Abram
| Abram | |
| Lancashire | |
|---|---|
 Former Abram Urban District Council Offices | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SD609015 |
| Location: | 53°30’29"N, 2°35’17"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 9,855 (2001) |
| Post town: | Wigan |
| Postcode: | WN2 |
| Dialling code: | 01942 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Wigan |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Makerfield |
Abram is a village in the West Derby Hundred of Lancashire close to the conurbations of the south of the county. It sits on flat land on the northeast bank of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, two miles west of Leigh, three miles southeast of Wigan, and nearly 15 miles west of Manchester.
Once a mining village, Abram today is a commuter village, effectively a suburb, with a resident population of 9,855 people.
Abram anciently formed a township and chapelry in the parish of Wigan and. Abram appears in an entry of an ancient survey of Lancashire in 1212 under the name Edburgham.
The urbanisation and development of Abram largely coincided with the Industrial Revolution. Abram is situated in the centre of a coal district, and industrial scale coal mining was introduced to Abram around the middle of the 19th century with the opening of several collieries. In 1911, Abram was described as "distinctly unpicturesque ... trees are in the minority, and stunted and blackened with smoke", with "collieries, pit-banks, and railway lines" as well as "much pasture land".[1] The Maypole Colliery Disaster in 1908 resulted in 75 deaths and profoundly changed the character of the village.
Abram's coal mining industry demised during the mid-20th century, however the village has continued to grow, supported by its position between Leigh, Manchester and Wigan. To the south of the village lies Abram Flashes, a 98-acre area of shallow wetlands and a 'Site of Special Scientific Interest'.
Name
The origin of the name 'Abram' is uncertain but it is an ancient name, unlikely to come form the Biblical patriarch. One theory is that is means Abram means "Homestead of Eadburh", from the Old English Eadburgaham. The name was recorded as Edbriham in 1199. Eadburh appears to be a lady otherwise unknown to history.
The local lords of the manor were the Abraham family, but whether they took their name from the manor or the manor from the family[2] is debated.
The village name has been variously recorded as Edburgham in 1212 and Adburgham in 1246. In the 16th century it had evolved into Abraham, and by the 17th century the current name of 'Abram' had become prevalent.[1]
History
The manor was probably part of the larger manor of Newton until it was granted to "Warine son of Godfrey" by Henry II who reigned 1154–1189. The family, by the name 'Abraham', remained Lords of the Manor until the 17th century. The family was ruined by the Civil War, in which they supported the Royalists. When the last in male line of the Abraham family died in the 17th century, possession of the manor passed through many hands, and the title of Lord of the Manor was still around at the start of the 20th century although held no manorial rights.[1]
Just after five in the afternoon on 18 August 1908, there was an explosion at the No 1, Cannell Mine of the Maypole Coal Pit. A total of 75 men and boys died in this mining accident.[3][4] Because the explosion occurred deep underground, it was not until November 1909 that all the bodies were recovered. The inquest ruled that the explosion was caused by a combination of a buildup of coal dust and gas, and the use of explosives to bring down coal from the ceiling.[4] The physical effects of the disaster on Abram are described as "profound";[3] the explosion made 44 women widows and killed the fathers of more than 120 children.[3] At the time, Irish people were a large ethnic minority in Lancashire, making up between a quarter and a third of the populations of Leigh, St Helens, and Wigan. That Irish Roman Catholic immigrants were seeking works on the Lancashire Coalfield, is demonstrated by the fact that 13 of the dead were such incomers from Ireland.[3] Many of the families affected by the disaster returned to Ireland shortly afterwards.[5]
Geography
The land around Abram is generally flat and used for coal mining as well as arable farming. As a result, collieries were scattered across the landscape. The local geology consists of coal measures in the north and sandstone in the south; the soil is clayey and as a result, the area is susceptible to flooding.[1]
To the south of the village lie the Abram Flashes a wetland of 98 acres noted as a 'Site of Special Scientific Interest'. The site lies adjacent to the Leigh Branch Canal and is part of Wigan Flashes an area of wetland stretching for six miles between Wigan and Leigh. The flashes are shallow bodies of water which originate from flooding due to subsidence caused by shallow-mining. The Abram Flashes were designated in 1990 for the biological interest of the site, which includes various habitats such as open water, swamp, tall herb fen and wet marshy grassland.[6]
About the village
The parish church is St John the Evangelist's Church, buit in 1935–1937 by Austin and Paley.[7]
There are two listed buildings in the village, both of which are Grade II: Brookside farmhouse, dating from the early 18th century,[8] and a mid-18th century detached house on Warrington Road.[9]
Culture and community
The village has historic associations with traditional morris dancing and is home to Abram Morris Dancers. A plot of land by Park Lane in the southwest of Abram is known as the Morris Dancers' ground, and is popularly supposed to be held by the Abram Morris Dancers on condition that a morris dance be celebrated there once every 20 years.[1] The Abram Circle is a dance native to Abram and is "renowned to morris dancers".[10] The Abram Morris Dancers' logo appears on the boundary signs for the village.
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Abram) |
- www.abramchurch.co.uk, website of Abram St John the Evangelist Parish Church.
- www.abram-morris-dancers.org.uk, website of the Abram Morris Dancers
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Brownbill & Farrer 1911, pp. 111–115.
- ↑ About the Borough: Abram - Wigan Council
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Bean, Richard (20 August 2008). "Abram remembers pit disaster victims". wigantoday.net. http://www.wigantoday.net/wigannews/Abram-remembers-pit-disaster-victims.4409297.jp. Retrieved 16 December 2008.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 CommuniGate. "Maypole Colliery Disaster 1908". communigate.co.uk. Archived from the original on 1 December 2008. https://web.archive.org/web/20081201020742/http://www.communigate.co.uk/lancs/acl/page3.phtml. Retrieved 16 December 2008.
- ↑ Griffiths 2001, pp. 275–276
- ↑ SSSI listing and designation for Abram Flashes
- ↑ Pollard & Pevsner 2006, p. 121
- ↑ National Heritage List 1356250: Brookside farmhouse, Abram
- ↑ National Heritage List 1228636: 126 Warrington Road
- ↑ Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council. "Hindley Abram Township". wigan.gov.uk. http://www.wigan.gov.uk/Services/CommunityLiving/Townships/Hindley/. Retrieved 16 December 2008.
- Townships: Abram – A History of the County of Lancaster - Volume 5 : {{{2}}} (Victoria County History)
- Griffiths, Trevor (2001). The Lancashire Working Classes C.1880-1930. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-924738-7. https://books.google.com/books?id=UvwePR8kZP8C&pg=PA275&lpg=PA275&dq=Maypole+colliery+explosion
- Nikolaus Pevsner: Pevsner Architectural Guides