Wigan Album

Sorry Bill, this was the old Citroen garage - the predecessor of Wigan Pier Motors at the top of Queen Street.
I bought a Citroen GS there back in the 1980s

Bill's right Peter. If you look to the right of centre there's a VW/Audi sign

I'd say about 83/84

Its just that the sign on the right looks like an Audi design.

Hello Bill, Are you one of the Eatocks from the farm in Lord Street , Hindley? E.T.

It looks to me to be Crompton St. with Watkin St entering on the left. The garage was the old S&S Motors, & the car park was opposite Water Heyes (t'other side of the "Duggie").
At the bottom of that car park was Echmans skin & hide works & the Drill hall. The pic seems to have been taken from the old Central Station.
Isn't that the spiritualists chapel between the garage & the row of shops on the way to Standishgate?

I remember it being a Citroen garage because a mates brother worked there. If I remember his name was Michael Price and I went to school with Brian.

this is vw/audi but it did later on become a+b citreon

It was originally a Hillman,Sunbeam,etc.(Rootes Group) Garage, owned by the Stonhouse Brothers

pic was taken from the top of the multi storey car park. car park must hav just been built you can see the entrance road on bottom lefthand side.No hedgerows yet either

Hi Eric, not knowingly related to the Eatock's on the farm, but I did live in a terace house in Lord Street for 15 years. I originate from 'Irish Town', Belle Green Lane.

The photographer was probably standing on the former multi storey car park that was built on the site of the old Central Station. I remember that car park on the right with the 2 "roundabouts" which were the shafts for the former Alliance Colliery

Replace that Garage with JJB's shop in Crompton St & you've cracked it..;o)

Gala Bingo as it is now Art.

Well I never!!
Turn round twice & ½ of Wigan's changed..;o)

sorry art, it wasnt skin and hyde works it was JJ forsters wholsale meats and abbattoir i should know i worked there ??
until it closed and was knocked down to make way for new rd

Hello John, the skin and hide or fellmongers yard was further up Water St towards Powell St and you will probably remember it was called Forshaw's the office was a detached house at the bottom of Church St. Echman whom art mentions was the owner. Out of interest, when they were demolishing these buildings for the new road I was called out there because they had uncovered what they thought was an unmarked drain. It turned out to be an old well like structure connected to the River Douglas, they also uncovered what to me were like old bottle shaped ovens, whether these were at one time kilns (Brick Kiln Rd being near) or bread ovens I don't know.

I thowt I weren't going strange;o)
There was a long wall separating the slaughter houses at the back of Standishgate from the Skin & hide works, right at the end of the carpark on the pic.
As far as the owner is concerned, he was German by the name of Albert Echman. At the time (early '60's) we serviced & repared his Merc. Sometimes picking it up from his home in Douglas Bank Drive, & the far worse job of picking it up from the works(having to go thro' that stinking, stomach churning factory, stacked high with hides & sheepskins, for the keys)
The man himself tho' was a gentleman, very nice to get on with..

Didn't this garage used to be a petrol station as well

The original Garage was the Roots Dealer and part of that dealership besides cars like Hillman was Denis trucks and Wigan Corporations use to send they refuse trucks for maintenance which stunk.

Westmoreland Motors, later Wigan Motor Company, VW and Audi dealership