Wigan Album

i used to love the market when i was a kid all the different smells from all the stalls happy memories

i used to love going there much better than the new one all the fair stalls used to go just outside gret pic

I loved the Market Hall as a child as well...it seemed you could buy absolutely anything there. Santus's stall where Uncle Joes Mint Balls were sold loose, they were covered in a sweet white powder ( icing sugar ?) to stop them sticking together. Potato cakes, barm cakes, pies & all those pork butchers in one part of the hall. Why did Wigan have so many pork butchers ?

Fantastic, a place where people can actually move!

I remember the Bulls head hanging near Greens butchers, I was terrified of it, but that was 50 odd years ago,I loved everything else though.

I remember Adams Stores (shown), Smailes' butchers, Harold Bradshaw's Menswear and the Jeans stall run by Mr. Ali Khan, with his surprisingly Lancashire accent. I remember the fish market facing the old Market Square...my Mam used to but mussels, cockles and winkles there and it always had a cold, damp feel to it. The fruit market was separate as well, and the floor was always covered with tissue paper off the apples and tangerines.

The only pork butchers in Wigan market was Barons, later Mark Williams, all the rest were beef and pork, also the bulls heads were on top of Greens butchers stalls, I was a butcher in market when it was thriving,

When you look at that picture and see such a busy market hall, the one we all loved, and see the sad 😭 place it is today.