Buildings of Interest

Description

c1869

Abram is a late Victorian mining village, built to house miners working in the Abram Colliery (sunk 1870), Wigan Junction (sunk 1882), and Maypole Colliery (sunk 1895). The Buck's Head Inn predates the coal mines and was built in 1838 by John Whitley, a merchant in Ashton-in-Makerfield, trading in the hinge and bolt making industry. At this time, hinge and bolt making was a cottage industry, each worker having a small furnace near his house. The merchant would purchase metal plates and rods, which would be given to the metal worker to be turned into the finished article. The merchant would pay for the quantity of goods made, which he would then sell on.

John Whitley bought the Abram Hall estate in 1828. In 1836, when he gave land for a new church and parsonage, Whitley decided to recoup his losses by building a new public house next to it. The following advertisement appeared in the Wigan Gazette on the 19th October 1838:

"James Spencer, having opened the Buck's Head Inn in Abram, contiguous to the new church there, hopes for the patronage of the gentry & travellers of the neighbourhood and surrounding country. It is intended to lay out a bowling green and pleasure grounds, a superior quality of home-brewed ale, and the best of wine and spirits."

Text by SI Travels