Yep Shopper we`re practically neighbours. I only moved to this neck of the woods when I remarried 6 years ago but hubby has lived here all of his life. I`ve always lived in the North West and was born not far from Preston and when my first husband was alive we lived in a small village on the outskirts of Bolton.
Living here has been a learning curve because it`s an area of great rivalry much like Manchester and Liverpool are divided by their football teams then this area is divided by their rugby teams. You have the Pie Eaters from Wigan and the Lobby Gobblers from Leigh which is still a part of Wigan but any leigh-ther worth his/her salt would 100% argue that point.
Lobby is a watery stew by the way, the meat and veg in it are cut into very small pieces so when it`s cooked it has a much thinner consistency than stew. I`ve only ever eaten it once and that was enough.
It`s an area of strong people, especially strong women. To this day there are families who are still ostracised because their menfolk broke the picket lines during the miners strike. There is no forgive or forget with these people even after all these years. As an outsider I find it strange but when I chat to hubby and his sisters and brother then I can partly see why.
It was the men who picketed but it was the women who held everything else together and my husband says that without his late first wife he would never have coped. She along with many other women fended off the bailiffs, argued with banks and building societies to keep a roof over their heads, begged local shopkeepers for tick so they could feed their kids and spent hours sorting through food donations from foreign Countries such as Russia and Poland even though they couldn`t understand the labels on the tins and were faced with foodstuffs alien to the Lancashire pallette.
As miners they were given free coal so every house had coal fires but when they striked then the free coal stopped so there were families literally freezing in their homes. The men went on the rob and stole coal from the pits, many were arrested and charged. The women pawned their wedding rings and anything else and even though there is long lasting bitterness there is also long lasting pride. Even to this day they have a Miners Welfare building and ex miners still march in the local carnival but the pits closures also meant the end of small local shops and businesses and to this day there are men who have never worked again.
My husband was in his 50`s and he went on to be self employed and then to semi retirement but others weren`t so lucky and the past is all they have. Sad times and I daresay there are other parts of the Country, Wales, Yorkshire etc which are just the same.
uke: :mysmilie_17:
