Wigan Album
Market Street, Wigan
4 Comments
Photo: RON
Item #: 4178
Photograph taken by his son William who followed in his father's footsteps.
Would the building in the right of the picture be the old Bluecoat school I wonder?
lovely to see the man - and thee place where my Collier ancestors had their phots taken in thw 1890s...adds much welcome meat to the genealogical bones
This info is taken from the National Archives Records of James Millard's Studio according to them is was built in the 1880's:-
James Millard's original studios, which he built himself, opposite the market hall in Wigan, approximately on the site of the present Queen's Hall. James himself is standing in the doorway. C.1895. Printed in gold letters on dark green mount: Millard, Artist, Opposite Market Hall, Wigan Cabinet. Wigan Observer 27 October 1983: "It stood where the Queens Hall now is and, neat and tidy though it is, the studio is built on spare land left vacant after the first building to occupy the site, the large wooden erection known as the Queens Theatre, was burned down on February 4, 1878. Old maps show that before the theatre was built a bowling green occupied the site in the early C19th. James Millard must have operated there in the years between about 1880 and the end of the century. The studio was certainly gone by May 15, 1907, for that is when the foundation stone of the Queens Hall was laid."
This is a very belated comment but a necessary one - another absolute gem of a Wigan photo, courtesy yet again of Ron.