A local author’s latest book tells the story of an industrialising country by exploring the lives of his own family members.
Gareth Winrow, 66, wrote Past Lives, Forgotten Stories: Cobbled Patchworks of History after looking into his own relatives.
The “lifelong supporter” of Bolton Wanderers studied history at Oxford, but it was only recently he decided to look into his own.
Originally from Harwood, he started exploring family histories after being inspired by a colleague in Turkey whose great great grandmother was one of the first women in Victorian England to convert to Islam.
After converting in the 1890s, she would move to Istanbul, which was then known as Constantinople.
Gareth said: “I thought, maybe I should look into my own family – I thought they were just run of the mill people, working in mills and mines.”
But the stories he found were more interesting than he expected – with relatives found as far and wide as America, Canada and Australia.
Gareth said the brother of his great grandfather, John Henry (Jack) Winrow, was a miner at the Pretoria Pit in Westhoughton.
He had been on the night shift before the disaster, when a gas explosion killed 344 men and boys, and would later testify at the inquest.
Gareth also found among his relatives the Jaques brothers, who “terrorised the neighbourhood” in 1840s Prescot.
He said one of them was sentenced to be hanged after Lord Derby's gamekeeper was killed, but transported to Australia after public outcry.
Gareth’s great aunt, Ellen Harrison, was a mill worker who would spend her days winding silk before moonlighting as a blackfaced singer called Zora Harris.
He said: “The first music hall in the country was in Bolton and blackfaced artists had been performing in Bolton since the 19th century.
“The sort of stories I’m trying to talk about are how my family made their way in a changing industrial Britain and how they adapted to life.”
Gareth’s next project will explore the history of his old house in Harwood – and he’s made some interesting discoveries.
He said: “The people that owned the land my home sits on were bleach workers that set up the first bleach works in the Bronx in New York.
“They brought the industrial revolution from Harwood in Bolton to New York!”
He’s encouraged others with similar backgrounds to look into their family histories too, adding: “There’s always stories in a family and something worth finding if you dig deep enough.”
Past Lives, Forgotten Stories released on Wednesday (January 28) and you can pick up a copy online.
Share