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Below The Lamp
The story behind the name.
The story is mostly about those who lived above the lamp.
Gobbiners is a name now commonly associated with anyone from Oswaldtwistle, though once referring only to those who were born in a particular part of the town.
Gobbiners were the poor people who lived "above the lamp" and who scavenged for whatever little bits of coal they could find lying around The Town Bent coal mine was at the top end of Ossy (Oswaldtwistle), and the coal was carried through the streets in carts. As the carts rattled along, bits of coal fell out and were collected by those who lived along those streets. By the time the carts had reached the lamp outside the Carnegie Library, at the corner of Union Road and Havelock Street, all the loose coal had already fallen off. Thus, those who lived "below the lamp" had no loose coal to scavenge. Also, the rubble from the mine was dumped on a tip near the mine - above the lamp, and those who lived nearby would sort through the slate to find any accidentally discarded pieces of coal, a practice denied those who lived farther down. There was sometimes resentment that those above the lamp could scavenge coal for nothing while those below it could not.
Below The Lamp Cakes |