Wigan Album

An excellent pint was always served in there, and it was the only pub in Wigan with Jim Reeves records on the juke box, as you say Dennis happy times.

Full of characters! There was an upright piano near the door and the lid was kept locked with a massive padlock! I suppose they didn't want any would-be Chopin or Rachmaninov striking up!

The Bricklayers certainly had some colourful custmers, especially toward the end of it's days as a pub. I remember in the early nineties I was on a course on the top floor of the building just visible in the right of the picture and opposite the pub. It was summer and one lunchtime a large plain van pulled up outside the Bricklayers, several men jumped out and went into the pub. They were soon manhandling some of the customers, none too gently, into the back of the van. One of the women on the course openend the window and shouted down "We are calling the Police", only to get the reply "WE ARE THE POLICE!!"

Walking up Hallgate one lunchtime and out of the Bricklayers came a group of young lads, one dressed in black. That night we were going to see PJ Proby at the Ritz but because he kept splitting his trousers they brought on a then unknown which was one of the lads we had seen coming out of the Bricklayers that day, Tom Jones.