tarboat's photos with the keyword: wigan

These massive walls are the remains of the Aspull Pumping Pit of the Wigan Coal and Iron Co. In the early 1870s work commenced to concentrate pumping from the Cannel and King seams at this location and a 21ft diameter shaft was sunk here. By December 1876 the work was completed and the water had proved so great that the pumphouse (seen here in the background) contained three direct acting steam engines with inverted cylinders working 20 inch ram pumps. An engineer with the company stated that 'these great pumping engines made a big noise when working, snorting, groaning and shaking everything when the pistons came to the end of their stroke'.

This culvert carries a stream under the spoil tip of Little Cannel Pit, Aspull. The nineteenth century brickwork is beginning to fail and the pressure of the waste above has distorted the profile in some lengths. What will happen when it inevitably collapses?

Built in 1900 and extended in 1905, the Rushton building on Market Street, Wigan, was originally a food and grain warehouse. Today it accommodates the council civic offices.

Ackers Whitley were the proprietors of the Bickershaw Collieries near Leigh.

Brick and Tile making was already established at the Bispham Hall works of William Moorfield in the 1860s. From 1899 the Bispham Hall Colliery Company was operating as a partnership of William Hilton and James Marsden, and then as a limited company from February 1900. In 1925 the Bispham Hall Brick and Terra Cotta Co Ltd was formed to take over the brickworks. Terracotta production ceased before 1940 and brick manufacture ended in 1973 with earthenware following in 1974.

Arley is north of Wigan but the brickworks is likely to have been named after the Arley coal seam that outcrops at that place. For the time being the location can only be put at somewhere in the Wigan area.

A day out in Radcliffe yielded a wide range of lettered bricks including this example from Hindley Green, Wigan which I surmise to be a product of the Hindley Green Plastic Brick Company.