Atherton odds

I completed the course safely and was awarded my little flag pennant which I proudly attached to my bike. (We rode our bikes on the roads in those days - not the pavement).

CRIME STOPPERS....TO REPORT ANYTHING SUSPICIOUS IN YOUR ATHERTON NEIGHBOURHOOD TO THE POLICE, RING 0800-555111. (Make a note of the number now and keep by the phone). All calls are treated anonymously. The police will act on it. Don't put up with it - report it.

Print it out and keep it handy.

Abandoned vehicles (01942) 404269 ( Wigan) 404268 ( Leigh)
Accomodation (01942) 8255677 ( Hotels)
(01942) 827406 Bedsits/flats to rent
Adult Education (01942) 828895
Animal Welfare (01942) 516272 ( stray dogs & dog fouling)
Archives Service (01942) 404430
Buses 0161 228 7811 ( GMPTE)
(01942) 768811 (Community Transport)
Business Link North Manchester 08456 083388
(Wigan Business Start Ups) (01942) 705705
Car Parks (01942) 827322
Careline (01942) 827650
Chamber of Commerce (01942) 705705
Childminders (01942) 828732
Citizens Advice Bureaux (01942) 873849
Council Main Switchboard (01942) 244991

Crimestoppers 0800-555111
Emergencies( council) (01942) 404040 ( genuine emergencies outside office hours eg flooding, drainage etc)
Drains & sewers (01942) 404379 (street gullies)
(01942) 705140 (public sewers)
Flyposting (01942) 404270
Library ( Atherton) (01942) 404817
LINC Card (01942) 704986
Litter Hotline (01942) 404366
Pavements (01942) 404347
Planning Applications ( Atherton) (01942) 404261
Police ( non-emergency) 0161 872 5050
Potholes in roads (01942) 404347
Public Toilets (01942) 404364
Roads (01942) 404333 (road markings)
(01942) 404331(damaged road signs)
(01942) 404336 (road works)
Schools information (01942) 828925
Street Lighting (01942) 404331
Street Traders (01942) 827907
Swimming Pool (Atherton Swimming Baths) 882454
Town Centres Co-ordinator (01942) 705455 (Annette Root)
Trade Refuse (01942) 404358
Trading Standards (01942) 827666
Traffic Lights (01942) 404040
Trains (08457 484950) national enquiry line
Unitary Development Plan (01942) 404238
Victim Support Scheme (01942) 322033
Voluntary Service (01942) 514234
Wigan Borough Partnership (01942) 705705

END OF AN ERA

In December 1999, It was announced that the last cotton mill in Atherton - the Unit One Dorma Mill in Gloucester Street was to close with the loss of 118 jobs. This followed the closure in January of the adjacent Howe Bridge Mills.

CV Home Furnishings - an offspring of the Coats Viyella Textile Group - announced that all woven fabric would now be imported from countries such as India, Pakistan, China, South America but mainly Indonesia.

A spokesman for the company remarked: "Unfortunately for Unit One our import experiments worked - quality and delivery is good".

This early "Christmas present" ignominiously ended a proud tradition of cotton manufacturing in Atherton.

Another nail in the coffin.

No more cotton. No more coal. Hence my poem...

CLOSURES

"Ast erd Joe?"

"Erd what lad?"

"Mill's shuttin deawn"

"Nay!"

"Aye, it's reet Joe. Last un in't teawn. Gone. Six there were one time when Cotton were thrivin'. Neaw there'll be noan Joe. Teawn's slowly dyin'"

"What's fert become Joe of aw't folk who went theer? Aw't doffers an' spinners whose lahvs have bin spent theer?"

"They'll bi thrown eawt lad, beawt bein' thanked fer their trouble. And they'll watch from their dole queues as't mill's torn to rubble"

"Cont say who's fert blame Joe? What went wrong?"

"Blame't folk who beigh chep shoddy clooers from Hong Kong. Then sheawt it eawt leawd lad, afoor it's forgotten. It were Lancashire taught rest o't world eaw't weighve cotton"

"What's gooin' happen Joe when th'owd mill has died?"

"They'll build semi's on't grave lad and fotch fooak from eawtside who know nowt nor care nowt fert traditions o't teawn. It means moor than lost jobs lad when they shut a mill deawn"

"It's gone aw quiet neaw Joe. Eee, th'owd teawn looks grey"

"That's cos its life's blood has bin drained aw away".

"That's strange Joe, ah swear ah heard't wind in't trees sighin'"

"Yon's noan wind in't trees lad. That's Lancashire. Dyin'"

by Dave Dutton

Did you know ? - Tracey Bennett (Sharon of Coronation Street) and Mark Charnock (Marlon Dingle of Emmerdale) are both from Atherton. Chess Grand Master Nigel Short also lived in Atherton at one time as did Syd Little of Little and Large.

Also Claire Moore who starred in Phantom of the Opera and recently The King and I also comes from Atherton and went to Ecky Fleck as well..

"Tha'll be like Morty's donkey, which were just getting used to living without food when it deed..."

THE CHOWBENT HORNPIPE

The following is a verse from a song written by a Cavalier and noted in the diary of of Nicholas Blundel of Little Crosby, Lancashire from 1702-1711. The verse probably written about 70 years earlier.

"A Contry song remembring the harmless mirth of Lancashyre in peaseable tymes. To the tune of Roger's Coverley.

The Ladds of Chowbent weare there
and had brought thire doggs to the Beare
But they had no tyme to play
they daunced awaye the daye
For thither they had brought Knex
to play Chowbent hornepype that Nicks
Tomms and Geffreyes shoone (shoes)
wearne worne quite through with the tune.

(Knex apparently was a piper from Chowbent. It would be interesting if we could find a written version of the Chowbent Hornpipe).

It is said that Roman soldiers are buried at Langley Platt on the borders of Atherton and Leigh near Lilford Woods? Has anyone else heard this story? It is possible because nearby to here was the Roman Road from Manchester to Wigan...

At this site is a reference to two trenches in the First World War - named Chequerbent Trench - and Chowbent Trench! Obviously soldiers from our area christened them with these names to remind themselves of home.