Accession Number

B596

Series Title

HOMEGROUND

Programme Title

WIGAN

Producer

[Unknown]

Other Credits

Presenter: Frank Mellor

Transmission Date

01/01/79

colour , sound (sep), 18 mins 56 secs

Synopsis

Presenter Frank Mellor visits Wigan to try to dispel the notion that it is a dismal industrial town. He describes Wigan's influential past in coal mining and there are shots of one of the remaining pits, Quaker House Colliery in Billinge. The Managing Director Donald Anderson is interviewed about the colliery's past and current production. Alan Kay, Chairman of Gullick Dobson, a Wigan engineering firm that manufactures pit props, is interviewed about the company's origins and recent modernisation. Director of Northern Counties bus builders, David Cherry, is interviewed about the changes in bus design and there are shots of buses being built at the Northern Counties factory. Malcolm Forrest, Rector of Wigan Parish Church, is interviewed about Wigan's potential. Includes shots of derelict warehouses lining the Leeds Liverpool canal, Wigan's train line, shoppers in the town centre and Wigan Metropolitan Schools Brass Band playing outside Haigh Hall.