Wigan Album

When women looked like women, no jeans and trainers. Great dress sense and so tidy looking.

No litter...

Ron, the town centre at that time would still have had road sweepers that had their own patch, and remember how they took pride in keeping it clean, but compared to now not much litter, besides cig stumps, was thrown on the pavements then, with it being indoctrinated into us with the ant-litter TV and cinema adverts, such as 'take your litter home' and 'find a bin to put it in.' There seemed to be more litter bins around then too.

We had a town centre then with …. Dare I say it….SHOPS! I think if it was totally flattened now no one would notice because sadly there isn’t a reason to enter what was lovely Wigan

Lowes department store that would be in competition with Debenhams. H Samuel jewellers, Greenwoods mens clothes shop, Trueform shoe shop. Sarah Lynn bakers, underground toilets. Chubb Fire Ford Escort van. Evidently this is summer.

We were so poor that we didn't have any litter to throw.

Tom, no matter how poor folks professed to be they always seemed to find money for cigarettes! Remember how you could buy cigarettes in packs of five or some retailers would even split these packs, but these packs of five or splits would cast far more than buying a pack of ten, so the cigarette companies and the retailers would be cashing in more on folks' nicotine addiction when they could least afford it, is it any wonder tobacco companies would spend millions of pounds on glossy live the high life adverts, just to entice folks to smoke and to keep them buying this addictive drug and poison. Not forgetting the government, whoever is in, they always get a big cut from the proceeds.

Brilliant picture. I remember the town centre just like this as a kid. There was a vibrancy about the town back then and a nice atmosphere, particularly in the summer where you could meet friends and spend the odd hour or two having a wander around the shops and watch the world go by. Sadly, the Wigan of 2023 is a place you are 'in & out' of - you go into town now simply to do essential tasks or appointments like visit the bank or barbers, then leave once you are done. Very sad, but the town is now a shadow of it's former self.

Slightly worrying comment about women there from Alan….
What has it got to do with anyone how women dress?