Wigan Album
Backyard studio
10 Comments
Photo: dk
Item #: 15480
I imagine that having this photograph taken would have been something out of the ordinary and would have had to have been weighed against eggs and salt and sugar and tea and so I have left the little peering face on this pic. What's the betting that he was sent out of shot a dozen times and still couldn't resist coming to have a look? What's the betting he got one round the ear'ole when the print came out?
They all seem very proud.
Take it the little lad on the right of the photo was a neighbour trying to sneak in on the shot !!
This photo speaks words.When I grew up in Wigan in the 40/50s it wasn't unusual for several generation to live in one small house.3 generations wasn't unusual and I can remember one household of 4 generations.
Those were the days, eh I think not, watched my mother and grandmother many a time doing the Monday housewife's routine, boiling water on a fire hob or in a copper if you were lucky enough, possing and rubbing clothes on a wash board in a dolly tub, rinsing with a dolly blue and a packet of starch in the water and then putting them through a mangle, then when dry putting a razor edge crease on the clothes and bedsheets etc with a flat iron. Like you have said dk someones done some dazzling work, and not a speck of dirt to be seen on them best pinny's.
Thankyou so much for these photos, dk, you've done Wigan World proud! Has anyone got pics of Raven Street or Farmer Street, which were part of the Viaducts area of Ince?
fantastic photo love it we could do with more like this this is how i remember wigan
One thing not yet been mentioned, is that everyone is wearing clogs, probably with rubber irons on um
Aitch, I had clogs as a young child in the fifties, (born 1952, long after our Colin, who you know). AND my son Jamie had clogs in the 70s, made by Walter Hurst, but when my daughter Ashley was born in the 80s, I couldn't afford them as I wasn't working then. So expensive today, being hand-made.
My mam and siblings were born in Farmer Street. No 20. Some of my cousins were born there too.
I have a pair of clogs made by Walter Hurst in 1995, they cost £50, and Iv'e still got um. You have to learn how to walk in them, totally different to boots.
Hello Kathleen, how are you? I remember the Hartley and Aaron families from Farmer Street. I was always down there as my friend from junior school lived in Raven Street.