Wigan Album

Looks like a scene from the 1950s with those Band 1 television aerials.

Jackets for goalposts DTease?

I suspect Coronation Street.

Plenty customers there for coal fired houses...great.
New Springs, Whelley and Scholes was really good for coal baggers.

Childhood days - playing in the street! If you went further down the street to play some old lady would say "Go'n play near your own end o't street!

I can just imagine everyone in those houses settling down to watch the first episode of "Coronation Street", except that it's light outside. I remember watching it myself, aged eight, and it was a dark December night, but our terraced row and X-shaped tv aerial were just like the above.

The X shaped aerials were for BBC. When ITV was introduced you needed an H shaped one.

What's Ozy up to, I wonder. I thought he would have applied his extra gift of seeing the unseen to this photo, by now (applied in quick-fire time to Item 29715). However, I'm sure he'll agree: the lad on the extreme right of this photo, also appears to have his non-kicking foot alongside the ball.

It looks like a child crouched down to me Philip. Playing marbles perhaps?
There is a mark on the photo as well -looks like ink to me. Maybe I can join the Agency now with that little bit of detection!

2nd lock and Kirkless pub at top off street.old stables for
canal horses along with accommodation which was also a shop and pub can be seen top left

I don't like these type of houses when the front door is more or less on the pavement. A front garden is much better and safer for the children to keep an eye on them.

Yes a garden bring the house to life, it don't feel like a home, more like a shop I suspect.

Yes, Yes, I see the child, Veronica, and she's definitely playing marbles; the boy about to take a Free Kick. Heaven knows what other joyous pursuits Ozy will unleash from within our fertile minds. In the meantime, maintain faith in your shipmates, and Master G.W. in particular; his knowledge of the Norway maelstrom is second to none.

Playing marbles?....I can see the lad taking the free kick, but playing marbles?...., losing yer marbles more like. The agency isn't recruiting at the moment unfortunately Veronica, but feel free to reapply whenever Andrew Marr's contract terminates.

i lived in top lock in the fifties and every lad had a bag of marbles playing by the pens that was one of pastimes then no phones

DTease (Shows His Mettle).
Far and wide he played the game
And bore a sleepy eye
He played the game of marbles
Shunning box-spring lie.
His greatest match is revered still
His talent in full flow
He beat the best of Shropshire
A rustic lad named Crowe.
When both were done
And Crowe yelled "Luck!"
The victor gave no eye
Instead a well-thumbed book
A guide to Wrekin high.
Filled with triumph
And purse with prize anew
He caved to homely welcome
Top Lock Spring View.
His tears soon gone
But mind still awry
His mother yelled "Come back!"
Your tea is set on high.

Yeah, certainly got my geography wrong here.
It should of course be New Springs, and not Spring View.
And how about 'And purse ...' being replaced by 'After win without strings'. Sorry about that, DTease.

Always enjoy your poems Philip. What a talent you have.

We used to call 'em ' murps '. I always assumed that everyone called them murps, but maybe it was just us inbred retards from the alligator infested Jurassic swamplands of North Ashton that knew them by that name. And the game of ' jacks ', what on earth was that all about? Half a dozen metal objects, fashioned to resemble miniature shoe lasts, that you threw into the air and caught on the back of your hand. I never did get the hang of that one. No, give me a trolley any day, especially one with four wheels all of a similar size. Better still if the wheels came from a Silver Cross pram eh?. Magic. Oh! and a metal trungle, that your dad had made by the blacksmith at the pit. I almost forgot the old trungle. Then there were the tin can stilts, with two lengths of string attached....blimey....in fact, I think I'll make a pair first thing in the morning.

Glad you like it DTease. I regard you as being one of the originals, and so I thought a rhyme, centred around yourself, would be in order. Continued thanks.

My word Ozy, you've mentioned some belters here. Murps for example, a term also accepted from Billinge Higher End's delta to its possible source at the Chapel End's Dam Slacks (opposite the Raw Umber bovine). Molly Peach sold murps in small packets, from her shop on Main Street, while Cowley Hill Works was another good source. Tin can stilts, another half-forgotten gem, but as you say, "what was that all about".

Well it's good to know that someone has faith in my assumption that a child crouches to play a game of marbles. If one places a digit over the black mark he/or she can be clearly seen! I now deem this thread ' Poet's Corner in honour of WW's Poet Laureate!

Veronica: DTease's photo also echoes television's black and white 1950s street scenes that have been dubbed with the ghostly sounds of childrens' fun and laughter. Shades of Costner's film Field of Dreams.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the lovely ornate gas lamp! Played many a game congregating around its light on winter nights before bedtime!
It was safe then in the streets with no gardens in front of the houses!

That's right Veronica; the pulling power of the street lamp. I've just been having a look on Images at 'Children swinging round a lampost'. Great Days.

Looks like the only marble playing Badger photo in existence. This should bring the tourists in. Forget Nessie or the beast of Bodmin.