John Findlater
The Lancaster Guardian of 19 April 2002 carried the obituary of William Leslie Rigg, retired master builder. Leslie was the first person with whom I did a tape-recorded interview: this was on 30 January 1995 at his home, 3 Slyne Road, Bolton-le-Sands. The following is not a verbatim transcript but a summary of my interview:

Leslie was born 16.March1915, at 1 Oxford Street, Carnforth, the eldest son of Robert Taylor Rigg, always known as ‘Taylor’ Rigg, who hated having the name of a film star -Robert Taylor. Taylor Rigg was in business as a builder with his brother John Rigg, whose son, William Arthur Rigg became an architect. William Arthur, married Mary Dugdale from Thwaite Gate: he was just beginning to make a name for himself as an architect when he was killed at the end of World War One. He designed Bleasdale House (1911) for Teddy Sharp’s mother and the Lake House, Linden Hall, Borwick.

Leslie went to Carnforth Council School and obtained a scholarship to Morecambe Grammar School at 11, attending there until the age of 16 when he joined his father’s building firm, at their works in Oxford Street, “starting at the bottom”; at first he was a joiner’s apprentice for four years and then worked bricklaying. He did not experience any hassle from the 20-30 men he worked alongside, not always the case with the boss’s son. He was joined in the workforce by his brothers, Dennis and Norman. Leslie had an ambition to be an architect, like William Arthur Rigg. To that end he went to night school at the Storey Institute in Lancaster, cycling there three times a week. He passed the National Certificate and City and Guilds.

The firm did a great deal of contracting work and built to order on plots of land they bought but they eschewed ‘spec building’. They built 14 or 15 houses in Bloomfield Park, the price for a house there in 1935 was £900. They built in upper and lower North Road, in Yealand and Silverdale. As well as houses, they erected a lot of farm buildings. The firm kept a huge store of timber which was carefully seasoned over many months; much of it was used for making doors and windows.

The business had been started in Victoria St, Carnforth by Leslie’s great-grandfather, John Rigg, who came, originally from Low Longmire, Troutbeck. As a lad John had run off to Barrow to work as a bricklayer. He then went to Liverpool and joined the police. He was mugged and left the police to come to Carnforth, where he worked on the ironworks chimney, borrowing £200 from John Hartley, brother of grocer Hartley of Carnforth who quarried stone from Kellet Seeds for building. There was a rumour that one of the Barton girls was a girl friend.

The firm had prospered as Carnforth developed. In his grandfather’s time Riggs built in Hill Street, Hewthwaite Terrace, Kellet Road, Royal Station Hotel, and Bleasdale House, Silverdale. He would build a row of houses and keep back a few to let after selling the rest. He died a wealthy man owning 24 houses. The firm went into the undertaking business. Grandfather was a choirmaster, grandmother was an organist and his father was a choirmaster.

It was the policy of the firm, certainly by Taylor Rigg’s time, to have all trades represented who could work as teams, the last to be added being electricians. Work came to them from all over; there was no need to drum it up, until the depression. Then it was necessary to engage in all sorts of ploys; making wheelbarrows, coffins, gates, re-roofing their own buildings and woodsheds. By this means it was possible to keep most of the workers on, though sometimes on short time. Relations with the planners, both rural and urban district council were good.

A firm called Ramsay leased land and premises from Rigg’s holding at the end of Oxford Street and this was taken over by Morphy’s Blouse Factory at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Leslie, his brothers and sister Dorothy were brought up in a very strict Wesleyan household. They were not allowed to go to the cinema and the weekly routine was focused on the chapel and Band of Hope activities. By the time he was 10 or 11 years old Leslie was finding it too much and at 14 rebelled altogether.

The second world war was very disruptive. He was called up in 1941, serving in the RAF but admits he had an easy time. Brother Dennis, on the other hand, who volunteered for the RAF gave distinguished service as a Spitfire pilot and later instructor and later still flew Mustangs: he was in the thick of the action, with ‘kills’ to his credit and mentioned in despatches. Dennis was a member of the Caterpillar Club *. Norman served in the RAF in Burma. The firm at one stage in the war was down to 10 men with a shortage of work; they built some air-raid shelters. For example, they shored up the cellars of the Station Hotel and the Carnforth Inn, using a great deal of timber on behalf of the UDC on instruction of the Home Office. According to Leslie there was some sort of agreement with the surveyor whereby timber would come back to Riggs afterwards but some shady goings-on saw it go elsewhere.

Leslie was interested and took part in sports: he was secretary of the cricket club and amongst his cricketing friends in Carnforth were the Capstick brothers whom he considered brilliant, the Jolly brothers and Dr. Pat Byrne, who was a wild fast bowler. He was connected with Holme Wanderers Rugby Club. But above all he was keen on sports cars, following motor sports and was a Morecambe Car Club member for sixteen years (1952-1968), ultimately President, taking part in rallies which he also did with the Kirkby Lonsdale and Westmorland Car Club.

Leslie remembers ‘old’ Dr Jackson, who, in the twenties was the only other local person to have a car (an Essex American) apart from Leslie’s grandfather. Dr. Edward (Jackson- the ‘old’ doctor’s son) who lived at Carnforth Lodge, was a very friendly and popular man, a friend of Leslie’s father. As local worthies, he spoke of Joe Pomfret who had a milk round, then married a well-off woman from Netherbeck, moved to the Lodge after Dr Edward left for Robin Hill and Joe became a hairdresser, his shop being in Station Buildings. There were others like Joe Briggs the chemist, ‘butcher’ Williams and Edwin Dockray.

*Membership of the Caterpillar Club was automatically given to those who had saved their lives by the emergency use of a parachute, which Dennis had done on September 17, 1941.

The deficiencies in this interview are made even more obvious by the necessity of having to supplement the information, after reading Leslie’s obituary!

Though Leslie did not speak of it, he had been very active in local government affairs – as the obituary sets out: a parish councillor in Bolton-le-Sands in the fifties, a rural district councillor in 1961 becoming Chairman in 1967, then on Lancaster City Council for 13 years, deputy mayor, chairman of the leisure committee and member of the finance committee. He represented the city council on the Northwest Arts and Sports Councils and the Civic Society. He loved the theatre and music; he was chairman of the Duke’s Theatre board of directors and a key figure in the Morecambe Music Festival. He was a keen singer, a member of the Lancaster Choral Society and Lancaster Male Voice Choir.
He met his wife, Marian, when both were with the Carnforth drama group in 1947. (His brother Norman married Marian’s sister.)

Published in the Mourholme Magazine issue 44 2002