Maypole Pit Disaster
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Produced by Wigan Heritage Service Issue No. 49 August - November 2008 100th Anniversary Maypole Pit Disaster £1 YOUR HERITAGE in partnership with Wigan Council HERITAGE SERVICE NEW STAFF FOR HERITAGE SERVICE Lisa Keys will be joining us in August as Exhibition and Display Officer. Lisa was offered the post after Contents a rigorous interview process. It was a difficult Letter from the decision, as the calibre of all those interviewed was extremely high. However, Lisa had the breadth of experience and skills required for this challenging 2-3 Heritage Service Editorial Team new post, which has been partly funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Her main role will be to 4 Archives Service develop the Heritage Service temporary exhibition In this issue of FORWARD , we commemorate the 5 PAST programme, working with staff and community Exhibitions at 100th anniversary of the tragic and terrible Maypole The History Shop groups both in the History Shop and other venues Colliery Disaster which occurred on 18th August 1908. throughout the borough. 6-7 1908 Olympians of Seventy-five men lost their lives. Chris Watts (Local & the Borough Family History Officer) has written an article (see pages After graduating from the University of Liverpool in 18 and 19) which is published alongside four of the 2001, Lisa worked as a field archaeologist on sites 8-9 Weekend Community photographs from our archival collection. The front cover in the North West. She became increasingly Celebrations also shows the devastated pit. interested in the interpretation of local heritage and the role that museums have in this, so in 2004 10-12 The Shy Shooter During the week beginning Monday 11th August 2008 there took up a Masters in Art Gallery and Museum of the North will be exhibitions in St John’s Church at Abram as well as in Studies. She gained subsequent employment at the former Abram Library. The week will end with a special 13 Views of Hindley National Museums Liverpool and Lancashire County service in the church on the 18th followed by a procession to Museum Service. Her last role was for the Lake 14-16 Help for the the memorial. For more details of the celebrations please District National Park Authority developing various Deserving Poor contact St John’s Vicarage. media which would make the historic environment more accessible to the public. 17 Heritage Events The Heritage Service will also be arranging a Maypole Colliery Lisa says "I am passionate about interpretation and Day on the 16th August followed by learning sessions at the am looking forward to all the challenges my new 18-20 The Maypole Lisa Keys History Shop on the 19th and Platt Bridge Library on the 22nd. role will bring! " Colliery Disaster For further details please contact the Education and Outreach Heritage Open Manager on 01942 828128. 22-23 Spanish Flu Days 2008 24-25 Jane Austen and Friends of K I would like to become a member Published by Wigan Heritage of 'Friends of Wigan Heritage Historic Chowbent Chapel Deadline Service, Wigan Leisure & a Wigan M.P. Wigan Service' and receive copies of Bolton Old Road Culture Trust. Past Forward through the post. for Issue 50 26-27 Do you remember? Heritage Atherton The views expressed in this issue Please state which issue you Service Contributors please are not necessarily supported by 28-31 Your Letters wish your membership to begin. OPEN TO VIEW note that the deadline Wigan Leisure & Culture Trust. Please find enclosed my cheque for £5.00 Nothing printed may be construed 32 Views of Leigh (made payable to Wigan Leisure & Culture Trust) Friday 12th September for receipt of 12.00am - 5.00pm as policy or official announcement Name: material for publication unless so stated. Neither Wigan 33 Society News Address: Saturday 13th September is 30th September. Leisure & Culture Trust, nor the 34 Pigeon Power 10.00am - 5.00pm Editor, accept liability for any The Editor matter in this publication. 35 Can You Help? Postcode: Sunday 14th September Wigan Heritage Service Contributions are welcome, but Tel: 12.00am - 5.00pm The History Shop no responsibility can be taken FRONT COVER PICTURE for loss or damage to Signed: Date: Library Street Maypole Colliery Disaster Chapel archives will be on view contributors’ material. Please return to The History Shop or via Freepost : in the Hall. Wigan WN1 1NU 1908, roof blown off the Past Forward, Wigan Leisure & Culture Trust [email protected] © Wigan Leisure & Culture Trust ventilating house FREEPOST NATW 1645, Wigan WN1 1XZ All are welcome. March 2008 2 3 ARCHIVES SERVICE EXHIBITIONS AT THE HISTORY SHOP Your Archives information from the main collections. Various Freemasonry churches have records giving lists of wardens, council and charity group members and Sunday school pupils. Improvement work at the Archives is ongoing and we New buildings or renovations brought associated lists – it’s no secret! hope researchers will continue to find an enhanced of subscribers and older parishes kept rate books for service. Behind the scenes, cataloguing, listing and the overseers of the poor; in Lowton these records conservation work helps the preservation of records No less than 35 Freemasons have been Mayor date from the 1760s. These church records are some and we are grateful to all archive users who fill out of Wigan on a total of 52 occasions. These of the highlights of our collections. our short visitor surveys; all suggestions and facts were revealed by the Mayor of Wigan, recommendations are very welcome. If you would like more information details are Cllr Mrs Rona Winkworth, when she opened available in the Guide to the Archives, or on the the exhibition celebrating 222 years of Recent Acquisitions websites of A2A (Access to Archives) and the Greater Freemasonry in Wigan, held in the Taylor Manchester Pastfinder. Gallery of the History Shop from the 6th May Wigan Mayor Cllr Mrs Rona Winkworth with There is much to mention in this issue in terms of Freemasons: Danny Jones (Wigan Group to the 19th July 2008. new acquisitions to the collections. Recent Remembering the Chairman), Eddie Caulfield (Assistant Provincial accessions include: After being welcomed to the exhibition by the Grand Master for West Lancashire), Fred Lomax Freemasons’ Assistant Provincial Grand Master Eddie • Records of John Wood & Sons, Wigan and Past: Maypole, (Exhibition Organiser and Secretary of the Wigan Caulfield, Cllr Winkworth said: "It is a pleasure for Walmsleys (Wigan) Ltd. (Acc. 2008/24) and District Association for Masonic Research), 18th August 1908 Barbara Adderley (The Order of Women me to be here at this exhibition on Freemasonry in • Papers relating to the Edmund Molyneux Freemasons Grand Inspector for West Lancashire), Wigan. Freemasons are renowned for their Scholarship Endowment, including last will and Archives are used for numerous Pauline Short (Exhibition Organiser). charitable donations to national and local causes. testament of Edmund Molyneux, 1613 (Acc. purposes, including Wigan and Leigh Hospice has been generously 2008/23) contemporary planning and supported over the years, as has Derian House • Log books of St Thomas’ School, Clayton Street legal cases, academic enquiry A Feast of Children’s Hospice and various medical charities (Acc. 2008/22) and research, even art and including the North West Air Ambulance. Many youth organisations in Wigan have received grants • Additional records of The Methodist Church, Wigan design. Yet, they always serve to Telegram from Circuit, including Wigan Wesleyan Chapel (Whitley allow us to remember the past. Edward VII, Photography to enable them to obtain equipment and to 21st August 1908 continue their work with the young citizens of the Methodist Church) (Acc. 2008/18) The 18th August 2008 is the The Wigan Borough. It is pleasing to see the Shopmobility hundredth anniversary of the explosion at the and Atherton scooters which local Freemasons provided within Using Church Records Maypole Colliery, near Abram, in which 75 men lost Photographic Wigan town centre to assist our older citizens for their lives. Reading the records held at the Archives whom mobility is a problem when shopping. It is At the Archives we have a substantial collection of Societies will creates a vivid picture of the accident, its aftermath particularly appropriate for me as Mayor of Wigan church records and act as a Church of England be displaying and the effect upon local communities. The material to be present here because no less than 35 of my diocesan repository for records of the churches in the their work the includes photographs of the town and colliery in predecessors have been Freemasons. They have held deaneries of Wigan the days that followed, documentation concerning History Shop the office of Mayor of Wigan on a total of 52 and Winwick. the government enquiry into the accident, the at the end of occasions. Freemasons in Wigan have devoted not Family historians and records of the Relief Fund established to help the summer. just their money but their time, energy and genealogists will victims’ families and lists of those subscribing, Please do Wigan Photographic Society: enthusiasm to the cause of being happy and know about well- including scores of local people, King Edward VII and come along, it Stick judging. Borrowdale Show. generating happiness among those who are less thumbed church Queen Alexandra. is a chance to Hilary Fairclough, LRPS. well off in the community. From the opening of the registers but much It is a small collection but hints at the very real effect show your support for local community first lodge in Wigan in 1786 until today, Freemasons less used are the the disaster brought upon local people, so preserving groups, and it goes without saying that you have served the local community." other records of these these records, keeping them safe and accessible, helps will see some stunning photographs.