Photo-a-Day  (Tuesday, 20th September, 2022)

Very surprised it is still open, a lot of these pubs have saddly gone especially with the old tetley sign i can see. I hope that it carries on in the future.

Looks a good traditional pub Dennis . I hope it's the same on the inside . (What do you mean you didn't go in ? ) Nice to see Joshua hanging over the door .
A few years ago the BBC ran a ' Who was the greatest Briton ? ' poll .
I voted for Nelson . What a hero .

My husband was born just round the corner from there, at 34, Bridge Street, (the house was demolished in the early 1960s), and one year when we were at the annual 1940s event in Pickering, Yorkshire, a display in a shop window held a ration book from a neighbouring house! I used to know a man who painted pub signs....he wasn't a registered artist, he just had an amazing talent....and when I worked at Boots I remember him coming in one day with some books about Lord Nelson from Wigan Library, as he had been asked to paint the sign for this pub. and needed photos to copy from. Obviously the sign is no longer there but I did see the finished product and it was excellent. That's a lovely photo, Dennis.

As pubs go, that is quite a reassuring picture.
Poet, I voted for Percy Shaw, inventor of the cats' eye.

My father Ellis went in their with my uncle Tom and cousin Fred Scarborough they lived in next house in Carr Street .Dad played for the bowling team.

I voted for Uncle Joe the one who used to suck mint balls.

What happened to Joshua anyway? Did he get swallowed up by one of the big chemical companies that still, laughingly, like to call themselves Brewery’s?

Not been in for years.Used to go in regularly when one room had ultra violet lights that used to show all the fluff on your clothes.Fred Scarborough a teacher from St.Peters was a regular .He lived in Carr St.Some good memories of this pub Dennis

Somehow I think this pub is here to stay. Hindley seems to have a tight community, not dissimilar to Westhoughton in some ways. Before the nit pickers jump in - I could be wrong. Anyway it looks to be kept in a well preserved fashion. Many years ago I went in there once with a couple of girls. One of those pubs where people stared at anybody new venturing inside!

Many many years ago(early 70's) I went into this pub with at the time my girlfriend. She had on a coat with a false fur trim all round the edge. When we got into the pub it had blue fluorescent lights and it made us look like we were covered in dandruff from top to bottom.

Mr Scarborough was one of my teachers at St Peters, i remember him starting after he had come back from the war, he was a very nice man, and this is a good pic of the pub.

I remember those UV lights they had in there and other pubs too in the early 1970s and also them showing up in ultra white any bit of lint, fluff or dandruff flake, and you couldn't help but try to keep brushing them off with your hand to no avail, after a while or a few drinks you forgot about them. It wasn't always Tetley as it was Oldfield's, though it hasn't changed much as can be seen in this superb photo from the Album, https://www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/photo.php?opt=5&id=17568&gallery=Hindley&page=6

There's still folks out there collecting Breweriana and Richard Percival, story in the link, may be looking enviously at the Tetley lantern over the door which possibly could be quite unique too now,
https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/heritage-and-retro/heritage/britains-biggest-breweriana-collector-on-the-hunt-for-missing-yorkshire-trays-3573134

I have a Players Navy Cut Tobacco mirror over my fireplace that we bought on our honeymoon in York 49 years ago next January...I remember it cost £7 and we had to decide if we could afford it! I'm glad we did as I still love it. There is a replica in the pub in the programme "Goodnight Sweetheart" when Gary Sparrow time-travels back to the 1940s.

My dad , God Bless him , worked in Hindley , at a cabinet makers called Plumptons . Would love to hear if you’ve heard of it or where it was exactly . I never went to Hindley growing up , but like all the ‘should haves ‘ in life , as a young person you never realise your parents had a life also . We chase later , sadly .. I do anyway ..

Plumpton's factory was in Ladies Lane, Hindley.

My husband has a vague memory of Plumpton's Cabinet Makes but can't place just where it was situated. I hope someone can come up with a more positive memory for you, Marky.

Marky, this is a letter from Past Forward, issue #32.

WHEN WAS UNION BRIDGE DEMOLISHED?
Dear Sir
I wonder if any of your readers could tell me
when Union Bank Bridge, Ormskirk Road, was demolished. I was born in Ormskirk Road, Newtown in August 1939, but within a few months moved higher up from where the bridge was.
I remember some of the shops from 1946 onwards, such as Jack Mason’s café/chip shop, Pimbletts sweets & tobacco, Frank Taylor’s newsagents, Ted? The barber, Arthur Ashurst the photographer and Plumptons the cabinet makers (I think Mr. Plumpton was the Conservative candidate at that time).
By the way, referring to the article by the late Ken Lucas in Past Forward 27, p30, I think he actually missed out one in Pemberton – the Albion Dance Hall, known by the locals as ‘Bamfords’.
Joe Dolan 20 Prestt Grove Worsley Mesnes Wigan WN3 5UX

Marky,there used to be garage at the bottom of Ladies Lane called Plumpton's,don't know if there was any connection with the cabinet makers.Incidentally,the Lord Nelson is still one of the most popular pubs round Hindley.The UV lighting that was around in late 60's/early 70's ( and at Wigan Casino then) could be a pain but loads liked it because it made you tanned !

Marky, Plumptons was up Ladies Lane in Hindley.

Irene, strange you should comment on Player's Navy Cut as I was reading quite recently about the logo for Player's Navy Cut and the sailor that is featured, though I can't remember in which publication that I read about it.

Not what I read, but some info in this link from the web. https://area4history.wordpress.com/2008/10/06/who-is-the-sailor-who-appears-on-players-navy-cut-cigarette-packets/

In the feature that I read it said with cigarettes the Navy Cut referred to a smaller cut cigarette, this could fit into a sailors cupped hand when on deck so it could be protected from the wind, also that the sailor was said to be genuine whilst others say he was a friend of the artist . So how Navy Cut came to be named or if the sailor in the logo was an actual sailor or not is anyone's guess. Some more info on Navy Cut, https://www.commsmuseum.co.uk/dykes/johnplayer/johnplayer.htm

A bit late in the day...I used to volunteer at out local NT property.
The house was dusted everyday, it looked spotless. One time it was decided to run a test on some collected dust...it was 90% human skin.

Thankyou Cyril....how interesting. When my daughter Ashley was a little girl she always thought the sailor on our mirror was her Uncle Ronnie, (my brother).....goodness knows why as he had never been a sailor and didn't have a beard!

Cyril, I remember cutting out the figure of the sailor on the cigarette packets, and slotting them into a little chain.

Cyril and Pat McC....I have a 1959 calendar made from Players Navy Cut cigarette packets. If you go on Wigan World Album and click on "Assorted", then scroll down the alphabetical list that comes up to "Ephemera", it is in the 3rd page of pictures.

Thanks Irene. My eldest sister was born in 1942 and my father saw her for the first time in 1945 - my mother had always told her that he was like the sailor on the cigarette packets!

Irene, I'd forgotten all about those crafty things folks would make out of stuff that would normally have been thrown away, as your calendar shows this was still evident in the 1950s and early 1960s, and being very popular during the war years with shortage of paper etc., this got folks crafting and making another use out of something until we became a throw away society. And as Phillip Gormley mentioned about the man with the scissors - I too was and still am always amazed at the things some folks can produce with pieces of folded paper and a
few snips here and there with a pair of little scissors.

Your calendar even though 63 years since it was made could with another year calendar added still be in use today, and has far outlasted the Player's brand of cigarettes with them being discontinued years ago.

How times have changed with cigarettes and tobacco practically outlawed and banned from being displayed in shops and put behind shutters. Though it is better if teenagers are deterred and don't take up smoking as their health in later life when the problems caused by smoking do become evident, would be a whole lot better.

The calendar IS hung on my wall, Cyril, but with its 1959 calendar attached, alongside an original 1947 calendar, (our living room is like a museum!), and even my 2022 calendar is made up of 1950s scenes. I also have two boxes made out of birthday/Christmas cards which were made I would guess, in the 1950s, (you can tell by the cards that were used). One is on my Welsh dresser and is in perfect condition, and one is my make-up box which has sadly disintegrated a bit but Peter has patched it up with something he calls "plasterers' scrim" so it keeps going! I remember men in the pub opposite our house sending me little paper dogs made out of cigarette packets via my Dad, and I also remember one of my Dad's mates making me a little musical box out of a tobacco tin; I think it worked on the principle of the old "pianolas" where something passed over little pins and played a tinny tune. Sadly, I no longer have those but I can still see them in my mind.