Photo-a-Day  (Saturday, 21st October, 2023)

Looks rough, needs knocking down.

Very scruffy round there, should have been demolished years ago.

A lot of these precincts ended up looking in a rough state. There are exceptions though in some places where they have more shops and are in a better situation.

The trouble with small shopping precincts is that they tend to attract gangs of older children and teenagers to hang around and people who would use the shops are afraid to do so, especially as the nights draw in. I used to work in the building that is now Iceland in Platt Bridge; it was a branch of Kwik-Save back then but there was a small area of shops, (stalls really), before you entered the supermarket proper, plus a little cafe, and we used to get older kids standing in the doorway in freezing weather, stopping the automatic doors from closing and just generally causing problems. You daren't say anything in case they were waiting for you when the shop closed. They had no fear of the security guard or the police as we would have had when we were children.

Irene that happens now at Tesco Hindley, Police and security guards move them on but they are back in half an hour. They hang about in the door way and push each other around in trolleys.
It is really antisocial behaviour, but parents don't care, because most of the time they as parents did the same.

Malc, I'm afraid we are seeing the third generation of miscreants.. You only have to see how some 50 year olds act.

Behind those derelict shops, on the other side of the main road, they have built two brand new shops, a 'One Stop Store' and a 'Heron Foods Store'

It sounds like the gangs of ‘New York’ transferred to the Tesco Supermarket then from where they used to congregate around the back of the small shops near the roundabout on the Hindley Estate. They have built new houses there and the pub has gone that was there and a nursing home in its place. I felt really sorry for the residents complaining of the gangs running riot along the roofs of the garages and causing mayhem. It seems a lot quieter these days from what can be seen from the bus when I’m going home. I recall some of the passengers talking about them. As the kids grow older there’s always others to take their place. I believe it’s called ‘anti- social behaviour’ nowadays.

A photo of those shops in their heyday, if they ever had an heyday, taken by famous Wigan photographer Alan Diggledash.

https://www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/photo.php?opt=5&id=2171&gallery=Worsley+Mesnes&page=2

We lived here in '73 and did 2 years before moving on, never saw any trouble, the kids played football in a small park at the front of the flat.
It was OK back then. Good picture, Brian.

The reason why many of the parents of today’s kids were also behaving like this is that, when growing up, they were victims of Thatcher’s policies. Previous youths had some aspirations, even if minimal in some instances. Under Thatcher even that was extinguished. A good and chilling picture.

This photo brings back memories even though I have no idea where these shops are. I was brought up in Worsley Mesnes before the estate was built in the 1960’s. Most of the land was farmland. Wheat was a big crop as were potatoes. It must have been expropriated to build the estate. I think there was a factory in one corner near the Tippings Arms ( it may have Been called “Mellings” but unsure). I don’t recall dwellings being knocked down and replaced under the Slum Clearance Act, just farmlands.
One small pedantic point - I don’t think this is an actually a precinct. A precinct is surrounded on 3 or 4 sides by buildings as per the Latin word “cinctum “ which means surrounded. I would call it a parade of shops but there may be a technical term for it. Regardless of that it is a good photo which captures both the bleakness of today’s society together with the remnants of life in the 1970’s. Thank you, Brian.

I heard the phrase ' feckless parenting' some time ago. Some parents today are not much older than the boys you talk about & are maybe still enjoying their own lives. A cuddly baby everyone cooed over can turn into a stroppy 12 year old that you can't control... in no time at all. Don't think Mrs T comes into it. Just a thought.

Nowt do with Thatcher at all, anti social behaviour is down to discipline. Parents not bothered about what their kids are up to, and most probably don't know where they are.

You are right Helen,and agree,it has nothing to do with the subject at all.

Controlling kids starting on the naughty step when they are toddlers. That's good parenting from the start. It works wonders.

Good dad of two, you try telling a toddler to go to the naughty step nowadays - they'll stick two fingers up at you and tell you to go do one, or say you touch me and I'll have you. They all know their rights and are not afraid of any authority anymore, and have the attitude and swagger to go with it. Thankfully there still are the exceptions with a lot of children and teens being polite, well behaved and well mannered.

I agree. I was firm with my own children and I cared where they were and who they were with. Any wrong-doings were punished and they were taught respect for other people and for property. They never dropped so much as a toffee-paper in the street because I taught them not to, not just by word but by example. My grandchildren don't drop litter because my son taught them what I had taught HIM. It follows suit. I see people unwrapping a lolly for a child in a pram and then throwing the wrapping on the floor.....the child in the pram naturally thinks that is what you do and follows suit as it grows up. I see people at bus-stops opening cigarette packets and throwing the cellophane and used match on the pavement when they are actually leaning on a litter-bin! It drives me mad but if you say anything they look at you as if you belong in an asylum!

Tommy T - this was our first home too 1969/70. Came from a very rural area to live in a maisonette in Worsley Mesnes, which was a shock to the system, but my memories are happy ones of friendly and helpful neighbours.

This is where Fine Fare was.

Owd Reekie

The land the Worsley Mesnes council estate was built on was originally owned by local landowner Squire Bankes, who lived in Winstanley Hall, and on that land stood Hindley Hall and the nearby Hindley Hall Farm, the farm was rented from Squire Bankes, but in June 1953 the then Wigan Borough Council bought the land, along with any tenancies upon that land, and they bought it from a variety of vendors and a bank, whatever that meant.

Sir Bob, "The land the Worsley Mesnes council estate was built on was originally owned by local landowner Squire Bankes,"

"originally "?

Firstly, all land in the UK belongs to The Crown.
Worsley Mesnes was 'held' by the Worsleys and was kept, in demesne, by the Worsleys whilst the rest of their estate was bought by Bankes, maybe in the earlt 1720's?

John Noakes

(get down shep) https://youtu.be/myXr3YF7iPc

Don't shoot the messenger, that information I provided was from a Land Registry document.