Sam Woods Presentation
After receiving an illuminated address to Sam Woods in the form of a bound book, volunteer researchers of the Wigan Building Preservation Trust (WBPT) researched the life and times of Sam and his descendants. Sam Woods was the M.P for Ince (1892-1895)
See the previous research: Link
Next Steps
Following on from the previous work, contact was made with Sam's great great granddaughter, Helen Adams, and arrangements were made to restore the bound book to the family.".
Working closely with the Wigan & Leigh Archives the venue was to be the Museum of Wigan Life, Library Street, Wigan. The Museum was an ideal location as it is a Grade 2 listed building and the work of Alfred Waterhouse, the eminent Victorian architect. Moreover, Sam had taken part in a debate about what services should be offered there when the building opened as the Wigan Free Library in 1878
For more in formation on the history of the Museum - Link
The presentation was arranged for 25th March 2023. Invitations and acceptances to the event were sent and received from various organisations and individuals.
The Event
One of our volunteers, Anthony Pilgrim, produced a Powerpoint video presentation on the history of Sam, which was shown in the Discovery Room, before the presentation and afterwards to accompany the refreshments.
See Anthony's presentation video - Link
Artifacts & the Woods family
The family travelled from many areas including, Llanberis North Wales, Stoke, Staffordshire Northampton, as well as locally Warrington & Bryn.
They brought along artifacts relating to Sam and his life, these were on display in the upstairs Local Studies area.
Bob Sanders another of our volunteer spent most of afternoon scanning and photographing these artifacts.
See some of Bob's work (click the links below)
Old photos of Sam and his family
The presentation
Council leader and Ince Councillor David Molyneux was kind enough to attend and make the presentation to Helen Adams, along with Makerfield M.P Yvonne Fovargue.
Other guests included Jamie Livingston of the Bryn Baptist Church and Bryn councillor Steve Jones, their presence recalling Sam's service to his local church and community as a lay preacher, Sunday School teacher and district councillor.
The book has now returned to its rightful place into the family of Sam after over 100 years, a job well done!.
Wigan Building Preservation Trust would like to extend our thanks to Louisa Attaheri and Neil Harris of the Archives and the rest of staff at the Museum for their assistance in planning and making the event possible.
Additional Information.
More information is also available on the Makerfield Rambler's fickr page, click any of the images and a further page will open with an enlarged image with some supporting descriptive text. Link
A reprint of Sam Woods book "Visions of the Mine" is now available from Amazon. Link. Thanks to Ronan Beckman Link