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Photos of Wigan
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Wigan Album

Millgate

21 Comments

Millgate . Then and now
Millgate . Then and now
Photo: Graham Parkinson
Views: 4,774
Item #: 32571
The old photo shows the top of Millgate with my grandmother's shop (Cunliffe's ) and the Woolpack pub. The other shows what stands on the site today !!!!

Comment by: Helen of Troy on 29th June 2020 at 07:38

Well....I know which photo I like the look of !

Comment by: WN1 Standisher on 29th June 2020 at 09:00

I know which I prefer !

Comment by: Veronica on 29th June 2020 at 09:51

Me too although if I am honest I cannot recall the furthest away pub..

Comment by: Albert.S. on 29th June 2020 at 12:55

In the fifties/sixties there was a brewery somewhere at the rear of this area of Millgate. George Manley a D.C., Wigan Borough, felt the collar of a thief, early one morning, rolling a barrel of beer out of the brewery, and into Millgate.

Comment by: Chris Dickinson on 29th June 2020 at 13:03

Am I right in thinking the Civic Centre building is lying empty now?

Comment by: Donald Underwood on 29th June 2020 at 13:45

Is the pub the Ship?Cliff Richards(not that one) was Mine Host in the 40s & 50s

Comment by: Edna on 29th June 2020 at 23:28

Yes, Chris Dickinson, the civic centre is now empty All the staff from there are now across the road in the Life centre.Another empty building doing nothing.

Comment by: Veronica on 30th June 2020 at 08:29

Let's hope the ugly monstrosity Is demolished. It's a blight on Millgate. I don't think people will protest about that.

Comment by: Cyril on 30th June 2020 at 17:52

According to the pubs of Wigan on Stuff the other pub would have been either The Mitre or The Plume of Feathers.

The quaint buildings and Central station which were used by Crank & Burton's and also the decorative Terracotta church buildings also on Station Road got demolished too to make way for the proposed extension for this awful pustule of a building; and it never did get built, though they would have been eventually demolished when the Architectural Aberration that is called the Grand Arcade was built.

Comment by: WN1 Standisher on 1st July 2020 at 08:52

2 great descriptions there Cyril

Comment by: Phil on 3rd July 2020 at 06:10

The 'Baby Boomer' generation have got a lot to answer for when it comes to architecture.

Comment by: Jarvo on 3rd July 2020 at 12:44

Cyril, not Crank & Burtons, they were in Commercial Yard and then Woodcock Street. I think it was Liveseys that occupied the old railway station site.

Comment by: cindy on 3rd July 2020 at 13:20

There was a brewery behind the Green Curtain called Moorfields.

Comment by: Albert.s. on 3rd July 2020 at 15:04

Thank you cindy. I had forgotten the brewery’s name. I don’t know if anyone knows much about the brewery. Whether, or not it had any pubs, or not?.

Comment by: Cyril on 3rd July 2020 at 19:47

Jarvo, I can remember that the company that had the warehouse/store across the way from the station used part of it to display their goods, I can remember seeing on display fireplaces, Agas and bathroom fittings much like how Crank & Burton would sell and I just assumed it to be them. I've asked Geoff Shryhane and he said he can't even picture the station in his mind though he went regularly along Station Road to The Ritz in the 1960s. In the National Archives there is mention of William Livesey and Son Builders Merchants but no address, though according to Ozzymandias who posted a photo on the Album they have always been on Queen Street. https://www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/photo.php?opt=3&id=29958&gallery=Wm.+Livesey.+Builders+merchants.+Queen+St.&offset=0
So if anyone can recall the name of the company that used Wigan Central station as a showroom and had the store/warehouse across the way please add a comment.

Comment by: Cyril on 3rd July 2020 at 20:01

Albert.s, according to Loz: Comment by: Loz on 13th April 2012 at 19:11
Aye, Moorfield's Atlas Brewery. Moorfields supplied the club trade only.

From this photo by Frank Orrell: https://www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/photo.php?opt=4&id=20415&gallery=Millgate&offset=0

Comment by: Graham Parkinson on 4th July 2020 at 09:22

Great to read so many comments to this picture. . I've been trying for years to find a photo of my nan's shop before it was demolished. I'm sure that somewhere someone has a photo of this part of Millgate. If so, please would you publish it? Thanks

Comment by: Albert.S. on 4th July 2020 at 09:24

Thank you Cyril. Although I could recollect the brewery, It occurred to me that I never saw any mention of their beers on pub premises.

Comment by: WN1 Standisher on 4th July 2020 at 10:22

I think the merchants was Makinsons

Comment by: Cyril on 4th July 2020 at 13:36

Thanks WN1 Standisher, George Makinson it was, also Dougie put a photo of a George Makinson's invoice from 1965 on the Album under Ephemera: https://www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/photo.php?opt=8&id=4573&gallery=Ephemera&offset=40

Comment by: Cyril on 4th July 2020 at 13:51

A poster advertising Makinson's from the Album Ephemera:
https://www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/photo.php?opt=8&id=10033&gallery=Wigan+Shop%252FCompany+Adverts&offset=0

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