Wigan Album
Bottling Wood
9 CommentsPhoto: Philip Harrison
Item #: 21354
Thanks for the Bottling Wood photo's Philip... I live up there.... find them very interesting. Keep them coming !! Is that you in the Photograph ???
Look at the little boy in short pants. Boys always wore short pants whatever the weather and at a certain age - can't remember they went into long pants. And if a mum put her boy into long pants too soon, the neighbours would talk about it - 'fancy ???? mother putting him in long pants so young'. Not the case today.
i just love these kind of photos !!!!!!
Hm. Short pants and chapped knees in that weather. I'm cringing now thinking about it. It didn't help them going on a sledge from the other side of that fence down to about 3feet from the Douglas when it was frozen.
Yes Bren that's me, my grandfather James Robey made the barrow, he was a blacksmith at Wigan Council, he learned the trade with his father and also served his apprenticeship with a man named Mr Atherton. They came from Millstone Yard, just off Wigan Lane, they worked a forge that was opposite the Bowling Green pub further up the lane, they had moved to 115 Wigan Lane and then to 122 Wigan Lane. There is a photo of 117 Wigan Lane on Wigan World, but I don't know on which side of the house shown is 115.
I started to do some comments a couple of days ago and got interrupted - I am glad because there are some other comments in and, seeing what he has written in his commnts, I'll bet ''ken'' lived at 42, Chestnut Rd.
I'll guess the picture is almost in front of Mrs Swann's house - I say this because I used to take orders out from Morton's (on the corner of Moore St and Whelley, Cyril Ashton was the Manager). As 'ken' says we used to sledge from just behind that fence and in a good hard frosty winter we would be almost in the Douglas. If you want to see how far that was just look at the other photo Phillip Harrison poste on the same page and you will also see how open the whole area was before all those trees were uncessarily planted and never managed since.
Happy days, if we weren't sledging we would be skating on the Dixies at the bottom of Coppull Lane.
It's lovely to see all these old photos and hear the stories behind them.
It looked so much better in those days..... you could watch them play tennis on the other side in the summer. It was fantastic flying down the brew on a piece of cardboard...even oilcloth...if you were posh !!!!
A bit of a coincidence regarding your comment Bren - 4th September is my birthday!