Local Life - Wigan - February 2021

14
Life
through the lens
by Nicola Gray
Andy Warhol famously stated, the best
thing about a picture is that it never
changes, even when the people in it do.
To capture and preserve a moment in
history surely leaves you with many great
memories of your own, so I caught up
with Wigan lensman Frank Orrell, to ask
him just that.
Frank has taken thousands of pictures
of Wigan, the people who live here and
local events, spanning a career of more
than 40 years with the Wigan Observer.
Frank started life at 84, Shevington Lane
on 21st of January 1949 born to his Irish
Mum, Foila, and Dad, Jim. Frank added,
“I have a sister, Kathleen and a half sister, Ann. Ann’s mum
died giving birth to her and my
mum died of tuberculosis
in 1954, my paternal
Grandma, Annie,
helped to bring us up while my dad was
working as a joiner.”
Frank travelled about a bit in his
younger years and spent some time in
Ireland, “My Granddad, Thomas, had
been killed in action on the Somme in
the last months of the First World War.
When mum was ill, Kathleen and I were
taken to live in Corrinshigo, in Northern
Ireland with our maternal grandparents.
We were there for about a year.”
When talking about some of his earliest
memories, many of them centre around
the happy times he spent in Ireland, but
Shevington was always home, Frank
added, “I remember coming home to a then very rural
Shevington with few houses and hardly any traffic. Old
Lane was just across from where I lived and as a child it
was a bit scary, it was a mysterious and
dark tree lined track.”
Wigan Casino demolition, 1983