Produced by Wigan Archives & Museums Issue No. 87 April – July 2021 A New Home at Leigh Town Hall for Archives: Wigan & Leigh £2 Wigan and Leigh's local history magazine ARCHIVES & MUSEUMS FOLLOW US Contents Letter from the 4-5 George Okell: 'Rector O' Th' Obelisk' Editorial Team 6-7 A Pipe Dream? Welcome to PAST Forward Issue 87. 8-9 Cloth Caps and With spring in the air we are pleased to bring you more amazing local Cowboy Hats; the history stories – and some exciting updates for the year ahead from the Archives and Museum teams. Day the Wild West In this edition Bill Aldridge examines Roman relics found in Appley Bridge, Came to Wigan Yvonne Eckersley looks at the early years of the Leigh Poor Law Union and 10-13 Graham Taylor continues his examination of the war diaries of William What Ever Happened Walls of Abram. to Cautopates? We mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of Winstanley Tennis Club 14-15 and take a fascinating look at the history of Wigan’s King Street before Leigh Town Hall jumping to the next street over and delving into the history of Wigan’s Mining and Mechanical School. 16-18 Leigh's Poor Law All in all, another fascinating collection of stories about the varied history Union 1837-1848 of the Borough and plenty to enjoy. 20-23 The Diary of Past Forward Essay Competition 2021 William Walls of Abram 1915-1919 We are delighted to reveal the results of the 2021 Past Forward Essay Competition. Submissions ranged widely across subjects and from around 24-25 I Say, 'Anyone the Borough. In fact, we received more entries than ever before. for Tennis?' The judges noted the consistently high quality of all the submissions and the difficulty faced in selecting the successful entries. After much consideration, 26-27 Wigan's Mining and the panel settled on our winners: Mechanical School 1st place – Brian Joyce, ‘George Okell: ‘Rector O’ Th’ Obelisk’ 2nd place – Julie McKiernan, ‘A Pipe Dream’ 28-30 The Street That Was 3rd place – John Unsworth, ‘Cloth Caps and Cowboy Hats: The Day the Wild West Came to Wigan’ 31 Can You Help? Runner-Up – Frank Atherton, ‘Sir Francis Sharp Powell’ 32-33 Childhood Memories Runner-Up – Glenys McClellan, ‘Getting Side-Tracked While Volunteering’ of Growing Up in Runner-Up – Tommy Parkinson, ‘Spitfire Crash in Aspull’ Ashton-in-Makerfield Runner-Up – Richard de Grijs, ‘The Curious Tale of a Well-travelled Wigan Long-case Clock’ 35 Society News Runner-Up – Thomas McGrath, ‘The Tragedy at Winstanley’ Thank you to all writers who contributed to the competition and particular FRONT COVER thanks to the kind sponsorship of Mr and Mrs O’Neill. Portrait of Sir Thomas You can read the essays from the top three prize-winners in this edition of Tyldesley, on display at Past Forward and we will be publishing more of the successful stories in Leigh Town Hall forthcoming editions of the magazine. 2 @WiganArchives Service @MuseumofWiganLife @WiganMuseum @wiganandleigharchives disposed of, unless contact us if you would Information for you request for them to like to submit an article Contributors be returned of a greater length • Submissions may be held • Include photographs or We always welcome articles on file for publication in images where possible – and letters for publication a future edition these can be returned from both new and existing if requested contributors. • Articles must be received by the copy date if • Include your name and If you would like to inclusion in the next address – we will not submit an article for issue is desired pass on your details to PAST FORWARD, please anyone unless you note that: Submission have given us permission Guidelines to do so • Publication is at We aim to acknowledge the discretion of • Electronic submissions receipt of all submissions. Editorial Team are preferred, although handwritten ones will be CONTACT DETAILS: • The Editorial Team may accepted [email protected] edit your submission or The Editor at • We prefer articles to have PAST FORWARD, Museum • Published and rejected a maximum length of of Wigan Life, Library Street, submissions will be 1,000 words but please Wigan WN1 1NU. Wigan Borough COVID-Archive: Photographing the Borough The volunteers at Archives: Wigan and Leigh are still working hard to collect images of the Borough throughout the pandemic, and have contributed over 700 photos to the archives, taken on their daily walks. These images have helped to capture the uniqueness of the last year. For more information on the Wigan Borough COVID-Archive project, please see page 19. Photograph kindly supplied by Andrea Foster. Copy Deadline for Issue 88 – Contributors please note the deadline for the receipt of material for publication is Friday 18 June 2021. 3 PAST FORWARD ESSAY COMPETITION 2021 FIRST PRIZE WINNER George Okell: ‘Rector O’ Th’ Obelisk’ BY BRIAN JOYCE Brandishing an axe inscribed ‘I promise to discountenance regular Sunday evening with ‘Strike at the Root’, all the causes and practices of lectures in Leigh’s Market George Okell was a familiar intemperance. I also promise Place. Okell would use the sight at temperance meetings not to take ale, porter, wine, obelisk as his focal point, in Victorian Leigh. Okell and ardent spirits, peppermint or haranguing his audience from his teetotal comrades beat the any other kind of intoxicating the back of a waggon. His drum for total abstinence. liquor, nor give or offer them message was always the same: They claimed that drink was at to others, except as medicine Leigh’s social problems were the root of social problems or in a religious ordinance’. largely caused by drink, and such as poverty, domestic Two dozen people signed the nothing short of prohibition violence and crime; take the pledge that day including would eradicate them. The so- axe to this root and Leigh eight members of Okell’s called ‘Rector o’ th’ Obelisk’ would be a more prosperous family. argued that half measures, and peaceful place. like persuading people to After this, he set up a number Ironically, George Okell was merely reduce their drinking, of temperance societies in the were useless. Only teetotalism born in 1810 at his publican Leigh area and was president father’s premises, The Fox Inn, and the closure of all pubs of the United Leigh Total could work. on Leigh’s Market Place. What Abstinence Association. converted him to teetotalism Some audience reaction was is not clear, but the local Much of Okell’s work was positive, and conversions were movement was supported by done through temperance undoubtedly made. Okell and most of his family; his sister tracts sold door to door or on his comrades would point and seven brothers also the streets. There were also proudly to Charles Donnolly as became activists. Okell often outdoor meetings, the most an example. ‘This man for a repeated the story of his notable of which were the quart of ale would eat glass, mother, who on her deathbed supposedly spurred him on: “George, them long legs o’ thine has gone many a mile for the good o’ the country; thou mun go on”. A Primitive Methodist chapel was under construction in Bradshawgate, and the inaugural meeting of the new temperance movement took place in August 1834 on its foundations. After speeches by Okell and others, participants were invited to sign a pledge as follows: Leigh market with stall 4 allow pins to be stuck in his thigh, go up a chimney and perform other surprising antics’, the Leigh Journal reminded its readers. After his conversion to teetotalism, Donnolly himself had become a lecturer. On the other hand, much of the reaction to Okell’s preaching was negative to say the least. Jeering crowds would hurl bricks, stones, and even beer at the speaker. On one occasion in Hindley, drinkers emerging from a pub spotted Okell addressing a crowd from his waggon, grabbed its shaft, pulled it into the pub, and tipped the startled speaker into the bar. However, the temperance movement survived these early Leigh Parish Church and obelisk attacks, and in 1884 treatment that Okell and his colliers trudging their way to celebrated the 50 years that friends had suffered 50 years work at 5.30am. had passed since George Okell before. In 1893, violence and his family had signed the The key to this approach to against The Army outside the pledge in Bradshawgate. A temperance was to offer Black Horse Inn in Bedford procession comprising choice rather than prohibition. was serious enough to be representatives of the various An anonymous contributor to reported not only in the local local temperance societies, the Leigh Journal summed this press but also in the Salvation Bands of Hope, Wesleyan up in 1877: ‘…Until Army’s own newspaper, the schoolchildren and so on, substitutes for the public War Cry. snaked its way through Leigh, houses are provided, they bands playing. George Okell, A glance at the Police Court might as well try to stop the clutching his axe, waved to columns in the local press rolling waves of the ocean the cheering crowds as he was leaves the reader in no doubt with mop rags. In my opinion, pulled through the streets on that drunkenness, street the Leigh Coffee Van a wagonette. Banners were brawls, domestic violence and Company have hit the nail on flourished everywhere neglect of children continued. the head’. emblazoned with mottoes A new generation of When George Okell died in such as ‘Vote for Sunday temperance activists were March 1885, his funeral Closing’ and ‘More Bread Less seeking alternative ways to procession began outside the Beer’.