Wigan Album

A telling image. Some time ago I read a report published in the 1800's on Can Row...somebody mentioned the area recently on PAD.... It is very hard today to read about the conditions that
folk had to live in back then. Children never living beyond infancy, disease & filth. How people coped I don't know. Things can't have moved on much if this was 1939 but people did the best they could.

I have seen this photo before and I believe it was posed especially for Picture Post. There is another one taken in the Scholes area, and very similar, also for Picture Post, of a man standing against a wall with two children near to him; if I remember correctly, one of them is carrying a box advertising something, (Stork margarine, maybe?). Your colourisation of these black and white photos, Keith, is excellent, as the colours are muted rather than bright, and bring the photos to life without making them look too modern.

The children could still be alive in their 80’s. I wonder what the child on the left is doing.
Reaching up for something..might be a cat! I wonder where it was exactly. There was a yard I remember leading off Hardybutts into Scholes where Pie Joe’s shop was. Those terraced houses were really old. I don't recognise the tall buildings in the background.

I wonder if the man was called up in the Army in 1939 . Many men volunteered around that time.

the lad may looks like he leaning on the outside of the old toilets .may he is waiting his turn .

An official report in the 19th century into Lancashire housing stated that the Wigan had some of the worst of the county’s housing problems. My maternal great grandmother who lived in 6 different Wigan town centre houses at that time gave birth to 14 children. Only 6 survived to adulthood. All others died either before their first birthday or shortly after.

An official report in the 19th century into Lancashire housing stated that the Wigan had some of the worst of the county’s housing problems. My maternal great grandmother who lived in 6 different Wigan town centre houses at that time gave birth to 14 children. Only 6 survived to adulthood. All others died either before their first birthday or shortly after.

Veronica, could the tall building at the back be the old boy's School?

I see where you’re coming from Tuddy - around the area where the Cotton Tree pub was
but not too sure. Behind the bottom end of John St there was some very old houses which were demolished before the rest of John St.

Keith, your Grandparents story is very similar to my own.
My Grandmother on my fathers side gave birth to 18 children all died except for six who grew up into Adults, two girls and four boys. I have the birth and death records on paper having to see proof to believe it. Most if not all of these deaths were in the late 1800's early 1900's.
The housing conditions, sanitation and lack of health care around Scholes and Hardybutts where they lived at that time must have been shocking.

My family the Morans lived in Hardybutts at this time

If just two of us who contribute to this site have such similar stories Colin, I wonder how many families in Wigan, living around that time, have similar stories. The death rate of children must have been horrific. I’ve mentioned this before but in a survey of Lancashire industrial towns in the 19th century Wigan, it was named, as having the worst of all housing conditions.