Wigan Album

Yes, another lovely memory. I remember going in the cafe with my mother or auntie.

Lowe's store was like Grace Brothers in "Are You Being Served?"....all carpets and creaky floors and staircases and a "hushed" atmosphere. I went into Broadbent's department store in Southport some years ago and it was just like Lowe's! I believe Lowe's had a ghost and that, after its demolition, she was actually seen in the bank that was built on the site.

I wonder what the story was about the ghost. I love a good ghost story Irene.(she/he might have got stuck in the lift on a long weekend).. Cyril might know something about it..;o))

There's an easy was to know if a place is haunted -it isn't..

It is someone who used to work there who told me about the ghost, Veronica; I won't mention names. He told me that the night security man's dog was aware of something, and I truly believe animals can see, hear and sense what we can't.

So do I too Irene.
When I worked at the Royal Bolton I heard quite a few tales of things that happened on wards. I have an open mind about things like that.

I don't know much about it Veronica, only that it was originally in the White Lion, Tom Walsh who worked there wrote about Lowes on here, https://www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/photo.php?opt=5&id=21238&gallery=Market+Place%252C+Wigan&offset=80

He tells about other tales on other threads too.
I never knew that Greenwoods had taken it over.

I was expecting a few Wigan ghost tales on here, but no there are Ince ghosts from where the author David Barnett grew up and Red Clogs who seems to be a universally seen chap always with blood on his best pit clogs, there's a few ghosts around Manchester's hospitals and Winwick gets a mention too, but why are nuns always seen walking through doors? and women in white or grey running down corridors into the vantablack darkness of our imagination:
https://manchestermill.co.uk/p/red-clogs-greater-manchester-ghosts

Cyril, I added a comment this morning but it hasn't appeared. It was just to say that my son used to go out with a girl whose Dad worked at Winwick Hospital and he told us quite a few ghostly tales. The atmosphere in that hospital was probably enhanced by the problems of those unfortunate patients, especially in Victorian times, although I'm sure things were different in later days. I definitely recall us kids in Ince frightening each other with tales of the ghost of "Kitty-Beawt-Yed" of Ince Hall.

In 1983 the following businesses were listed as being in the Lowe's Department Store - Norman & Philip Hairdressing, Pope Brothers Electrical (in the basement), Roy's Restaurant, Shears Ladies & Gents Hairdresser, Dixons and Thomas Cook. I can't recall going in myself (I was only a little un back then) but I wonder if Lowe's was trying to keep afloat by renting out bits of the store. Or where there always other shops using it?

Paul, Tom in his comment said that Greenwood's Menswear had taken over the store, so maybe it was they who later got these businesses in to use parts of the store to sell their goods, and so as keeping it as a department store.

Irene, I suppose those walls will have seen some really gruesome happenings in times gone by. I had been past there a couple of times and always thought it looked dispiriting, though the brother of my brother in law was a psychiatric nurse there, and he was once saying that the gardens in the grounds were kept beautiful, and that you wouldn't think so from the outside. *Yes, there are a few tales I've read on here about 'Kitty', when as kids and telling each other these ghost tales you could be scared witless if you let your imagination run riot, though we all liked hearing them.

I am sure if I've got my facts right - didn't Lowes close it's doors in 1984 or the following year (1985)?

I do recall Woolworths also pulled out of Wigan around the same time.

Thomas Cook ended up moving across the street to the opposite corner (this is now Hays Travel) - although there is currently no signage for some reason.

Didn't Dixons ended up moving to the row of shops where Santander is now located on Market Place?

I weren't sure if Dixons were in the Galleries when it first opened, but I might be thinking of Tandy.

CJ

CJ : I'm not sure about the year but you're right about Dixons moving to the other side of Market Place. It was Tandy in the Galleries.