Wigan Album

They asked me how I knew, it was Esso Blue, I of course replied, with other brands I've tried, smoke gets in your eyes

Good comment Mick!
I'll be humming that tune now all afternoon. As for Corporation St, not sure where that was.

I take it this picture is taken at the junction of Pool Street where the Honeysuckle Pub is?

Got to love the fact there were very few cars back then - you only have to look at the terraced streets off Gidlow Lane nowadays to see how bad parking is.

Just out of curiosity - when were these houses demolished?

Great picture. My old mate's Grandparents lived in this street.

They asked me how I knew
it was Esso Blue.
I of course replied,
with lower grades one buys,
smoke gets in your eyes.

On a serious note, my mate's mum lived within 100yds of that corner shop from her birth to her death. She suffered from dementure.
When she was in her 90's, he was called out in the middle of the night, as she was stood alone, on that very corner with her dressing gown on.
When asked what she was doing there, she replied, "well, my mum's sent me to the shop for a bottle of milk, but it's gone".
A short circuit had brought back memories stored for over eighty years.

Professor Hanson it's dementia not dementure !
Very sad story though

The last photo showed flared pants and platform shoes, this one the girl is in a mini skirt...Fashion come & go.

CJAlan all those houses along corporation street were all demolished before 1975, my mum and dad lived in Peet street just off corporation street, and our home was the last to be demolished in our street, approx 1975/76, think i was about 6 when we moved

Bum bum bum bum esso blue.

I took this picture in 1972. One day I'll do a book of then and now pictures including pictures like this. Ron if you want the original versions of any pictures let me know.

Frank a book 'NOW AND THEN' would be great then the younger generation could see the REAL WIGAN. When you think what Station Road was like the "younger"people going in the GRAND ARCADE couldn't comprehend it. Probably the people responsible for decimating the town i.e. knocking down the Market Hall knocking down iconic buildings to build two SHOPPING CENTRES, which have turned out to WHITE ELEPHANTS..These people had no affinity to Wigan and probably don't work in the town now.

Ron, how many white elephants has there been in Wigan? What about the upside down houses in Scholes,in the 70s. The architect absconded and then they were demolished.

Theres so many towns in the area and out of town shopping centres, that there's no point in going to Wigan anymore. We tend to go to Leigh or Westhoughton and Horwich nowadays.

My dad came from a street off corporation st,4a wignall st, he lived there from 1920-1949 till he married my mam and moved to spring view.

remember this street well ,the streets on the right side ;walmer st, peet st wignall st,robert st,[formerly byron st].the houses on the left backed onto the river douglas; my grandmother lived at 3 wignall st until 1963

AH, you're grandmother must have known my dad's family, My dad's step brother, Fred Gavaghan lived at 4a wignall st all his life till he died in 1970.

Did there used to be a chippie on this street? It didn’t have a sign as such just a house front door and a counter inside . We used to walk to it from school . It was on one of these streets . Lovely little chip pie it was. Anyone remember a chippie lik this in this area . Will be in the 70s

Owd viewer,
I remember my sister talking about a girl called Vena Gavaghan who live at the Corporation St end of Wignall street. Next door may have been the Murdoch family. We lived in Roberts St

If you look at the right side of the photo it looks like there's a pub sign, was there a pub in corporation st.?.

John, Vena was Fred's daughter, I lost touch with them around mid sixtys, so any information about them helps, thanks.

owd viewer; john Gaskell: my grand parents were bob & sally Wilkinson constance Wilkinson was my mother : mary Murdoch married name was moran: families I can remember in wignall st were; lowe, critchley ,riding ,Murdoch, moran ,gornik. The sign in corporation st is possibly the conservative club or the off license,the pub at the poolstock lane end was the westwood hotel:Jimmy berry barbers shop.hunters shop. myers shop & a butchers shop were all on corporation st

There was a pub at the far end the door entrance was in Poolstock Lane it was called The Westwood, across the street from it was an Off Licence.Across from the pub in Poolstock Lane there was a chippy (reids) .Next to the old Labour club coming back up the street there was a Barbers, grocers, Conservative Club , A 2nd hand shop, a Butchers, Another off licence, & a Post office. there was a chippy on Pool street called Edmondsons, also Taylors chippy & achippy in Coronation St.

Harry the chippie you describe was in pool st I think it was bulloughs

Bulloughs chippy was on Pool Street. The Conservative club was on the corner of Peet St.

Betty Lawson had a hairdressers as well.

Cindy ; I know frank reid it was his parents chippie ,his nickname was "chip".the chippie in coronation st was may tinsley,s it is now a house.the butchers on corporation st was eccles,s. I could not remember the post office;

Owd viewer/John Gaskell.
Interesting that you mention the name Gavaghan. There was a Gavaghan family in Chadwick Street (just a stone’s throw away from Corporation Street, across Pool Street.) in the 1950s. They had a son called Frank. I think they emigrated to Australia in the early 1950s and returned a few years later, to settle in Ince.
Could they be relations of those you mentioned?

Owd viewer/John Gaskell.
Interesting that you mention the name Gavaghan. There was a Gavaghan family in Chadwick Street (just a stone’s throw away from Corporation Street, across Pool Street.) in the 1950s. They had a son called Frank. I think they emigrated to Australia in the early 1950s and returned a few years later, to settle in Ince.
Could they be relations of those you mentioned?

AH You are right it was Bulloughs,& the chippy in Corporation St was tinsley,s, Frank reid worked on the canal if I remember rightly.We lived next door to Fieldhouses in Corporation St.

cindy : later frank reid opened a washing machine repair shop on wigan lane. i remember alan fieldhouse from corporation st . i lived in swan meadow rd utill 1964

I do remember Dick Barton's shop in Pool Street. My nana, Ginny Darbyshire lived on the corner across the road.

My nana's married name was Ginny Jarvis.

Anyone remember or have pictures of the butchers in Corporation Street owned by Eccles's?

My Grandad Green lived at No. 70 Corporation Street in 1927

I think my memories go further back than these comments. I went to the school in Poolstock in 1949. My grandmother lived opposite the school and the chippie was at the end of her row. I remember it as the only one. Was a few doors down from the betting shop. My grandmother and her parents lived in Coronation Street. The only pub was the one opposite the park on the corner of Poolstock and Poolstock Lane. There was a great sweet shop opposite the mill where I went before school