Wigan Album

Just a guess, but could it be Eleanor Street, looking up to its junction with Wallgate?
It looks like there is a railway embankment in the top left hand corner of the photo, behind the low stone wall.
Only across the road from where Brian Nichols later had business premises.

Chapelhouse Motors now stands on the site of the old Brian Nichols premises on Wallgate.

Across the road is the wall on the left leading to the railway bridge across Wallgate. I think that Brian Nichols workshop was to the right of the picture where the car showroom is now. Harold Blackledge had a junk shop in the row of shops that are visible.

There was a terrace of seven or eight buildings on Wallgate, between the Seven Stars pub and the railway bridge,and there was a shop in the row, as in the picture.
There was also an advertising hoarding, as pictured, on tha gable end of the corner house of Wallgate and Eleanor Street.

mick as I remember the railway bank had sleeper board fence not a wall

Correct A.W.

Peter - the stone wall in the photo is still in situ - I passed it earlier today, on my way to Asda.

The van is a Morris J2 1950s.

The man is Don from Shevington can't remember his surname; he was about the same age as Brian N

Sorry, Garry - it's an LD - I had one for a few years in the 70s, and then another in the 80s. The first taught me an awful lot about diesel fuel systems!

Apart from being a wonderfully nostalgic photo, it is also another fine Kodachrome image, great to see.

Almost right Garry-it's a Morris LD.

The man i think is Don Wright, think he lives om Coach House Drive, i know him well.

Peter, sorry always a stone wall, the shop in the photo belonged to Steve Molynaex and little higher up paper shop then entrance to Brian Nichols.

Nice to see the EK reg plate too

Was one of those shops once used as the office for a driving instructors mid 60's.

David, it was the last building in the row next door to Nichol's that was the driving instructors, they had those Lava lamps in the window and we would often stand and watch them when walking past, disco projection lights at the time also had similar coloured oil and wax solution within them to get a psychedelic effect on walls.

If you bought a new vehicle/motor bike in Wigan up to the 1980s (i think) your reg plate would be EK or JP.

what happened to EK and JP reg. Why finish it?

Yes Seven Stars School of Motoring was the same shop that Brian N took over.
I passed my driving test with them in 1964 -- It was three partners running it; my instructor was Stan ? from New Springs area -- Passed first time in a Morris 1100

Was there a construction firm or something akin there at one time, the name Bridge springs to mind.

This Van is parked in Melverley St,

The van is parked in Eleanor Street Garry, as I stated in the opening post.
If it was parked in Melverley Street,the Vulcanite works would be on the corner, and the Seven Stars pub on Wallgate would be visible.

Never Melverley St in memory of Man.
Should have gone to Spec savers Gary.

Ray, why be so ignorant. We all have Opinions.

Yes Gary. But some have more opinions than others

Yes and some are clever than others.

The more I read Garry's posts... the more I consider him to be a "cave-dweller"(a troll) Trolls are fine in their own habitat, but become annoying when they leave their cave and try to be clever with pointless and inane comments.

I think that Ray Lowe is an imposter a fake name, that name has never been on WW before. People like him try and ruin our great site that we've enjoyed for years.

How long as the road Southgate been in existence? I know it is a long time ago, but I seem to remember, at the end of Pottery Road, there was an ambulance station, and opposite was Vulcanite, and then Pottery Road more or less met up with Wallgate, just prior to the railway bridge. In Wallgate, on the opposite side there was a shop, or two, with an entry, where you could get to the back of those shops. I can't remember what kind of shops they were. This would have been at the end of the fifties.

Southgate was officially opened in March 2013, Albert.

location is Eleanor Street I was born there, I moved to Worley Mesnes and later became an apprentice joiner at Brian Nichols. Don in the picture was the foreman. Happy days.

Is anyone out there old enough ( like myself) to remember this company and could tell me what happened to them? Did they go into liquidation of move or just close down. If there is someone who has a contact at the top there I'd love to hear and have a phone number or address.

I worked at Brian Nichols from the end of 1972 to 1976.
Don Wright interviewed me for the job.
I used to park my car in Eleanor Street.
I heard that Brian Nichols had died.
The company moved to Stephen’s Way Worsley Mesnes that’s the last I heard.

I worked at Brian Nichols from 1970!to 1975, they also had a Venetian blind shop at the front of the offices