MRS Alice Cook of Mealhouse Court, Atherton has sent me a copy of a piece she wrote several years ago which gives a flavour of the times and mentions Atherleigh Hospital, a former workhouse demolished in 1991.

Here is an extract: "After the Second World War the Socialist government took away the stigma of the "workhouse" - an institution maintained at public expense where able-bodied paupers did unpaid work in return for food and accommodation.

"Through the gates entered the old, the sick, the orphans and the inadequate to be fed, clothed and sheltered.

"The workhouse was the last refuge of the young woman expecting an illegitimate child.

"They would be parted, the child to the nursery and the mother to the female section, where she would be allotted work in one of the departments - the laundry, the kitchens, domestic work on the wards etc.

"Considerable heartache must have been caused on admission of aged couples by their separation, the man to the male section and the woman to the female section.

"At the porter's lodge, overnight accommodation was provided for vagrants; they were given food, a bath and a bed.

"For this they were expected to do some menial job, such as chopping firewood, delivering coal or coke to the wards etc.

"After one night they had to move on to the next town. The sons of aged parents were expected to contribute to their maintenance, even if only a few shillings weekly.

"Many workhouses grew their own vegetables and the one later known as Atherleigh Hospital cultivated some surrounding fields and also reared pigs.

"The workhouses were modernised and geriatric hospitals slowly came into being - places where the elderly, sick and infirm retained their dignity."