Wigan Album

In these photos the thing that strikes me most is the lack of litter & 'street furniture'. Today roads are awash with road signs. The NNDC here just love putting
up a new sign where there has never been one before !
Good image Keith.

Oddly, I don't recall Station Road once you got past The Ritz Cinema, simply because I never went further than the cinema......I have no recollection whatsoever of Central Station, for example, even though it was there when I used to attend the ABC Minors as a child. So I don't recall this end of Stairgate, but didn't the OTHER end come out in Millgate?

Another great colourisation Keith, it looks like it was taken yesterday but of course it no longer exists!
I must have walked passed or up and down Stairgate a million times from the early 50’s right up to when it was demolished. Memories!

I’ve run down there in tall heels many times at night. No fear in those days.

Colin, I share your memories of this place, not least when I spent 2 years at the Art College in the very early 1960’s.

Irene, I am the same as you. I never knew where the went after it passed the Ritz, same reason too....I never ever walked down there !

A good colourisation of the photo Keith, the side of the Central Hall to the right looks in a bad condition and yet from the front it looked to be a wonderful building.
From the Album here's a photo by John Pennington taken from the top, and is of a jack-knifed coal wagon on Stairgate. https://www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/photo.php?opt=5&id=12946&gallery=Stairgate&page=1

Central Hall, two photos from the Album by Ron. https://www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/photo.php?opt=5&id=32830&gallery=Station+Road%2C+Wigan&page=2

https://www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/photo.php?opt=5&id=33425&gallery=Station+Road%2C+Wigan&page=2

On the other end at the top was the famous Penningtons. In fact going inside the store you walked downhill to where some of the beds were stocked. It was a good shortcut.

Back in the 1950s my Dad decided to rent a "Pen" (ie a piece of land with some outbuildings) to keep chickens and ducks. There was an old stable on it so he decided to buy a pony and a dog cart as well. Apparently back even earlier in the 1920s and 30s when he was growing up in Ince lots of small boys learned how to drive a horse and cart by "having a go" !!

Anyway one day he decided to drive the horse and dog cart into Wigan with me (very young boy) sitting up by his side. All went well until we were going along Station Road and he (or the pony) decided for some reason to go up Stairgate. I still vividly remember having to get off and push. at the back.

Carolaen, whereabouts in Ince did your Dad live in the 1920s and 1930s, please, and later in the 1950s? I hope you don't mind my asking. I am just interested as my family were from Ince and I was born there in 1952.

The building halfway on the right was engineering works . The also had a workshop in Wiend , II think it was Naylors although I'm not 100% on that .

Carolaen, liked the tale of the pony & cart also the 'pen'
My Uncle Fred Foster used to take me down to the pen he had behind the shop in Billinge Rd, Pemberton. He had an old railway carriage where he kept his chickens & used to let me collect the eggs. I'm sure folk today would think it was a bit of a tip but it was a magical place to me.

Helen, you're absolutely right......those old pens were so homely and they WERE magical, with the older men congregating to smoke their pipes and have a chat, with hens "scratting round", and some men grew a few vegetables and flowers too. I love to catch a glimpse of allotments today, with veg and sunflowers growing, and even pumpkins at this time of year, and little home-made sheds and greenhouses. My husband's mate keeps chickens and ducks, albeit in a much more tidy place than the pens we remember from our childhood, but they are happy birds and the eggs are delicious!

That tale made me chuckle Carolean but surely some friendly folk might have come to the aid of you and your dad.
Reminds me of the one and only time me and my pal were given a ride on a horse and cart along Vauxhall Rd. I don’t know who the chap was but he always rode up Higham St and he wore glasses. This would be in the fifties as well.

Irene. He grew up in Albert Street just by Rose Bridge and moved to Scholes in the late 40s after the war. Many apologies if I don't give away too much personal info. We had a traumatic experience a few years ago when my wife was cyber stalked - including emails and letters from a complete unknown from many miles away with no connection to us at all. people can get so much detailed information from quite small scraps of data Ultimately the police were involved. It has made us very wary.

You are absolutely right in what you say, Carolaen, about being wary after what must have been a horrific experience. The internet is a wonderful thing in sensible hands....look how it has enabled us all to see all these old photos of Wigan and to exchange our memories......but it can also be a very dangerous thing in the wrong hands. It's just that I am always interested if I read that someone has a connection to Ince.

Can remember Stairgate very well.Used to cut down there with work mates to the 'New Way ' cafe after finishing work at Saturday dinner time

Remember joining Sea Cadets in mid 60s. Based in what I think was a disused church or chapel at the top right hand side of stairgate

Keith C
The building you refer to was Christ Church Millgate Free Church of England formed in protest at the then Rector of All Saints introducing High Church paractices
It was still in use n the 1950s.My great Uncle Sam was a worshipper there's was Oliver Somers/The Somers sons were Sea Cadets and that may explain the connection

Has anyone got a photograph of the Christ Church Millgate Free Church of England As mentioned in the previous comment? Must say I can't remember the church?

To paraphrase Led Zeppelin, she is taking Stairgate to Millgate!! Indeed this short street led from Millgate down the side of the Civic Centre (built after this picture) on to Station Road, opposite Central Station and later, George Makinson's showroom.

I have a book about a lad who grew up in Millgate in the 1950s, Ron, and went straight to it as I hoped there might be photos of the church in it but no luck.