ALAN WHALLEY'S WORLD

BRIEF mention last week about the ancient Earlestown market obelisk - an imposing 18-ton finger of un-lettered stone with steps at its base - has attracted an unexpected avalanche of response.

Historical facts have come thick and fast from folk including Newton readers Cyril Littler, Peter Haselden and S. Horfield, plus Bill Rigby of Rainford, among others.

It all began when Jeffrey Hales of Clarence Street, Earlestown, mentioned an old tale he had heard at his grandad's knee.

This suggested that the millstone-grit monument, known locally as The Milly, had been erected by the aristocratic land-owning Legh family as a memorial to the Haydock Wood Pit Disaster.

But that theory has been well and truly knocked on the head by all who responded to Jeffrey's search for the truth.

It emerges that for well over a century, market shoppers have been stubbing their toes against the stone steps of the obelisk which has great historical significance.

From this vantage point, at at its original location a mile or so away near Newton High Street, the ancient Charter of Newton Fair used to be read out.

Cyril Littler kindly sent me photostat copies of a booklet published 40 years ago by Elizabeth Smith, headmistress of the now-vanished Earlestown District School which stood on what is now a supermarket site opposite the market square.

Cyril himself was a pupil of that old school from 1937 to 1944.

Her fact-filled booklet, touching on life in Earlestown a century earlier, devotes a section to the mysterious Milly stone, plucked from the school's old log book.

Earlestown market was formed in 1870, Elizabeth Smith noted, and many log entries mentioned pupils being late or staying away to watch "a show" at the site.

In May of that year, the kids would have been thrilled to see the obelisk erected . . . "a source of wonderment in the neighbourhood."

It was carted from Newton St Peter's churchyard where it had stood since 1818, being originally known as the Market Cross (though its origins stretch back much further than that).

By coincidence, the land on which the obelisk stood was required for a burial ground extension and it had a ready-made new home on the new market square.

The former headmistress explains that the market was officially inaugurated on a July Saturday in 1870 . . . "and the infants were able to enjoy foot, sack and wheelbarrow races, jumping, dancing, stalls and sideshows without being punished afterwards for staying away from school."

Bill Whittle, whose family moved into Oxford Street, Earlestown, when he was a toddler 1932, has happy memories of the market square.

Up to his early teens "it became my front-yard playground, indeed the centre of my world."

He adds: "The constantly-changing scene, the myriad of social and political activities played out there were of endless interest as I grew up.

"One of these events was a civic pageant depicting transfer of the market charter and the transporting of the obelisk from its original site to the new. "The lifeless pinnacle of stone is a magnet and needs no inscription upon it to draw people. It was simply the centre, the gathering place . . . the market cross."

Newton held its charter from 1258, the market being held each Saturday on the High Street. In 1536 it was described as "a little poore market."

But it continued right up to 1842, when it was stated to have fallen into disuse. It was revived at its present location, close to Earlestown Town Hall, 46 years later, and market day switched to Friday.

But the big question remains: When was the Milly carved - and where did it originally exist?

P. Haselden of Park Road North, Newton, casts us a bit further back in time.

The obelisk, he says, was brought to Newton about 180 years ago from Lime Park, Disley, standing close to the boundaries of four counties - Lancashire, Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Cheshire.

Lime Hall there was the seat of the Leghs who owned farms, land and shoots around Newton. When it was discovered that the old wooden market cross at Newton, bearing the Legh family's ram's head crest, was rotting away and in the path of progress, the Lime Park obelisk was donated as replacement.

An obelisk, says P.H., represents "the Egyptian symbol of the Supreme God" and delivery of it proved a mammoth undertaking.

Research by P.H. reveals that it took 20 horses a full week to deliver this particular specimen to Newton.

"Several bridges were wrecked on the journey - the main shaft of the monument weighing 15 tons and the pedestal three tons."

Died-in-the-wool Newtonians took exception to the obelisk being 'stolen' by neighbouring Earlestown. The civic leaders had arranged for a band-headed special May Day procession to mark the monument's re-location.

But the plan collapsed. "Newton people refused to turn out," says P.H. And when the obelisk did eventually make a much less-ceremonious move there were shouts of protest such as: "Why are you taking our stone to that one-horse town?"

And P.H. is still light-heartedly campaigning for its return to Newton. "It means more to us here than the Blarney Stone does to the Irish."

S. Horfield of Warwick Avenue, Newton, says that the obelisk had no connection with the Wood Pit Disaster which occurred years after the stone pinnacle was erected at Earlestown.

After Henry III granted a Charter in 1258, says S.H., a weekly Saturday market and two fairs were granted to Baron John de Langton 43 years later. The fairs were held annually on May 6 and July 31.

When the market closed because of lack of support it was transferred for a brief few years to the Nurseries site (known locally as Randalls) on the High Street, selling basically meat and farm produce.

WHAT a fascinating history the ancient township of Newton-le-Willows has to be sure! Many thanks to all who contributed to this absorbing subject.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.