Wigan Album

Seems Shop Store Santa's are just as Scary in Wigan as any where else in the world !

I vividly remember watching Santa climb up a ladder to get on the roof of Lowe`s and then disappear down the chimney!

I can't help wondering what his old eyes have witnessed. He's lived through two world wars for sure, and the second Boer war as well no doubt, judging by his apparent age.

I love the paper parcels tied with string. (You all knew I'd say that, didn't you?!) Love the old shops and packaging.

There was an old man who lived at the very end of Higham St who looked just like that Father Christmas complete with long beard......I used to feel so sorry for him......I would say to my mam ....Let him come and live with us!!!!!!!

irene no! Why should we!
looks like there all the same presents.

I went to see him in Oxleys in the early sixties, we sat in a spaceship that took us to the North Pole then back to a rainy Wigan after the visit.

Alan, the only reason I said you all knew I'd say that was because I ALWAYS comment favourably on pics of old shops and old ways of packaging because I LOVE them. I imagine they WERE all the same gift......maybe, (judging by the shape), a jigsaw, and the two piles, when I was a little girl going to see Father Christmas, meant one pile would be suitable for little boys and the other for little girls, but let's face it, I can do no right in your eyes, can I?

Don't worry Irene you can spell, which is more than some.

Irene, I always enjoy your comments and shared memories. Keep em coming!!

Yes irene I agree jigsaw puzzle or maybe colouring book and pencils, what a great time Christmas is for our children.

Just in case anyone's curious about the contents of the package. It consisted of a cork baseboard, a selection of brightly coloured wooden shapes with pinholes drilled through them, a wooden hammer and a box of pins which you would use to pin the shapes to the base, thereby creating a colourful 3-D picture. I thought it was great, almost as good as my brother's ' Bayko ' set, which I wasn't allowed to play with.

That little chap seems a little bit apprehensive and it wouldnt be p c now for Santa to put an arm around him,,,,! my little granddaughter would have screamed the place down.....what a good boy he was.

Thankyou, Neil and Geoff, for your kind comments, and Hello to "Our Joseph" who remembers Christmas in Ince when we were children. Eddie, how marvellous that you were able to recall just what was in those parcels! I imagine all the boys got the same gift, and all the girls got the appropriate "girly" gift; it makes sense to have them all the same, with the price of the gift reflecting the admission to the grotto, fairness to the recipients and simplifying the wrapping for the staff. Yes, Alan, it was a lovely time for children, and still is, and Ernest... I have a film of Father Christmas climbing onto Lowe's roof and disappearing down the chimney!

The human brain is somewhat enigmatic Irene. I can remember what I got for Christmas sixty odd years ago, yet I can't remember where I put the T.V. remote, and I used it to watch Tipping Point only a few hours ago.

I did go to Oxleys to see him, but I have little memory of what present I received. However, I DO recall the journey back home on the Abbey Lakes bus: my throat sore with the choking fumes of a hundred Woodbine cigarettes...Yuk. We live in cleaner times. Thank God!

Irene it's "Brown paper packages tied up with string"
La La La...

I imagine the brown paper and string was kept and saved for something else. Old habits died hard in the early fifties due to the war. Austerity still prevailed......it was probably an America idea for actual Christmas wrapping paper.

Kenee, I have a string dispenser with that phrase written on the front! Vb, I often wrap birthday presents in brown paper and string , with no sellotape, and there is a bookshop in Southport where they will wrap up old books in brown paper and string for you, and make a little loop in the string to carry it by!

Irene I think it is very elegant to wrap presents in brown paper! The old ideas were best - re-cycling is not a new
invention at all!(Perhaps a bit of nice ribbon to jazz up!)
I wish plastic bags could be banned and brown paper bags used instead!

Is it possible to buy brown paper nowadays? Not that I have anything to wrap you understand. It's just that from an early age, I've been led to believe that when applied with a bit of vinegar, it can prove to be an effective remedy for a broken crown....In the unlikely event that I should fall down some hill or other and do some damage to mine and my lady friend, Gillian incidentally, should come tumbling after. It's always best to be prepared I find.

Eddie, if you didn't keep adding a drop of whisky to the pail of water, you wouldn't keep falling down!

You could try putting abag over your head ... Preferably a brown one with two holes in!!!!! Sorry I couldn't resist!!!!!!

Please.....accept .....my profuse apologies. I was halfway through the second bottle when I posted my last comment.., I have the mother of all hangovers to look forward to tomorrow......Goodnight........ Hic!

Irene; Do you know which year the film was taken?

Ernest, I have no idea when the film was taken but I would guess at the 1930s. Many years ago I bought a video called "A Platt Bridge Story", obviously mostly about Platt Bridge, but it had been put together by a group of people from old cine-film and a couple of scenes were of other places, one being Father Christmas climbing up to Lowe's roof. It only lasts for a few seconds and is very quick and jerky, as old films were, which makes me think it was around the thirties. My late brother was born in 1933, (he was 19 years my senior), an he recalled seeing Father Christmas on Lowe's roof as a young boy, so possibly late thirties/early forties. The video wasn't that good a quality to start with, being home-made, and gradually deteriorated and went "snowy". My son put it on dvd for me, but it isn't brilliant and has a buzzing sound in the background, but better than nothing as the video would have just gone worse and worse as time went on. At least I still have something, but as I say, if you blink you miss the Father Christmas scene!

Thanks, Irene. I had over a mile of 8mm cine film and had it put on 4 DVD`s.

Hello Our Irene, hope you are well. Those Ince Christmases past were something I shall never forget, our tree on the bar was the best in the world, so I thought, you knew it was a special time when the tree arrived and the hustle and bustle of Mams doing their shopping, fathers and sons getting their hair cut at Ken's and childer in tansads sat shivering outside the butchers. Great times and far happier days. All the best to everyone and Merry Christmas, stay safe and warm. Joseph

Thankyou, Joseph. The frost and fog in the Ince streets were a welcome excitement to us children, rather than the dread they now bring to us as adults. The homely, lit-up shop windows with exciting things that we only saw at Christmas, carol-singing at front doors and being told "Come back next week!". They will always be there in our shared memories. All the best to you and yours, Our Joseph. x.

Irene,I always go to that bookshop in Southport. Have you been in the winter when the coal fire is lit?

Yes, I must admit trips to Southport are usually a warm-weather outing for me, but I HAVE been in the bookshop when the coal-fire is lit, and it's wonderful. People going in that shop for the first time when the fire is in must feel they have stepped back into the past.

Wayfarers Arcade..I love it..I love Southport too but like Irene I'm a fairweather visitor.

Maureen, I love the bookshop in The Wayfarer's Arcade, but it isn't the one with the coal fire. Will tell you where that one is by email soon. Irene. x.

Irene,we have a Coal fire every Christmas & New Year can't beat it.

I think the shop is called Broadbents and it's in the street opposite the market hall.

This reminds me of a picture of my daughter,taken in '68 or '69---- "Santa" had red hair and freckles to go with his fake belly and large white beard!! Happy days!

That Santa (and the one who climbed the ladder) was my Great Uncle Douglas Lowe :0)