I've added some photos from the annual Gerry Cooper Memorial bike ride for Christies. The event was arranged by the Veterans of Wigan Rugby Union Club.

A great day out that raised around £700 for Christies.

Photos are open to comments, keep 'em clean.

Charity Bike Ride Photos.

Apologies to everyone that has sent me photos, questions and other things for my slow response. I'm slowly working my way through my vast pile of emails.

Wigan Post Office Roll of Honour

Did you know there is a memorial in the Sorting Office in Hallgate? I didn't. Carol Littler has kindly sent in some photos and a list of the names on the memorial. View the Post Office Roll of Honour.

Boer War Memorial Service

A memorial service was held in Mesnes Park at the end of May. You may have read about it in the local press but a row broke out over an "alleged veil of secrecy". WLCT ordered that the event must not be publicised. Andy Lomax kindly sent in some photos of the service.

A Walk around Aspull

John Harrison has sent some photos of a walk around Whutchie (I thought it was Wutchie but I've seen it spelled as Woochie and Wuchy!) which is a beautiful part of the borough. Get your boots on and have a mooch. Photos of walk.

Links

I've added 3 more links. Alan Owen (local artist who has some excellent art displayed on wiganworld) has a new site, watercolour freedom.

Anyone interested in genealogy and the Wilson name in and around Wigan will find Eric's site useful, The Wilson Family.

Finally, SOS (Support Our Soldiers) is a comprehensive site where your help can make a difference to the British Armed Forces.

More soon...

What a busy week, again, don't know whether I'm coming or going!

Digging

Went out bottle digging recently and uncovered a few gems. Amongst the finds from around 100 years ago were a medicine bottle inscribed "W. Edward & Son - Hooping Cough", a pop bottle inscribed "Thomas Barton, Ince" and a couple of bottles with "Airey's Soothing Syrup, Made Only By Phillips & Son/Co Ltd, Wigan". It's amazing how much local history is buried around town. I'll post some pics one I've cleaned them properly. Then, off to find more dumps!

Cycling

The charity cycle ride takes place tomorrow. I've had 1 practice session (1st bike ride in 25 years) and am now ready for the 20 mile trek. Again, I'll post some pics of the day soon. My practice session was around 2 miles and I had a sore backside for a while so 20 miles should be a breeze, lol.

Sponsored Walk

Planned for Saturday, 5th of September. All welcome. Raising money for Wigan. More news soon. I hope you will join us on this day out which will be fun and for a good cause.

+ lots of other stuff going on including that 4 letter word, work!

You're all invited to a charity bike ride for a good cause.

I'm up for it and I've not rode a bike for around 25 years. 10 pubs on the way, a pint at each, I can see someone falling in the drink.

More info here.

We've had several requests lately for more jigsaws. These requests were made via the Suggestion Box - feel free to add your own suggestions / requests anonymously if you prefer.

Another dozen jigsaws have been added with more to follow. I chose some random photos from the wiganworld photo-a-day section.

I will update again very soon with some big news! If you're passionate about Wigan as much as I am then this is for you. A new society is on the way with fundraising activities planned for anyone out there who loves our town.

A wiganworld sponsored walk is planned for the 5th of September to raise money. It will be known as the '10 miler'. More soon...

Super song by Alan Walton which is a fitting tribute to Fred Dibnah.

Listen to the song here on YouTube.

Woot! We've made it. 10,000 old photos have been uploaded to the album.

Allan Hughes uploaded the 10,000th photo to the album, thanks Allan.

Thank you to everyone that has taken the time and effort to contribute, it really is appreciated. Whether you have uploaded 1 photo or 1,001 photos, they are all welcome and the comments back this up with well over 16,000 comments to date and counting.

Kudos to Freda Chorlton for suggesting this section. Without Freda, this would never have happened.

Don't stop now, keep 'em coming! The album is my favourite part of wiganworld. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

If you have ideas for new content / sections for the site I'm listening. Leave a comment or email me: brian@wiganworld.co.uk

A camera crew were at Haigh Hall today.

They were filming motorcyclists performing stunts at the front of the hall.

Ron Dawber was there and kindly took some photos for the site.

Does anyone know why / what they were filming for? The camera crew claimed they worked for Channel 5 television.

View the Camera crew at Haigh Hall photos.

Milestones...

1. wiganworld has been up for 400 days and counting! It's something we haven't been used to in the past but stability is here. If you're interested we have a dedicated linux server with fasthosts.

2. The album, we're only 30-odd photos away from the 10,000 mark. What an achievement, thank you for you photos and please keep them coming. :)

3. I'm doing another new site, I know... yawn. More on this soon. (Why is this a milestone? It's my 40th site, lol)

More soon...

edit: forgot to add... Is anyone twittering on here?

I'm still here although I haven't updated or posted for a few days.

Alan Davies, former curator of Lancashire Mining Museums, Salford 1985-2000 is doing a talk on the 26th of May at the Beech Tree Pub in Beech Hill. Everyone is welcome, more details here.

The weather has been a bit poor lately, proper "wiggin weather", so we've not been out and about. Hope to get out next weekend. Incidentally, there is a canal festival at Crooke marina this bank holiday weekend. We'll be there weather permitting.

Finally, the album is doing well, as I type this we are 50 photos shy of 10,000  - please keep 'em coming, we've had some superb photos lately, thank you.