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37<br />
Past Forward -<br />
The Rewind<br />
1991 will go down in history as a remarkable year. The World<br />
Wide Web was rolled out to the public, the USSR ceased to<br />
exist, the first Gulf War began and so did the Balkan war. And<br />
in other 1991 news, <strong>Wigan</strong> Council launched Past Forward,<br />
a magazine aimed at providing local history information for<br />
residents of the Borough.<br />
This year Past Forward celebrated its 30th birthday, and so<br />
impressed were we with this achievement that we decided<br />
to go behind the scenes at the magazine and highlight just<br />
a few of the people behind the success story of Past Forward.<br />
Alastair Gillies<br />
Alastair was the first Editor of Past Forward and he<br />
worked on the magazine from its first issue in 1991. Not<br />
only was he instrumental in running the magazine, but<br />
the magazine was also his idea! Alastair told me, “At the<br />
time the heritage service was very new, and we had just<br />
amalgamated the museum, archives and history shop into<br />
one complete service. I thought it would be a good idea<br />
to have a vehicle<br />
whereby we could<br />
pass on information<br />
about the service to<br />
staff and the local<br />
community alike.”<br />
Alastair went on to<br />
explain that editing<br />
a magazine and<br />
writing articles are<br />
two very different<br />
things, and it wasn’t<br />
his intention to<br />
Alastair Gillies<br />
write the magazine,<br />
he needed contributions. Alastair continued, “The first<br />
edition was very well received, lots of lovely comments<br />
and after that I was inundated with ideas and stories, so<br />
my job was really to piece it altogether.<br />
“The support for the magazine was huge, the leisure<br />
department really got behind it even though it was a<br />
very new thing, and the readers have always been very<br />
complimentary – all in all it was a success.”<br />
Alastair retired in 2005 and is now living<br />
in Formby. He likes to keep himself busy<br />
with daily dog walks on the beach, church<br />
activities, playing the organ, meeting up<br />
with his local branch of the U3A and he<br />
is even researching and compiling a local<br />
family history book! Alastair clearly has a<br />
passion for history and when I asked if he still<br />
read the magazine, he told me that he had a<br />
study full of back issues.<br />
Alex Miller<br />
The current Editor of Past Forward is Alex Miller,<br />
the Lead Officer - Archives & <strong>Local</strong> Studies,<br />
who is based at the recently renovated Leigh<br />
Town Hall, a building that has recently been
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