Wigan Album
Wigan Lane
14 Comments
Photo: DTease
Item #: 31448
I remember as a child living in Scot Lane, Aspull being awakened from my slumbers by nothing more onerous than the sound of birds singing outside my single glazed window. This was followed by the clinking of glass against glass as our whistling Milkman delivered the essential ingredient of the breakfast cuppa.
Lying in my bed I could hear, in the distance, the metallic clang of Coal Wagons crashing into each other as they were shunted around the siding over the fields at Hilton House.
What chance would there be of taking this picture of Wigan Lane now? Slim to non existent I would say.
The 1950s was a time when we were still in control of the machines, now we live to serve the machines. Granted the machines do the hard work that we used to toil at, but we still have to feed the monsters, we still have to provide them with the parts they need to keep going, but worst of all we have to endure their never-ending RACKET!
I would say the demi paradise lasted until the end of the 60s. I remember as a youngster actually going to 'see' a 'traffic jam' on Preston Road as if it was some incredible spectacle. In fact , it consisted of no more than about 15 or so cars but back then it was a rare and curious thing.
Those trees and grass verges aren't there now, they've gone to make way for parking bays and a cyclopath, expensive if you need to drive to visit the hospital now.
Wonder if those trees are still there to provide a shady walk, probably not. Even trees are seen as a problem in the modern world. What sad times we live in.
As a five year old with a broken arm, I was taken to the Infirmary and I always associated the trees on Wigan Lane with that event. I just recall the lane with a multitude of trees lining the way to the Infirmary, if ever I had to go up there again as a child I would be afraid as soon as I saw the trees! I would say to my Mam " . "Will they touch me mam?" Over and over again, I would say the same thing all the way up Wigan Lane. She would reply "No they won't touch you love".... What a flaming lie! I was put out under anaesthetic - I must have been traumatised because I never forgot! Dreary me! The things that stand out in your memories...
I believe that Wigan Lane used to be the area for all boys and girls to meet up..I've forgotten the year,it must have a sight to behold...I've forgotten where I read about it but I'll have to find out now.
Veronica,as a child I had two massive gates slam on my arm,of course it was broke..went back to School with my arm in plaster,slipped on ice in the Schoolyard and broke the other one..talk about the walking wounded eh!
Yes, Poet, that dying demi paradise of balm and simple lures, and of days when 'Bikers with a name' chose four instead of two, the Shay Stadium shook and Johnny's Red River Rock crumbled to no more than a half-forgotten courteous play above the Waltzer's screams.
But, Hark!, my wordy friend,
And flee this wild kerfuffle
Then play away His Latest Flame,
And see the darlings Shuffle.
It's on YouTube.
Sorry, DTease, . . . Your 'clanging coal wagon' line is rather special. Thanks.
We can laugh about these incidences now Maureen but at the time it was awful. My arm was broken because a little lad was swinging me round playfully. Years later he told me he got a 'good hiding' for causing it! Neither of us forgot it! He had a son who became a doctor! ;@)
Ho no! Maureen, what a disaster. Tell me, Maureen, when you broke the second arm, what did you do when you got an itch?
Very moving story that Veronica. I think what goes into our subconscious minds as children has a huge impact on how we grow . Our loves and fears come from seeds sown in our childhood. This is what I think anyway . I can go to places I’ve never been before and feel a surge of happiness for some unknown reason . Likewise , I can go to another place and feel uncomfortable and what to get away fast . I just believe this has roots going back to my childhood. Sorry DTease for going off track . Thank you for posting and triggering memories.
Maureen - you are right about it being the place to meet girls my father and my uncle who came from Standish and Shevington respectively used to go on the cycle 'run' on Sundays down to Wigan Lane where the girls used to congregate. The other spot where this happened was on the road outside Wrightington fish ponds. I'm pretty sure this was in the 1930's but could still have been happening just after the war in the 1940's ? But not involving those two who had found war time brides.
D'Tease,I just had to put up with it,but I don't recall being in plaster for long.
I was always getting in trouble if I remember rightly...bit of a tomboy I think,and a daredevil.
I agree Xpat what the sub conscious absorbs from childhood and even beyond from ancestors can have an impact on our behaviour. Places that I haven't visited before and have a feeling as if I belong when I do go, it can be quite uncanny...
Demi paradise? Somebody has been reading Shakespeare methinks!
So true Veronica,one of favourite hates is Chorley Rd..I get the shivers when I go down there..I know it isn't exactly what we're talking about,but just thought I'd mention it.
Wigan Lane on a summer day possibly in the 1950s without a single person or vehicle in sight near the hospital and plantation gates that looks a bit like Marble Arch in London. Further up is the Cherry Gardens pub. By 1971 the Wigan outer ring road was completed from there to the Saddle junction at Newtown on Spencer Road, Beech Hill Avenue, Scot Lane and Robin Park Road.