Wigan Album

Lovely! I love pics of old shops. Is this near the top of Gerrard Street? I used to work in Richardson's Chemists at 61, Gerrard Street and there was a fruit and veg shop between the Chemists and Natwest Bank in those days.

Allan , I remember your Father-in-Law very well he was a true gentleman of the old schoo. How shopkeepers looked after their costomers would be a revelation to most of todays shop assistants .

Hi Irene. I was almost certain you'd make a comment about this lovely old photo. When I was a child growing up in Lower Ince there used to be a grocery shop called Walkdens on Warrington Road, next door to Benny the butchers shop, with the post office on the other side. My sister and I would regularly go in these shops with our grandmother. She would always buy us a little treat.
Magic memories Irene!

Hello Margaret.....how well you know me! I can't resist old shops and their fixtures and fittings. We had a fruit and veg shop similar to the one in the photo in Higher Ince. Besides fruit and veg it sold fish and flowers and I can still smell it. There are mounds of fruit and veg in the Supermarkets today but you just don't get that smell from them that you did in our childhood.

Did the fruit and veg shop belong to Walter Haliwell?

Thank you tom, you are so right, he was the perfect gentleman.

Margaret. When you mention the post office in Lower Ince, were you referring to the one next to the old coal yard, on Warrington Road. I recollect that there was an, off licence, on the opposite side of the road, I believe that it was on the corner of Delegarde Street. Was there also a cobbler's shop near to the post office? plus a shop where you could get the accumulator charged up?. I have some recollection of going there when I was a boy, then living in Spring View, and getting the accumulator charged up, then being refused by the conductor of the bus to travel, because I had this accumulator, which I now know he was correct.

Jim Latham , Walter Halliwell' shop was on the opposite side of Gerard Street, when Walter retired the shop was incoperated into Greens Supermarket.

Hello Albert. I'm afraid I don't remember an old coal yard but it may well have been there. There was an off licence
across the road called Johnny Tindall's and one on the other side as well. Yes there used to be a cobblers shop and there were three chippies- Ward's, Rooney's and Lane's. It was a nice little community and we were 'short of nowt'

Thank you Margaret. The period I was referring to in my comment was 1943/44. The other shops I remember, in the 50s, were, further along Warrington Road, towards Wigan, left hand side. a toffee shop, then Stan Mason's newsagent, then the White Swan. On the corner of Knowle Street, was a butcher's shop, and opposite, corner of Manley Street, was a snack bar, with a juke box in. on the opposite corner was Harvey's bakery, later a milk distribution premises. On the same side as Knowle Street,along still further was Mr Berry's chemist, and Alf Taylor's, draper's shop. All now have bit the dust, SAD isn't it.

Saw this by chance. Speaking of old shops, does anyone remember my grandmother's shop in Bolton Road. It was opposite the Caledonian and next to (with a kind of dirt track in between) Turton's chemist. It sold everything: groceries, sweets, cigarettes, etc.