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Wigan Album

Church Street, Wigan

30 Comments

Church Street, Wigan
Church Street, Wigan
Photo: Brian
Views: 3,968
Item #: 29965
Church Street, Wigan, 1980s.
(Photo by John Metcalfe).

Comment by: Broady on 7th December 2017 at 03:57

This place rings a bell but I just can’t place it. Help.

Comment by: Rev David Long on 7th December 2017 at 08:14

That's St George's Church at the bottom of the row - it's still there. Does that help?

Comment by: Sonia on 7th December 2017 at 08:45

It's at the bottom of Standishgate further down thanks Primark where the car park is now.

Comment by: JB on 7th December 2017 at 08:52

Broady this building is the drill hall

Comment by: Pw on 7th December 2017 at 09:17

The building has now gone but the church and the cobbled street are still there .It is going down from Standishgate heading towards the old Central Park.

Comment by: Sniltub on 7th December 2017 at 09:18

The building on the left was the side of the Co-op. You could get to the cafe which was where the upstairs windows are, and also the Co-op dentist used to be there.

Comment by: Veronica on 7th December 2017 at 09:29

Every Saturday for years I walked along the cobbles of this street turning right at the bottom and going in the side entrance of the old Co- Op building. This picture does stir up the memories.

Comment by: John D on 7th December 2017 at 11:04

The street is actually WaterStreet. Church Street runs across the bottom.

Comment by: broady on 7th December 2017 at 11:25

Thank you.

Comment by: Cyril on 7th December 2017 at 13:24

There was a bar in the upstairs room where the bay windows are, a gang of us went up there in the early 1970s and this fellow with a twitching moustache quick marched up, questioned us, and told us to quickly drink up and leave as we wasn't in the TA.

There's talk that the TA are to leave their present HQ on Woodhouse Lane to join the Air and Sea Cadets in a combined HQ where what is now the market hall when that is moved over to Marketgate.

Comment by: Bill on 7th December 2017 at 15:26

I think that was the coop building. The entrance to the cafe was to the left.

Comment by: Bill on 7th December 2017 at 15:43

At the top of rhe street on Standishgate was the Dog ith Thatch on the right and the coop was on the left looking towards St George’s church.
The drill Hall was on Powell st ,and it was on that block.
Only a small portion of the coop was on Powell St.

Comment by: Pw on 7th December 2017 at 15:46

John D.Iam sure this is Church St.There is good photo on album ,places,drill hall showing this building being demolished
,

Comment by: John D on 7th December 2017 at 16:48

Pw, I hold my hand up. After consulting my trusty Wigan A to Z it is indeed Church Street and Water Street runs along the bottom.

Comment by: GT on 7th December 2017 at 18:17

The building on the left is the rear of the old Drill Hall in Church St. Water St is along the bottom where St. Georges church is. The front of the Drill Hall was in Powell St and is now under the dual carriageway. It was opened in the 1880's and was demolished in 1986. In 1914 the 5th Manchester's reported for active service here before sailing off for the Middle East and then Gallioli.

Comment by: Bill on 7th December 2017 at 21:14

Sorry GT the building you see is the coop.The whole of the coop building wrapped round the Drill Hall.Just look at the different angles on WW pictures.

Comment by: Sniltub on 7th December 2017 at 23:03

As an employee of the co-op for 39 years I can assure you THIS IS THE CO-OP

Comment by: Norman Cunliffe on 8th December 2017 at 04:02

I can't say how much of this building was or was not part of the Co-op. However, what I can say with 100% certainty is that the entrance on the extreme left of the photo is the rear entrance to the Drill Hall.

Comment by: Rev David Long on 8th December 2017 at 09:36

Item 4005 in the Album (Assorted, 5th Battn. Manchester Regt) shows the officers of the 1st/5th Manchesters posed outside their barracks. It is quite plainly this building.
Fred Holcroft used a larger version of the image in his book on the Gallipoli Campaign, 'Just Like Hell', which Wigan Archives hold. In that image the bay windows on the 1st floor are in view, and St George's Church is dimly visible across the bottom of the road.
However, there is a major difference compared with this image. The doorway, with its two distinctive small windows alongside, appears with a canopy - but is under the third bay of the bayed section seen here - but you can see that the doorway is six bays up from the bails end section in this image. Also, the bayless section here has two windows - whereas in the 1914 pic it has three.
To square with this, this side of the Drill Hall must have been altered at some stage - and it must also have had a change of use to have become the Co-op, as some here have stated.

Comment by: Cyril on 8th December 2017 at 11:19

This is a photo of the Drill Hall, the Co-op Emporium was further up, out of shot to the left of the photo would have been the big shutter of the Co-op loading bay, plus the Co-op was built in the 1930s and was a plain building compared to the Drill Hall. See photo on Album: http://www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/photo.php?opt=5&id=28194&gallery=Wigan+CO-OP+&offset=200

Comment by: DerekB on 8th December 2017 at 15:26

On the opposite side of these buildings on Water St was St George's church hall - went to a few wedding receptions there in the 60s.

Comment by: Norman Cunliffe on 9th December 2017 at 03:07

Can I correct you DerekB? On the opposite side of Church St.(not Water St.) was St.George's Church Hall,known as the Parish Rooms. I spent many hours in there.

Comment by: Pw on 9th December 2017 at 12:41

Could the church hall have been opposite Church St and Water St?

Comment by: DeerekB on 9th December 2017 at 15:38

You are quite right, Norman. I should have known better than confuse Water St. and Church St. as one who was christened in St George's and went to St. George's school in my early years of schooling.

Comment by: DerekB on 9th December 2017 at 15:47

Ray, only a couple of weeks ago I was talking to an acquaintance from Bolton who posed the question "What is it with you lot in Wigan?" Recently he stopped an elderly man to ask directions when driving in Wigan and he replied "Aye lad, carry on through the next three sets of robots and turn left" and thought to himself Robots, what the hell are robots? He claimed never to have heard the expression in Bolton and asked if I was familiar with it. I told him I had completely forgotten it but remembered my grandparents using it in respect of traffic lights when I was a kid.

Comment by: DerekB on 9th December 2017 at 20:44

Sorry folks - I have posted the last comment against the wrong subject.

Comment by: A.W. on 11th December 2017 at 09:33

Remember doing Antique Fairs And Fleamarkets in the late 70's and 1980's, before the days of Car Boots! lol.

Comment by: Norman Cunliffe on 11th December 2017 at 12:33

Hello DerekB,I think we must have followed in each other's footsteps with regard to St.George's Church and School. I left St.George's School in 1943. Mr.Mortimer was my headmaster; somewhat before your time maybe. If we were contemporaries, very nice to talk to you again.

Comment by: DerekB on 11th December 2017 at 14:01

Hi Norman, we must have both been at St.George's for a short period - I started in 1942, when Mr.Mortimer must have been headmaster, but I only remember a Mr.Gregory as headmaster. We moved from Whelley to Beech Hill when I was seven but I carried on at St.George's until I was eleven. Regards.

Comment by: Graham Taylor on 23rd December 2018 at 15:35

Bill and Sniltub I can assure you that you are wrong. This is the old Drill Hall, the door on the left is the entrance to the Drill Hall in which I passed through hundreds of times when I was in the TA.
As Cyril says the Co-op is to the left towards Standishgate and out of camera shot.

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