Wigan Album

Note the bottles of pale ale (I think), wine was a rarity those days. Though most would have a bottle of sherry for the Christmas period ,ours came from Knight's chemist in Scholes

We always used to have a bottle of VP sherry at Christmas. I was obviously too young to know one way or the other then, but I have read somewhere recently that it was Cyprus sherry and foul to drink!

I worked there 1975-85..and it was a great place to work..Sister Curless..Helen Sankey..Valerie Naylor..Eileen Moss..Eileen Cadman, Peter Barraclough etc..does anybody know these names.

I used to love those little Christmas Trees....we always had one in Ince when I was a little girl; Peter and I still decorate our tree with original baubles, and we have original paper decorations and old-fashioned toys under the tree. A few years ago we saw a small tree like the one in the photo in a charity shop and didn't get it as we really have no room, then wished we had. We actually went back to Stockton Heath, (where the charity shop was), the following year but they no longer had it. I like to think some other "vintage Christmas" fan had bought it, but it had probably been thrown out. Onto sherry, and I used to work in a Chemists when I left school where we actually sold draught sherry out of barrels into the customr's own bottle; we had two barrels, British Sherry and Cyprus Sherry, and the customers used to hand over their bottle and ask for "sherry from the wood", (meaning out of the barrel). Well, we had one old lady who always asked for "Wood from the trees" in mistake....can you imagine us young girls in the shop, trying not to laugh?! I'd forgotten all about that; how wonderful the memories Wigan World brings back!

Irene,I used to go to the chemists nearly facing Joan Barry's on Wallgate for my mams sherry.. that came out of the barrel..and it was lovely.

Hello Maureen, the Chemists I worked in was in Ashton. As well as "wood-from-the-trees", we also sold something called "Tufty-Tails", (I can't even remember what it was.....I THINK it was an early form of disposable nappy), and an old lady used to call them "Toby Twirls"! I could tell you another tale of "mistaken identity" but will probably get told off for going off the subject, but that is the magic of Wigan World....one memory leads to another.

Irene..that should have read facing Helen Rowes and not Joan Barry's..what am I like?.

The name Helen Rowes is a name from the past that I'd fogotten. Was it a Ladies' Clthes Shop, and where was it?

Yes it was a clothes shop,right facing the station..L & Y do they call it..it was the second or third shop down as you turn left coming from King Street.

Moureen
my grandmother was in whelley hospltal fora number of years the same time you mention she had a stroke my grandad went every day to visit.the nurses in there at the time were briliant sadley she died in there.
Maybe you know the name calderbank?

Irene,Helen Rowes,shop was in King Street,opposite side to the Court Cinema,a little higher up towards Minorca Hotel,it moved to Wallgate opposite Wallgate Station. It was a ladies shop,selling blouses,nylon stockings ,and such like.How I know ,I fitted carpets there when I worked for Lowes,another ladies shop in on King Strret was Mason Modes, that was lower down near to Th King of Clubs,that shop sold Mantles , I also fitted Lino in that shop,it was like something from another age,so old fashioned .

Thanks, Maureen and Tom; I wish I could walk in those shops now; I love old-fashioned shops. I would love to browse around the shop-fittings, the packaging etc.

Hello hopeful..I think she must have been on another ward,can you remember the Sister of the wards name..I was on Phillips ward which was the first you came to as you walked through the gates.

Irene,sorry I said Helen Rowes was opposite the County Cinema,not the Court .I have all my life got these picture houses mixed up.

Hopefull..it's me again..thought I'd name a couple of Sisters to help jog your memory..Sister Winnard..Sister Adejedi.. Sister Naylor..it was a very good Hospital for the old folks,they were treated like our own..and we loved them as if they were...I had to finish because of back problems and cried when my G.P told me I had to finish..but I kept driving up there for another 12 months just to see them,as I say they were like our own.

TOM WALSH that name is a blast from the past are you the same person who worked with my mum Sylvia Close ? I ask because my mum fitted carpets also