A heartbreaking tribute to the ‘Heart of the Community’ hero who helped thousands
Barbara Nettleton has been hailed as a pioneer in her pastoral work to help local people in her community – and following her recent death, residents held a meeting in her honor
People have begun arriving early at the Ex-Servicemen’s Club to pay their respects to community worker Barbara Nettleton. A fitting celebration for a woman who has helped thousands of people over more than two decades.
“She was the heart of this community,” said Joan Boone Thomas, 59. She should have a statue in Wigan. She gave her life for this community. She has worked her whole life for other people – people who have nothing – to improve their lives, to provide expectations of more. Children had shoes, and families had food on the table because of Barbara.
Joan smiled. “Her hugs were amazing too.” The founder of Sunshine House community center in Scholes, Wigan, died last month at the age of 75 after a short illness. Honored with a star in Wigan’s Believe Square in 2016 – and a second pavement star outside Sunshine House itself – Barbara was a community legend.
Local Labor MP Lisa Nandy said: “Barbara was a no-nonsense, tireless campaigner who never took no for an answer.” “In all the years I’ve known her, she’s never let me leave Sunshine House without a to-do list. She’s always refused to accept that anyone could be written off or that her community deserves anything but the best.
She believed in people, and we believed in her. It’s hard to believe she’s gone.” In a poignant coincidence, this weekend was the fifth anniversary of the launch of the Wigan Pier Mirror Project, hosted by Sunshine House, which retraced the impact of George Orwell’s novel The Road to Wigan Pier while highlighting the suffering in The shadow of Tory austerity.
At the community meeting, hostility to Orwell’s 1937 book about poverty in the north of England was palpable. People said it gave the city a bad reputation. But then Barbara spoke. She said she would be involved in the project because it would give people in Wigan a voice. Her contribution included sharing a story about helping a pregnant woman living in a hut and explaining her philosophy of community activism.
“If someone is hungry, we feed them and ask them questions later,” she said. Over the next five years, I, along with my colleagues Claire Donnelly, Mariam Kaysar, and photographer Andy Stenning, visited Sunshine House several times, to build the project, and to hear about the struggles and successes of the people in Scholes.
Sunshine House was just a hundred yards from the tripe shop that Orwell made famous, meaning it had special meaning for many Orwell historians. George Orwell’s son, Richard Blair, and the son of his commander in Spain, Quentin Cope, were regular visitors as part of the Orwell Society.
“Barbara did everything she could for others,” Quentin told me. “We know we have lost a great friend.” When we returned after the Covid pandemic, we found Scholes supported by Barbara and her team of volunteers. “We never closed our doors during the entire pandemic,” Barbara said. “I don’t know why. I don’t think we thought about it.”
Monday’s memorial service was organized by Pauline Brown, 68, whose late mother, Eileen, was Barbara’s best friend, colleague and co-conspirator. The two women were invited to the Queen’s garden party at Holyroodhouse together. “We took this day to say our goodbyes,” Pauline said. “If Barbara had been here, she would have been angry because she never wanted praise – but so many people loved her, and we wanted to be here.”
“You can’t put into words the difference she’s made in this community,” said Angela Sargent, 76, who regularly attended classes at Sunshine House. Barbara has always said she was inspired by her mother’s work in the community. In 1997, when drugs flooded the property and one of Barbara’s neighbors was beaten to death in his home, she decided enough was enough.
The One Voice Residents association she created became a full-time mission, with residents coming to the former rental office asking for help. Under Barbara’s leadership — and with the help of her late husband, David, a construction worker — the group began cleaning up areas, improving safety, and applying for grants. Pauline remembers her mother and Barbara putting up security gates in the back streets of the terraced houses to protect the residents. There was also a credit union, and there were always art classes.
“Barbara was doing it at a time when no one was doing it,” says Debbie Brown, 58, who met Barbara in 1997. “She was a pioneer. She taught people to expect more.” The association became Sunshine House, where Barbara employed mothers at school-friendly hours, and people leaving prison, creating a space for those who were lonely, disabled, bereaved, or looking for a place to create.
The café was a haven for good jobs and affordable food. Later, there were summer holiday lunches for children, uniform shops, charity shops and a food pantry. Her youth work – “She walked the streets to keep children off the streets,” says Pauline – was honored with a Queen’s Jubilee Award.
Barbara’s mission was to provide assistance while linking it to human dignity – the kind of working-class solidarity that the young writer George Orwell had envied on his way to Wigan Pier. “We provide help that allows people to feel better about themselves,” Barbara told us. “Support that remembers that we are all human.”
Wigan has lost a great hero in Barbara Nettleton, but our lives are a little better knowing her. Mary Rowbottom, 80, said Barbara “saved my life – and I wasn’t the only one… She gave to everyone who walked through her door.”
