Wigan Album

Very atmospheric. I bet many happy times were enjoyed on that street, in the days when neighbours were friendly and cared about each other.

I was born in Mc Cormick St.,as was my Dad and his father before. I have many happy memories of my childhood , this stretch of pavement was my playground . Mc Cormick St., was named after Fr., Hugh Mc Cormick, 2nd parish priest of St., Patrick's Church. Mc Cormick St.,was demolished in 1968, along with away of life. Many things are better today , but certainly not everything

You didn't need to lock your house to go to the corner shop, people looked out for each other.

There was nowt worth nicking, Garry! My memories are of bug infested houses and downtrodden women.

Steve Lowe , has very different memories to mine , I remember how woman had great pride in their homes , how neighbours looked after anybody in the street unable to care for themselves .As for his comment
" nowt to steal" on the contrary in every house there was a gas meter full of money , something that couldn't happen today. I also take exception to his remark regarding bug infected houses, and downtrodden women . I'am
sure that people from the area will be equally outraged by his general and misconceived observations . I for one am very proud of my heritage , and my home , which bears no resemblance to his experience .

Women worked hard in those days Steve, with a handfull of kids it was a real test...all washing Mondays by hand, cleaning the house with a stiff brush, going to the shops on foot with heavy bags in both hands, dropping and picking the kids up from school, bathing the kids in front of the coal fire and heat the water first, I was from a family of just 6 kids, most familys at that time had from 5 to 10 in one house, and it was just inpossible for women to have paid jobs at that time.

I think you're wearing rose coloured glasses, Tom. Most people in our tumbledown terraced street used to struggle just to put a crust on the table. The poor women did their best to struggle bringing up us kids but fought a losing battle. No matter how hard they worked, the bugs still appeared and the women slaved in terrible conditions. My mother was spotless. She worked in the mill as well. Dad in the boozer coming home drunk and they always ended up fighting. That was common in those days in my experience. Filthy outside toilets shared by several familes. We still had gas lighting in the late 1950s! Slums that should have been eradicated 50 years earlier. Poor soldiers returning from war having to live in those wretched conditions.
The day we moved to a nice semi provided by the council, was the start of a new and much better life.

I can see both sides of this story; I admire tremendously the women who fought a constant battle with dirt and dire conditions, and I feel for those who in the end gave up the endless struggle. Life must have been so hard. We have it easy today compared with those days, but I have to agree with the sense of community in those days; some of it still exists today, but so much has been lost.

Steve , we must agree to disagree, as I said earlier our experiences very so much . It's true that times were difficult for many people, and life is much in many respects today. I don't know which Street you lived in , you mention
shared toilets, that wasn't the case in most streets and not in the case of
Mc Cormick St., , each house had its own toilet, cleaned each day after the
steps had been mopped. I hope we can agree that whilst our memories differ so much , most people were kind and did their very best for their families .

Steve, we didn't need rose coloured specs, we were just happy with what we had, a good home,fed,clean,own toilet.We certainly never had bugs. I would say you have a 'bee in your bonnet' for some reason about THE GOOD OLD DAYS

Hi Evelyn...worst years of my life. Certainly NOT good old days. Our house simply wasn't fit for human habitation. Neighbours had to stick together or they would have gone crazy. If you really believe things were better then, give up everything you have and go and live as we did then. Folk simply didn't know no different and the good old days never existed for ordinary folk living in such squalor. Thank God for modern sanitation, new medicines and better housing.

I can see both sides of this argument, but just having had the unfortunate experience of being out late on a Saturday eveing I don't think life is any better for women now. For years my generation fought for equality for women and now they have equal rights: one being to get drunk and fight in public just as the men did previously. I don't think that they are any happier with this despite being better educated, fed and cared for health wise.Contraception is free and freely available, despite this large families still occur. Some can and do and leave their small children with anyone who will "mind" them and have no interest in planning for the future. However all their misfortunes are someone else's fault. Maybe its a huge generalisation to say this and maybe that's why some of mine and the generation above me don our coloured glasses to avoid taking resposiblity for what we have produced.

To tom, how,s the painting,to Steve I feel heartily sorry for you ,you must have had a particularly bad experience ,I misplaced my rose tinted specs years ago ,what I remember is being born in 42 in northumberland st whelley not a million miles away ,close enough to give an oplnion,shared back yard ,block of 4 spotless toilets well worn but clean furniture,lots of love and affection and an affinity with your neighbours,oh and a lot safer to

How right you are, Wigwann.....My son was leaving my house the other day and was just putting my grandson in the car when a young couple walked past pushing a toddler in a pram. The female was using the f-word every other word; even the lad looked embarrassed! Some people seem to find it impossible to string a sentence together without using that word these days. In the days we're reminiscing about, you rarely heard it; men who used it with their workmates down the pit wouldn't have let their wives and children hear it. As some of you on this thread say, our lives have improved in many ways.....sanitation, enough to eat etc, but in some ways we have gone downhill.

Thomas, I noticed that one of them steps was not donkey stoned

Steve, I do apologise for my comment,you and you alone know how you lived in the old days.Because I had such a happy contented life I at my young age thought that everyone would be the same. It is obvious that it was me who was wearing the rose coloured specs. It upsets me to think that you must have been such a young boy and yet you realised how bad things were for you and your family. Hopefully you can forget the past and enjoy the present and your future.

Warrior , they were posh their steps were done with red raddle ,pity the photo.,was taken in the rain otherwise the area in front of each step
would have clearly shown the oblong of the pavement mopped every time
time the step was cleaned.
the step was cleaned

Tom (Walsh) I was telling my brother in law who lives in New Zealand about this photo as he was born in McCormack street, he asked if you are related to the O'Brien's.

Fletcher,I am delighted to hear of a fellow Mc Cormick Steet resident, my Great Grandmother maiden name was O'Brien,so you never know we may be long lost cousins.I remember O'Briens from the other end of Mc Cormick Street at the back of the Church,Jean O'Brien rings a bell,however relation or not , please pass on my very best wishes to your cousin.

Tom Jean is Joe's sister, I spoke to her a couple of weeks ago when I started to do Joe's family tree. Their great grandmother was Bridget O'Brien who married a John Hogan.

my mum lived in mccormick st at number 20 i loved to visit my grandma her name was hannah fisher i remember her house was imaculate there was no dirt or bugs and she was always donkey stoning her step there was no carpets but the floor was always clean it was a shame when they pulled it down the neighbours werent the same when my grandma move to a three story no one bothered with one another

I remember this street very well. I used it as a short cut when going to mass at St Pats. The "back door" was on the street. It was rarely opened in later years and you went down a couple of steps through the door.
I went for a walk round the back of the church a while ago and imagining the street as it was. I remember the family - Browns - who lived at the end of the row. I recollect a very tidy row of houses. When Our Lady's statue was crowned there was a procession through the street and around the church. I look back with joy even though we were poor and children felt secure then.

Vcaterall,Margeret Bithell,it was very nice to read your comments on Mc,Cormick St,I remember Mrs Fisher very well,she always very kind.
We also used the back door ,my Mother always referred to it as the confessional side .You're right times were difficult for most people,but it was a happy community,everyone helping one another .I have happy memories of my childhood .

Was there a shop at the very end of the street - Chancery St end??? I think it was empty or just turned back into a house. I seem to recollect an outdoor licence at some point - or this could have been at the very end of Higham St opposite Sally's grocery shop. My memory is'nt as good as it was.

vcaterall.the shop on the coner of Mc,Cormick St,was Lynch's.The off licence you mention was on the corner of HighamSt,run by Gavaghan's,as nice a family as you would ever wish to meet.

Thanks for that Mr Walsh. I also remember another off licence - around the corner on Chancery St. I dont know whether it belonged to some relative of Eileen Touey who I was at school with. (There was a lot of off licences come to think of it around Hardybutts.) I also remember a little toffee shop opposite the church run by a very old lady and I used to buy tiger nuts from her. I think she was called Mrs Humphreys - Do you recall her???? Do you recall the Big Bell which was really Fr Lappin's folly? It used to make the foundations shake - I bet that was why all the little terraces were pulled down!!!***It was a monstrous
thing and a waste of bottle tops!

vcaterall,the off licence where Eileen lived was Gavaghan's it was run by her Grandmother ,on the opposite corner was Sally Bretherton's ,there's a photograph of Chancery St on W.W. The little toffee shop opposite the Church was Miss Hunt's,I think the Humphery you refer to is Martha Humphery , she had a toffee shop on Platt Lane on the corner of Northumberland St, Marta was a stalwart of The Children of Mary.I remember collecting for the bell,jumble sales,raffles etc., The first time it rang ,made the windows in McCormick St., shake.Kind regards.

hi everyone,i was born in vauxhall rd scholes,i only wish they could have done the house up instead of knocking them down,because ares was bigger than the opposite side of the rd thats still there,and i can say they were the best momories of being a child living there.my mam n dad brought four of us up there and my uncle and grandad ,so there was eight of us in that house ,she did sewing for every1 i can remember being shouted in to take food round the corner to an old man on a regular basis,looked after my ucncles friend who nwas out at work ,made sure the fire was in when he came in from work,i can remember the house smelling of polish when i came in from school.dont think are house was bu g ridden ,my mother worked hard all her life for her family and every one else she would help anyone,so yes i have good memories of scholes,,and live just in whelley now so steve you must have not shared the sAME EXPERIENCE HAS THE REST OF US sad really,by the way i am 55yrs old,i no people on here are older than me ,so couldnt of been that bad back then i loved living in vauxhall rd .all the best theresa

Hello,Theresa,I enjoyed reading your comments,and as you know,I knew your Mam and Dad,very well,and as you say you had parents to be proud of ,and how very right you are,your Mam and Dad would help anyone in need,it was people like them,that made Scholes the caring community that we remember so well,and why we look back with found memories .I remember good nights with Jack and Marie in The Stanley Arms.Happy Days!,Kind regards,Tom.

Thomas Walsh - you seem to know a lot about Scholes and its inhabitants. Did you know any Hollingsworths from Anderton St. I think there was some connection with the fish shop in Scholes. Also think they were some relation to my dad. If you do know anything could you email me please.
Thanks

hi tom and you used to go in the stanley aswell,remember me and elaine dermott,going selling raffel tickets all round scholes,every block of tall flats ,making funds towards the new school,and we was told there would be a nice surprise for us when it was all done,and i think there was a lady called catern dont no how you spell that,she presented us with a snow ball drink god how dissapointed we was thought we would be set up for life with are reward hahaha it was fun just going in the stanley,and dont think we drank our snow ball didnt like it.

I grew up at 28, the end house, one of the Browns. Lovely people and all the comments are correct. My mother, now 87 and still going strong agrees. She says the worst thing was in winter, very cold and you had to take a bucket of water to the outside toilet to flush it, everything was frozen, hard to believe. Made us all strong?

Tom Walsh think we are related