Behind Milburn’s magic: Wor Jackie a pit village hero and ‘everybody’s friend’
Work ethic of ‘Wor Jackie’ set Milburn apart New book details Tyneside legend’s upbringing in Ashington, his shyness and a work ethic that set him apart ‘If you ever walked through Newcastle with him, you got stopped every two minutes’ 10 Aug 2026 - The Guardian Dan Jackson Of all the footballers who have worn the black and white, that possessive geordie pronoun “Wor” (our) was unique to Jackie Milburn ; for he was a man of the people as much as he was a great sportsman. In that respect, his birthplace of Ashington in Northumberland only added to the mythology. “The biggest pit village in the world,” as it was known, was the north-east in microcosm – a one-horse coal town where miles of identical terraced houses spread out from the pitheads and the men were obsessed by whippets, leeks, association football and pints. Nevertheless, he had a self-discipline that saw the pitfalls of alcohol: “Certainly it prevented my dad, Alec Milburn , from making the big time,” Jackie recalled. “He cou...