A MEMORIAL to "an old time gentleman" has been placed outside the pub where he enjoyed his last drink before being fatally injured in a car park accident.

In February widower Ernest Sargeant, 88, a former miner, died when he was crushed under the wheels of a car at the Poet's Corner pub on Spa Road, Atherton.

Mr Sargeant was walking home through the car park when tragedy struck.

This week a bench seat in memory of Mr Sargeant, known as "Ernie" to friends, was installed outside the pub in his honour.

Poet's Corner landlady Pat Dodd told the Journal : "We originally raised money for flowers at his funeral but collected far more than we needed so decided on a bench to remind us of Ernie."

During the summer Ernie's friends and family collected more funds to bring the total sum raised to £380.

Pat said: "This is not an affluent area so to raise that amount of money is absolutely brilliant."

Pat, who has been the Poet's landlady for four years, said: "He was always smartly dressed. He never got drunk, was always very respectful and he never mithered anybody.

"Ernie was an old time gentleman.

"He was well respected. He used to be a boxer so a lot of the young lads would talk to him about that.

"Rather than sit at home he liked to come in here for the company."

Ernie, who lived on the Hag Fold estate, had a long association with the pub going back almost a generation to when it was first built and named The Pretoria -- after the ill-fated coal mine which stood nearby, the scene of a massive tragedy on December 21, 1910 when 344 workers were killed there.

On the night he died Ernie, the father of five children, had stayed at the pub longer than usual. He went across the road to get some chips but then returned to the pub to retrieve an umbrella he had left behind.

He was walking home through the car park when the accident happened.

Pat said: "Usually he went home at eight o'clock but he stayed later that night. It's sad that he lived to be 88 only to die like that."

A Hag Fold resident added that she thought it was brilliant so much money had been raised in Ernie's memory.

She said: "The pub regulars don't have a lot of money and it's great they raised this amount, they've been very generous. It's about time people heard some good news about Hag Fold."