Wigan Album
IRON BRIDGE
12 CommentsPhoto: Frank Orrell
Item #: 29456
Not my scene. Some two hundred yards to the west, under the Wallgate tunnel, was the place where I spent most of 1965 and a large part of 1966. Down't Nick left the Iron Bridge somewhat redundant as the place to be. That said, this was still a good spot to photograph (if you were lucky enough to own a camera) 'Bunsen' or 'Sir Frank Ree' in late 1964. Time moves on, and sadly, the bridge is but half of it once was.
I walked over this bridge so many times as a little girl with my Mam. There were engines shunting underneath and by the time you got to the other side your coat was damp, and oh! the smell of steam! x.
I remember in my first job at the TSB in King Street about 1968, one of the girls who worked there always went home to Wallgate over the bridge for her dinner.
Been over that a fair few times when I was a kid.
Some years ago I got told by one of the lads on the Per way, that a shunter got killed in an accident directly beneath this part of the bridge that spanned the north western sidings.
I understand that this poor shunter misjudged something & became trapped between a moving wagon & bridge upright/column/support, where he received fatal head injuries.
I also got told that at the end of a siding behind a rickety stop block there was also the back of a shop (possibly a sweet shop?) possibly called 'Nobletts'??, & if there was ever a wagon/shunt heading towards this dodgy buffer stop block, then the shunters used to shout out..'WATCH OUT NOBLETTS'.
Was there a shop on Wallgate called Nobletts?
What ever happened the County Cinema. A class cinema, you passed the side of it, as you approached the bridge, from King Street. I can still see Ernie, the manager, standing on the steps of the cinema. Saw "The guns of Navaronne", there, about 1960/61.
Albert - the County went the way of many cinemas, and became a bingo hall. Then in the late 70s/early 80s, it was a discount store selling bankrupt and clearance stock.
In 1985/1986 it became a nightclub called Chaplins, and since then it has been a bar/club under a variety of names.
Correction to my comment above - the premises actually became Chaplins club in 1981.
Albert,did you ever go in the Snooker hall under the County
My Mam and Dad were queuing up at the County when a runaway horse was galloping up King Street..my Dad stopped it and I still have the letter of thanks from the then Chief of Police Mr Paul Foster...dated 1949
I Certainly did Jinksy. Just think what a pasting your lungs got with all of the cig smoke. Was that lower portion ever used for anything else, after its use as a billiard hall?. It was certainly a large room. Who owned it?.
Maureen. If at all possible, it would be of interest to see the letter on W.W.A.