as was sufficiently high to create a down the ages is far from certain. by surprise and added to the flood ‘the town’ the only other sources of The Local Board had sought advice force of 33 feet of water in the Whether the founding of the Parish The immediate area was eventually already falling on them from the water were Smithy Well on Wigan as early as 1878 on alternative and centre of the village and capable of Church dedicated to St Wilfrid and approached by two shallow steps heavens! Lane (now Wigan Road) close to the more reliable sources when the supplying 35 thousand gallons per first mentioned in records as early as and a deeper third one and at some Mr Hewlett sampled the water Horseshoe Inn and the public pumps volume of water from the town well day to satisfy the village’s estimated 1205 came first, we shall probably time the source was piped. The caught in the flagon and filled in School Lane and Preston Road. was obviously diminishing and its consumption. never know. water flowed through an glasses handed around for that Otherwise, need was met from quality suspect. However, there was a long-standing ornamental animal head (possible Following agreement by the Local purpose. Then amidst great numerous private wells sunk within Even so, at a special meeting of the belief from pagan times that such Board to borrow the necessary merriment and with the band in farm steads such as Bessie’s Well in Board in July 1882, a request from sources of water contained special capital expenditure and the effect tow, he visited parts of the village to the Grove (Grove Lane) or those Wigan’s Town Clerk, Mr Maskell powers and where the worship of that would have on the level of local turn on the public taps for the first close to groups of dwellings which William Peace of Ashfield House, to water deities took place. With the rates, water was conveyed in 1892 time. also caught rainwater flowing off supply water to him and to cottages advance of Christianity during the over a distance of seven miles That memorable day ended in the their roofs into butts. in the Grove and Engine Row from Celtic period, wells were often re- through eight-inch diameter mains Wheatsheaf Hotel, (where Aldi the Blackrod Local Board at a site in dedicated to the service of local The availability of good quality water iron pipes into Market Place adjacent Supermarket stands today) where Mr Arley was not supported on grounds saints. was rare and in times of drought to the old well. From July of that Hewlett entertained members, when springs dried up and women of cost although he was later given year, branch water mains were laid The founding in the middle-ages of officers and friends to dinner. stood patiently for hours at the permission, at his own expense, to throughout all the principal roads churches close to wells was not In response to the toast, ‘Success to town well to catch what they could, lay a pipe from Smithy Well to and arrangements made for each uncommon and could have been an the Standish Water Supply’ the some turned in desperation to local Ashfield. dwelling to be fitted with its own important factor in the choice of site Rector of Standish, Reverend C W N streams, ponds and ditches with However, pressure from the Medical separate water tap. for St Wilfrid’s Church. Hutton said that the Board could not obvious risks to their health. Officer of Health to the Local Board, When the necessary engineering As the well was situated close to the have conferred a greater boon upon With the introduction of more Mr J A Marsden, who feared that work had been completed the town main road from London to north the inhabitants of Standish than effective local government from the the worsening situation would well, often referred to as an “old Britain from earliest times until the Jim Evans, stonemason, they had done that afternoon. 1830s together with the growing inevitably damage the health of local friend”, was virtually laid to rest. construction of a new highway Wigan Observer, 7 January 1977

28 29 Twelve months later in June 1835, Sarah Squire, a Quaker with him for a short period, some of the conversation Minister from Huntingdonshire met ‘the young man being conducted in French. Maria Watson was much interested about’ at Henderson’s The following day he met him again in private and house and found him to be ‘like one, whose intellects are The Strange Tale of Edwin Lindsay according to Pilkington, Edwin expressed a desire and a not strong, but he does not appear insane’. Meanwhile willingness to flee Papa Stour. Pilkington and his travelling Miss Watson had journeyed back to London and aroused companion discussed how this could be achieved. BY TOM MORTON interest of Edwin’s incarceration among Quakers there. Subterfuge was initially proposed, but later rejected and a One month later, in July, while in London she was direct confrontation with the Henderson family was On 9 March 1786, Elizabeth Lindsay gave birth to twin miles from the Mainland over the tricky waters of the discussing ways of releasing Edwin with other Quakers agreed. A letter was prepared and signed by Edwin, duly boys at the family home at Balcarres, Fife in Scotland. Sound of Papa. There he was to remain for the next when she met one George Pilkington. She explained her witnessed by the two preachers. The family was Two weeks later the boys, Edwin and Richard, were twenty six years, under the care of Gideon Henderson, a meetings with Edwin to him and that she was seeking his approached with the letter. Naturally a fierce argument baptised at the family’s local Kirk in nearby Kilconquhar, tenant there and a merchant in Shetland. release. Pilkington immediately volunteered to undertake on the Fife coast and overlooking the Firth of Forth. These ensued. William admitted that they had no legal authority In 1825, Earl Alexander died at the age of 73 at Haigh this mission, setting sail later in the month. boys were her fourth and fifth children, a sixth was to to detain him, and Pilkington’s retort that any prolonged Hall and his eldest son, James, became the 7th Earl of follow twelve months later. Elizabeth Lindsay was the Pilkington had been in the army where he had served ten detention could well result in prison terms for the Balcarres. He had been resident there since 1822. About wife of Alexander Lindsay, 6th Earl of Balcarres, who had years ‘arduous service’ in the West Indies and where after Henderson father and son, quickly sealed the this time the Shetland Islands began to receive regular inherited the title on his father’s death in 1768 when he that period his services were ‘dispensed with’ by the Duke argument. The party, which by mutual consent included visits from various clergymen, missionaries and preachers had just turned 16 years of age. In 1780 he had also of York, because, he claimed, he caused the prosecution William Henderson, left for Scalloway on Mainland, as well as other travellers such as naturalists. On 2 June come into possession of the Haigh estate near Wigan on of a senior officer for peculation. He then found much to the distress of the Henderson family who 1828, one such traveller, the Reverend James Everett, a his marriage to Elizabeth Dalrymple, as she then was and employment in Sierra Leone, on the West African coast, in obviously had a warm affection for Edwin. They followed Methodist preacher, found himself sharing the same pew his cousin, who had inherited the estate ten years earlier, various civil engineering projects before succumbing to the route on land and sea by which Pilkington had with Edwin at the Methodist Chapel on Papa Stour and at the age of ten on the death of the last surviving male the climate. From there he travelled to South America arrived. At Scalloway they managed to secure a passage shook his hand. He found him to be ‘somewhat of the Bradshaigh family, Sir Roger Bradshaigh. This where he hoped to make sufficient money to return to to the Orkney Islands for the following day. Gideon depressed in his demeanour, and heard the sermon with family had owned the estate since the fourteenth century. England; the boat was shipwrecked and his belongings Henderson arrived that night but was unable to speak deep attention, and apparently thoughtfully’. were lost. Eventually he landed in Trinidad and obtained a to Edwin. Rumour had it that during her pregnancy, Elizabeth had In June 1831, a Quaker preacher, Maria Watson, spent six job at the governmental quarter master’s stores but fallen down a staircase. It is not clear whether this The sloop set sail for Orkney on the next day but the days at the ‘only decent house on the island’ at the ‘through some misunderstanding with the Governor’ he mishap occurred in Scotland or at Haigh. From birth it winds were not favourable and little progress was made. invitation of the occupant, ‘Edwin’s keeper’, Gideon was dismissed and left for England with £90 in his pocket was said that both boys showed signs of erratic After a short time a boat approached and came alongside Henderson. She described him as a ‘much injured in November 1830. He settled in Devon where from being behaviour and physical deformities which may have where one Lawrence Henry, the local Sheriff’s Officer, individual’ and found him to be ‘gentle, intelligent, and a ‘soldier of bloodshed or the mercenary trafficker of war’ resulted from this fall. Edwin was despatched, as a clambered aboard armed with an arrest warrant for both obliging to all those who had any intercourse with him’. he became ‘the soldier of Christ and preaches peace and teenager, to act as a midshipman but deserted. Two years Lindsay and Pilkington and with orders to convey them She spoke of the alleged severity of his detention there, good-will unto all men’. later he left to serve abroad as a soldier with the East both back to Lerwick. Apparently this had been issued the neglect of his relatives and the fact that he was India Company. Whilst in India, according to senior On arrival at Lerwick, the Shetland Island’s capital, he after Gideon Henderson had alleged that Edwin has been penniless. This last matter and the fact that the islanders officers, he continued to display bizarre conduct which gave a lecture on the evils of war. From there he headed abducted illegally and so, after a five mile trudge over the lived in fear of ‘their superior’, presumably meaning became increasingly violent, sometimes bordering on ill- west towards Scalloway, in company with another Shetland moors, during which Pilkington quoted the Henderson who was supported by Edwin’s brother the discipline. Eventually, in 1807, he was returned to preacher whom he had met on his voyage to Shetland, gospels to the officer at frequent intervals, they were Earl of Balcarres, prevented any chance of escape. England ‘in disgrace’. Although no official explanation for where he again gave a lecture and stayed overnight brought before the sheriff that evening. After hearing his behaviour has been published, Edwin later claimed Miss Watson had been on the islands since 1830 and before taking a boat across the bay named The Deeps to both men, the acting Sheriff Andrew Duncan concluded that the reason was that he had refused to fight a duel. attracted attention ‘as a wandering religious enthusiast’, Reawick where another oration was given at the local that he had no authority to detain either men of then Whatever the reason, his father, now ensconced at Haigh having been prohibited to preach by the local Methodist Methodist chapel. That same evening he walked to Walls and thus Edwin was now free to leave some twenty-six Hall, was obviously both distressed and displeased by his minister. She met Edwin again May 1833, finding that he where he stayed at the house of another minister, who years after he arrived. Pilkington immediately made plans son’s actions, as well as becoming increasingly alarmed still suffered from the ‘same vexatious treatment’ and had was friendly with Gideon Henderson and who gave him to sail the following morning. On the next day, Pilkington by his behaviour. Eventually he consulted two doctors been asked to plead on his behalf with ‘Christian people’. the facility to give yet another discourse at his chapel on was to give another of his lectures before he departed. who both affirmed that the behaviour amounted to She was later to champion his release from Papa Stour. In the following day. Following the lecture he met Gideon He had hardly got in to full flow however when a short insanity. However, no legal confirmation of this was that year his unfortunate brother Richard died in Orkney Henderson who appeared to him to be ‘well qualified to message was passed to him. It said ‘Mr Lindsay is in Mr sought. ‘in a state of the most complete imbecility’. Edwin never command submission’ but who offered him James Mout’s house drinking’. He hastily terminated his got to see him. Others encountered Edwin too in their accommodation at his house in Papa Stour that night speech and hurried to the house of Mrs Mout nearby His twin, Richard, had already been confined to the island travels and differing opinions were formed as to his where Pilkington was due to deliver a lecture. A six mile where he found Miss Henderson, who was the sister of of Shapinsay in the Orkney Islands where he was detained mental disposition. walk to Sandness was then made where Pilkington saw both Mrs Mout and of Gideon Henderson, plying Edwin as insane under the supervision of the local minister, the the island of Papa Stour for the first time. He had no with wine. He appeared already to be somewhat In June 1834 Edward Charlton, aged 20 and a medical Reverend Barry. A similar arrangement was proposed for difficulty in finding a boat to take them across. They were intoxicated. Edwin tearfully informed Pilkington that he student, who spent much of his time shooting birds, met Edwin, although, in his case, the destination was to be welcomed by Gideon’s sister. The remainder of the wished to retract his request to escape and so Pilkington Edwin about whom ‘so much has been written and even more remote. Some of Edwin’s conduct was household were still at the chapel. The rest of the family reluctantly had to leave Shetland without him. Edwin declaimed’. He also met Gideon Henderson and Miss attributed to the fact that for some time he had been duly returned led by William Henderson, Gideon’s son, returned to Papa Stour. On eventually arriving back at Watson. He said Henderson had ‘been so unjustly and so demanding to visit his brother. On the pretext of visiting followed by a ‘tall, stout person, having long, red, curly Edinburgh, Pilkington recounted the saga to Maria illiberally abused’ making him ‘a deeply injured man’. His his brother he was sent to the isolated destination of the hair, and an unshaven beard’. This person was Edwin Watson who was in the city at this time. She expressed opinion was that Edwin ‘was a most dangerous lunatic’ island of Papa Stour off the Mainland of the Shetland Lindsay whose ‘dejected countenance and shabby attire’ her anger and dissatisfaction at the outcome but she was and Miss Watson was ‘not a whit more sane than the Isles, over seventy miles further to the north. This island, confirmed Pilkington’s opinion. He was later able to speak not going to give up easily however! about two miles in length and one mile across, was two man in whose behalf she exerted herself so much’.

30 31 BY CHRIS MURPHY By 27 August Maria Watson was back in Shetland. In a and further threatened legal action unless he agreed their lengthy and somewhat self-serving pamphlet later terms to which ‘he declined’. This letter was dismissed as published by The Society of Friends, the account an ‘illogical, ill-conceived, and rambling epistle’ by Miss explained, ‘on this remote island, ragged, despised, and Watson and her supporters. PETERLOO ill-treated did the benevolent Miss Watson discover the Edwin replied, although whether the words were his own brother of the wealthy Earl of Balcarres, and from his lips is open to doubt and referred to his plight as a result of a did she learn the shocking and frightful truth that he was ‘nefarious and wicked transaction’. He denied he was Past Forward’s in-house cartoonist, Chris Murphy, shares his retelling of the events at Peterloo on detained there against his will’. In that account Miss incompetent and that he had gone there of his own free 16 August 1819, as seen through the eyes of John Cook, from Leigh, who later described his Watson, recalled how in an attempt to finally achieve his will. He claimed instead that he was seduced to travel on experience in the Leigh Chronicle. return ‘some finesse was rendered necessary in order to the promise of seeing his brother and that during his accomplish it’. Lawrence Henry was dispatched to see sojourn on the island he had been ‘struck, maltreated and Gideon Henderson in order to recover letters supposedly 7. I thought we could get out abused’. Pilkington too wrote to the press on 23 1. “William Ratcliffe and I 4. There were folks on the written to Edwin by herself but which he had never November to say he found Edwin to be perfectly sane, houses, and they cried by going through the horses’ received. Henderson denied any knowledge and so Harvey went together. that it was not true that Edwin was comfortable there ‘soldiers is coming’. feet…in thus escaping I lost then sailed over to Papa Stour in an attempt to recover and that Earl Balcarres was merely ‘vindicating himself my tall hat. them. He managed, on arrival, to snatch a short through the public press and by instituting legal conversation with Edwin but it was enough for him to believe that Edwin was eager to return to Lerwick and proceedings’. At the same time Edward Charlton, who eventually to go back to England. Henderson was said to had visited Papa Stour in 1834, wrote to The Times to refuse to let him go but the threat of another warrant defend Henderson but his letter was not published. On 5 persuaded him to let Harvey take him back to Lerwick, August 1836 Edwin Lindsay brought an action in the although he would accompany them. Once there Edwin Chancery Court in London, although he did not appear requested that Harvey remain with him, and he agreed himself. Neither did Earl Balcarres, who had paid £5,000 and ‘never separated night or day’. Eventually they left into court as a provision for Edwin’s maintenance. He for Orkney, a journey which took twenty-four hours, and argued that Edwin was incapable of conducting his own from there to Leith and onto London, arriving in early affairs and was reluctant to release any money until he September, Harvey accompanying him all the way. was made aware of his whereabouts which were still unknown to him. The court directed that Edwin receive 2. We two got as near as we 5. We were so packed 8. There were cart chest-fulls On arrival in London legal proceedings were started at the dividend from his annuity through his solicitor, could get. I could scarcely stir. It was of hats and bonnets lying the instigation of Miss Watson although it appears that subject to a receipt signed by Edwin being produced to a terrible scene. about, which had been left Edwin was reluctant to do so, whilst Pilkington showed the Accountant-General. Towards the end of 1836, the behind by the people in outright objection. At her instigation, the story was location of his residence was made known and Edwin their hurry and scurry to conveyed to the press, and first appeared in the moved to Rudgate Lodge, at Ratho near Edinburgh, the get clear of the mad and Birmingham Reformer and later in The Morning Post and house of Dr James Craig and an agreed income was given drunken cavalry. The Times. The latter ran a particularly long report, mainly to him there. from the stories as narrated by her and by Pilkington. This in turn prompted an angry response from the Earl of Maria Watson remained involved and made several Balcarres. Writing from Haigh Hall on 5 November in reply attempts to communicate with him although it is not to ‘a most libellous and false statement’ made by the altogether certain that he welcomed her attentions. papers, he set out his narrative of the events leading up Eventually in 1838, an injunction was sought and granted to the arrival of the brothers in the northern islands. The against her communicating with him. It was even twin brothers, he wrote, had grown up ‘without reported that she tried to marry him. As late as June 1843, she was taking proceedings against him in the acquiring information’ and as a result had both been sent 6. The cavalry were slashing Scottish Court of Session in an attempt to recover by his father into both the navy and then the army where and cutting at the people each had proved to be ‘incompetent to remain in either’. expenses she claimed was owed to her for being his 3. I saw Hunt taken off stage with their swords. 9. It was nearly 11pm As a result two ‘celebrated’ doctors, Willis and Baillie, housekeeper for 14 months after he arrived in London, by Nadin. when we got home.” were consulted and examined Edwin concluding that he which explained why his residence was not revealed had ‘a malformation in the head which destroys intellect’ during that period. The Honourable Edwin Lindsay lived and as both boys grew older the ‘malady will increase’. with Dr Craig and his family until his death from a disease He then went on to say that his father ‘placed him with of the bladder on 20 October 1865 at the age of 79. His his own consent’ with ‘a most worthy and respectable occupation was given as ‘Officer latterly in the service of gentleman’ on Papa Stour and where ‘he had full range the East India Company’. He was interred at Greyfriars and complete personal liberty’, which ‘he would not have Cemetery in Edinburgh. He had never returned to Papa enjoyed elsewhere’. On Papa Stour he resided ‘perfectly Stour, although it was said that he continued to happy and contented’ and had been most kindly treated correspond with the Henderson family, who had at the time of his father’s death in 1825. When Miss expressed such sadness at his departure in 1835. There is Watson came on the scene some years later, she no evidence that he ever returned to Haigh Hall either, a ‘unsettled his mind’ and later did ‘wheedle him away’, place he had last seen in 1809. claiming she had since failed to reveal his whereabouts

32 33 MUSEUM & ARCHIVES EVENTS & TALKS SOCIETY NEWS

welcome and further details available month; no meeting in July, August and Talks at the Museum of Wigan Life and Wigan Local Studies Aspull and Haigh Historical Society from Mr C Gaskell on 01942 673521. January. December is a meal out at The Places are limited for our talks so please book by phoning 01942 828128 or emailing [email protected] Plough at Lathom. For more information Leigh & District History please contact Bill Fairclough, Chairman A Concise History of Coal Mining preserving Egypt’s ancient heritage. This story Meetings are held on the second on 07712766288 or Caroline Fairclough, tells how her passion built up one of the Thursday of the month at Our Lady’s RC www.leighanddistricthistory.com An Secretary, at – From the formation of coal 300 Church Hall, Haigh Road, Aspull from country’s best collections of over 10,000 exciting new, free, local history website, [email protected] 2pm to 4pm. All are welcome, contact million years ago to the recent Egyptian artefacts. covering Leigh and the surrounding Barbara Rhodes for further details on districts. Still in its infancy, it already Wigan Civic Trust end of deep mining Thursday 19 September, 12.30pm – 1.30pm 01942 222769. boasts a list of births, marriages and Alan Davies Museum of Wigan Life, £3.00 (including Atherton Heritage Society deaths, 1852-1856, including cemetery If you have an interest in the standard of tea/coffee) With reference to the industry nationally, from internments, nineteenth century letters planning and architecture, and the from soldiers serving abroad, a the use of coal around 1450BC in South Wales, Please note – From 2019 the meetings conservation of buildings and structures Dead and Buried scrapbook of interesting articles, local but as much as possible focusing on the will be held on the second Wednesday of in our historic town, come along and railway accidents and an embryonic Lancashire Coalfield, first documented in 1294. Charlie Guy MA the month. Meetings begin at 7.30pm. in meet us. Meetings are held on the photograph gallery. There are also links St.Richards Parish Centre, Mayfield St. second Monday of the month at 7.30pm. Illustrated throughout plus rare film records. Join us on Halloween to dispel the dark myths of to other sites covering historic and Atherton. Visitors Welcome – Admission The venue is St George’s Church, Thursday 14 November, 12.30pm – 1.30pm the Victorian dead and shine a light on some of genealogical interest. £2, including refreshments. Contact Water Street, Wigan WN1 1XD. Museum of Wigan Life, £3.00 (including the forgotten, outdated and downright creepy Margaret Hodge on 01942 884893. Contact Mr A Grimshaw on tea/coffee) funerary practices, traditions and superstitions of Leigh Family History 01942 245777 for further information. the age. From booby-trapped coffins and body- Billinge History and Society From Cotton Bales to Canopic snatchers to photography and funeral souvenirs, Heritage Society Wigan Archaeological Jars: A Victorian woman’s come and explore the fascinating world of the The Leigh & District Family History Help Society Desk is available every Monday afternoon Victorian dead brought back to life. Meetings are held on the second Tuesday obsession with Ancient Egypt (except Bank Holidays) from 12.30pm to of the month at Billinge Chapel End We meet on the first Wednesday of the Thursday 31 October, 1.00pm – 2.00pm 2.30pm, at Leigh Library. There is no Ian Trumble Labour Club at 7.30pm. There is a door month, at 7.30pm, in the Standish Suite need to book an appointment for this Museum of Wigan Life, £3.00 (including charge of £2. Please contact Geoff Crank at the Brocket Arms on Mesnes Road - 150 years ago, a young girl dreamed of visiting Help Desk. Monthly meetings held in the tea/coffee) for more information on 01695 624411 on the first Wednesday of the month the land of the pharaohs. 20 years later she sailed Derby Room, Leigh Library at 7.30pm on or at [email protected] (except January and August). There is a the third Tuesday of each month (except the Nile, rode a donkey across the desert, and Leigh and Wigan’s Female Reform car park adjacent on the left. Admission Culcheth Local July, August and December), contact dined in the sun with Sheikhs. Annie Barlow, is £2 for members and £3 for guests. For Unions and Peterloo Mrs G McClellan (01942 729559). daughter of one of Greater Manchester’s largest History Group more information call Bill Aldridge on 17 September, ‘Princess Margaret’ – Brian Yvonne Eckersley 01257 402342. You an also visit the textile magnates, devoted part of her life to Joyce 15 October, ‘The Manchester Drag The Village Centre, Jackson Avenue. website at www.wiganarchsoc.co.uk On 16th August 1819, 60,000 men, women and Ball’ – Thomas McGrath 19 November, Second Thursday of each month. Doors children from the Manchester area walked to St ‘Culcheth Characters – Marlene Nolan open 7.15pm for 7.30pm start. Members Peter’s Field in support of political reform. Within Wigan Family CAN YOU HELP? £1 Visitors £2 Enquiries: Zoe Chaddock – half an hour at least fifteen people sustained fatal 01925 752276 (Chair) Lancashire Local and Local History injuries and many more were bludgeoned, History Federation Society Over at Wigan Local Studies we were auditing Hindley & District maimed or crushed by horses. Join Yvonne on the past enquiries to the service and came across 200th anniversary of the massacre to hear the History Society The Federation holds several meetings We meet on the second Wednesday at an original birth certificate. We think the each year, with a varied and interesting 6.45pm, at St Andrews Parish Centre. story of how Wigan and Leigh radicals protested Meetings are held on the second programme. For details visit Please contact [email protected] to document was left behind by a researcher in the narrow streets of Leigh as well as the wide Monday of the month at 7.00pm at www.lancashirehistory.org or call find out more information. Attendance some years ago but was never subsequently open space of Amberswood Common. Tudor House, Liverpool Road, Hindley. 01204 707885. fees are £2.50 per meeting for both claimed and returned to the owner. Monday 12 August 2019, 1pm-2pm Please contact Mrs Joan Topping on members and visitors. Our aim is to Derby Room at Leigh Library, £3, tickets available 01942 257361 for information. Skelmersdale & Upholland provide support, help, ideas and advice The certificate is for Rachel Shepherd, born for members and non members alike. For from Wigan Archives & Leigh Local Studies Family History Society 10 November 1913. If you left the item at Leigh & District Antiques more information please visit, AND www.wiganworld.co.uk/familyhistory/ or and Collectables Society The group meets at Upholland Library Wigan Local Studies or can shed any light on Friday 16 August, 12.30pm – 1.30pm see us at our weekly Monday helpdesks Community Room, Hall Green, who might be the owner, please contact us at at the Museum of Wigan Life. Museum of Wigan Life, £3.00 (including The society meets at Leigh RUFC, Beech Upholland, WN8 0PB, at 7.00pm for [email protected] tea/coffee) Walk, Leigh. New members are always 7.30pm start on the first Tuesday of each

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