Time on their hands...

The village, near Tyldesley, was at the heart of the region's mining industry and still bore the scars of its industrial past only 30 years ago with a landscape of colliery spoil and mine shafts.

The mines have gone, but the memories of their past will live on for the benefit of futures generations after a time capsule was buried this week, containing photographs and other artefacts of the ever changing face of Gin Pit Village.

The Mayor of Wigan, Cllr Geoff Roberts was there at the ceremony with the village's oldest and youngest residents -- Joan Hopkins, 81, and little Joseph Corris aged one, to bury the capsule, along with other Gin Pit villagers.

Joan Hopkins told the Journal: "The village has changed so much in the last 20 years. Since the villagers got together, the village is a lot more greener and not as dirty as it was when the mines were open."

And Phyllis Jolley, aged 69, who has lived in the village for much of her life, said: "Even though life was tough back then we seemed to have much more fun. I used to go to the Gin Pit School and grew up here during my teenage years. We used to play a lot of games like hop-scotch and "knock-a-door-run".

"But the village itself has changed for the better since the pits closed down."

The Gin Pit Village has featured in the 1970s series Sam, which followed the exploits of a young boy living in the mining community. And in the 1990s, a film called Bare Necessities, where a group of miners had to turn to striptease to make ends meet, was shot at the village. The project began last year to commemorate

the Queen's Golden Jubilee and villagers have been collecting artefacts and archive material dating back from the 19th Century. Artefacts included that from famous Gin Pit villager Harold Hassall, who played for Bolton Wanderers and England in the 1950s.

The capsule was buried in a plot that will eventually become a rockery garden, on the site of an old railway line, and will not be unearthed until 2053.