Wigan Album

Such memories! I remember when Tom Whalley's pet shop was down there in the 1960s before he moved to Millgate, and there was a parrot in a cage outside the door. Many years later there was a second-hand bookshop there with a mish-mash of books in creaky rooms up very rickety stairs. The colourisation is perfect in its subtlety, because, walking up past The Wiend's ancient buildings in the 1960s, it DID feel as if you were in a "black-and-white" world, except for Tom Whalley's colourful parrot!

Another one you have brought to life Keith.
In the late 1960’s I bought quite few shirts and ties from Harry Jones’s shop. I think it’s now inter grated into Wetherspoons providing a side entrance.

I think I used to go with my grandfather to a printers shop in the Wiend. I would sit on a tall stool while he talked to some men....I had no idea what they talked about. Wigan should have kept more areas like The Wiend instead of demolishing them.

The Printer’s was Ezra Sidebottom's I knew someone who worked there in the sixties. What a name to conjure with it’s definitely a name that wouldn’t be out of place in a Charles Dicken’s novel.

Helen, that would probably have been Ezra Sidebotham's, they were in the Wiend on the left as you went up there from the Millgate end.
Interesting that you can come across the word Wiend quite often in many Scottish towns, I think its meaning is a 'Winding' small ally, what we might call a Ginnel. It could be a left over from when this area was part of the Kingdom of Strathclyde ot given its name by Bonny Prince Charlie when he stayed in Wigan but perhaps the Strathclyde bit is stretching credibility too far. Nothing like having a romantic past.

The Wiend is still there, Helen. I wasn't sure from your comment if you thought it had been demolished or whether you just meant that places similar to it should have been preserved. My apologies if I have misunderstood but I would hate you to think The Wiend had gone! It doesn't stretch as far round as it did years ago, but the part shown on today's p-a-d is still there. The printer's was apparently Ezra Sidebotham's.

Ezra Sidebotham was a familiar name to me when growing up in Wigan, I was told the “correct” pronunciation phonetically was “Siddy-bo-tham"

Thank you for all the information on the printers....good to know it wasn't a figment of my imagination !

Tickles was the go to shop Mr Tickle was the only one who knew where anything was but he always had time to search it out, I seem to remember a Mr Heaton who had worked for Harry Jones eventually took the business over.

The Wiend, a narrow little street reminds me of the Shambles in York, or in a quaint Cornish fishing village like Port Isaac, Polperro, Mevagissey, Mousehole, Padstow, Looe, Fowey, St Ives.