Report - Pilkington Sandwash St. Helens 29 May 2020

[CallumP]

Pilkington Brothers the glass makers started extracting sand deposits at Rainford in 188O Sand was brought to the Pilkington Brothers Sandwash by narrow gauge wagons. The sand was then cleansed and used for making high quality sheet glass. It was then transported to the glass works in St Helens town. This place has a reputation for being hard to get access it's overgrown with nettles weeds and also deep mood the basement is still flooded all in all a good little place to spend a hour or two

 

[Shaun]

Gotta love this classic!

 

[kenw]

Just to add: the raw or dirty sand was delivered to Rainford by an overhead tramway from St Helens. It crossed both the A580 East Lancs Road and the A570 Rainford Bypass. This was built, I think in the late 1920s or early 30s – surely one of the first traffic reduction measures in the country. Each of the buckets "carried the same as half a lorry load" or so the men who worked there told me. I went looking around a couple of times as a teenager – one of my schoolmates' Dads worked there and gave me a mini tour. The noise was deafening.

Pilkingtons was more than a business, it was the lifeblood of the town. The family were very civic minded and put a lot back into the town. For example when the old Theatre Royal closed in the 1960s, they paid for it to be partly rebuilt and completely modernised; my mother (Lucy Welsby) sang there regularly with the local amateur operatic society and my aunt, Pat Hartley, was one of the leading members of the amateur dramatic group, known not surprisingly as the Pilkington Players. There was also a Pilkington Choir and various sports and social clubs.