Wigan Album

The staff in shops like this knew exactly where anything you asked for was, even in those maze of displays, noticed the chair on which old ladies would usually sit telling the assistants what they needed, who would then get the order ready and packed into a bag or their baskets. I can imagine that there would be a wonderful aroma in there too.

Did this shop later become Latimer's halfway down Market Street and on a corner of Commercial Yard, or was it in a different shop altogether? I would give anything to walk inside there! I get a monthly Yorkshire magazine called The Dalesman and in my latest copy a girl writes of the shops of her childhood and says, "My Uncle Sydney worked in the Co-op Grocery and could do amazing things with squares of paper to make a packet of sugar or loose tea".....that was an art that has sadly been lost and I would love to learn how to do it! My husband worked in Commercial Yard when I was still at school and Latimer's had an entrance in the Yard as well as on Market Street, and I can remember going to buy an ounce of fresh yeast, (which my Mam always called "barm"), for bread-making lessons in Domestic Science around 1968,, ( this was before yeast came dried in little packets), and seeing Peter through the window in the butcher's! The Co-op at Beamish Open Air Museum is a joy, and walking round it in 1940s clothes is at the forties event is something I will never forget. I actually have some original paper bags with "Brooke Bond Tea" advertised on them hung up in my kitchen, as well as some little three-cornered toffee bags and some original paper carrier bags with string handles. (Yes, I'm Potty, but nice with it, I hope!!) Lol!

Irene, Tom Walsh explains in the link where Peterkin's shop was on Market Street,
https://www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/photo.php?opt=5&id=21292&gallery=Market+Place%252C+Wigan&offset=80

I remember it being Cooper's as my uncle would buy cans of Papaya from there, he had done his National Service in Malaya and had got a taste for that and other exotic fruit whilst there, he said you could go and pick a fresh Papaya from the trees growing wild, though he then would call it Paw-paw.

Thankyou Cyril.....I have just amazed myself by actually managing to get the link! (I am useless with technology!). But get it I did, and I now know that Latimer's wasn't originally Peterkins, but I would give my right arm to walk into either of the shops as they were back in their day! I sometimes think I was either born in the wrong era or I have been here before!

My next door neighbour worked in the office upstairs at Peterkins in the 1940's.It was on the corner of Market St. and Hallgate. I was fascinated by the cash being sent to and fro on the overhead wires

Do you know what other shops took over in later years Gordon. Especially the sixties?

James E Peterkin in 1939
1939 Register
284 Wigan Lane, Wigan, Wigan C.B., Lancashire, England James R Peterkin 13 Jul 1873 Male Managing Director Grocery Provisions & Confectioner Married
Annie Peterkin 19 Aug 1890 Female Unpaid Domestic Duties Married
James E Peterkin 17 Sep 1917 Male Grocer's Manager Single
Joan Peterkin 29 Dec 1919 Female Teacher (Commercial) Single
Catherine A Crompton 26 Jun 1897 Female Maid Married

Sorry Veronica,I can't remember who took over but I think there was a UCP shop next door. I left Wigan in 1967 and am now in Australia.

Veronica, now that Gordon has mentioned it, I vaguely remember the UCP Cafe being at the top end of Market Street but can't recall its exact position.

It’s just that I seem to remember buying a sewing machine from a shop on the corner Gordon. Perhaps I’ve dreamt it. It was in 1969.

Yes there was a Grocer’s nearer to the top Irene. You couldn’t stir for them at one time. The assistants always seemed to wear white thick cotton uniforms in those days. You knew what you were eating in those days.

Irene, UCP later became Blutos, then the Co-op Bank. Now it is a post office, next door to the corner shop which sells Teddy's etc.

Peterkins was takeover by Coopers High Class Grocers . It was certainly there in 1964 , I can't remember when it finally closed . Coopers I think was Liverpool firm