Wigan Album

Frank,thank you for these nostalgic photos.They are lovely to look back on.My husband was one of the plumbers on the swimming pool about 1963/64. Parish church to the right were my niece got married.Lovely memories.

Much as be lost in the photo and indeed out of the photo, our railway station and the international swimming pool to name just two. Thanks for the great memories Frank.

In the location shown. The old Wigan swimming pool was situated. I enjoyed many a happy hour in this pool, in the forties, and early fifties. Learned how to swim in this pool.
Later enjoyed going dancing there. They covered the pool. Entrance fee, a shilling. (5p)

Another photo to stir the imagination. I see myself again going to the library and the swimming baths with others from school. I can even see the school clinic in my mind's eye just up the hill in that fine building at the top. That's where the school's nitty Norah's base was. I recall seeing her when I went to the school dentist.... there's a memory at every turn if you look for them.

In the early days of the pool opening, got my hand and knuckles badly scalded as a young boy, when boiling hot water came out of one of the basin taps. Had to be taken to the Infirmary for treatment as the skin on my hand was a mess . Next time I looked that same tap had been removed. Some things you don't forget.

This photograph looks like it was taken from Woodcock House flats that was the first block to be built before identical Crompton, Mannion, Derby and Brook House so I am guessing the date to be about 1967. Wigan International swimming pool was built about 1964/65 about the same time as Douglas House flats, and work has started on the Millgate multistorey car park evident by the crane. There are also recently built portakabins, (I think that was the Wigan council housing department offices). I don't know what the chimney was in the distance. The three vehicles parked on the site where buildings have been demolished look like a Bedford CA van, Hillman Imp and Ford Anglia with a Mk1 Cortina estate just in the picture near the Horseshoe pub. and a white car near the bus is possibly a Vauxhall Victor FD. The Wigan Corporation bus is identified as a Massey not a Northern Counties bodied front entrance long Leyland PD3 and not a short PD2, and will be EJP501-504, GJP8-10 17-19, HEK705-707 and HJP1-4.

Does anyone know when the railway bridge to Central station was demolished?

Looks like a Palatine truck just above the Cortina estate

I would guess late 60's early 70' John, to be honest I thought it was better and so light! It always seemed dreary walking underneath it.

The car is not an Hillman Imp but a Hillman Minx , MR X. No buildings have been demolished where they are only the railway bridge abutman.

The bridge to Central station was demolished around 1967-68.

Looking at the old Mining College the section on Millgate side is a different style to the rest of the building, was this an extension?

Superb picture Frank.

Yes it would have been taken from Woodcock House but Douglas House was the first block to be built, we moved there just before Christmas 1961 or 62.
Of those shops in the foreground one was a Newsagent and one was a Hairdresser. The Hairdressers moved to that low building at the side of The Children’s Library on Station Road.
The tower crane can be seen starting the construction of Millgate Multi Story Car Park. Which remind me I had forgotten about that Multi Storey Car Park on the site of the Central Station, that didn’t last too long either! Wonder if there’s any pictures of that?