Wigan Album

And there was me thinking onesies were a modern creation!

I was 3 years old,a good time to be born.My wife has some PJ's like the chap on the left.Bless 'em all.

I recollect in the late 1950s, when in the Wigan Police, being sent to a domestic dispute that was taking place in a residence in Harrogate Street. The gentleman of the house continued to complain to me, that his wife had poured the contents of the chamber pot all over him. He kept on asking me to feel how wet he was. I declined his offer, with a few choice words.

This photo was originally uploaded by my eldest brother Bryan in 2014.
This was before I was born in 1948 but I recognise many of the people in this picture.
Of the two lady's on the back left I think one was names Iris, she like all the others lived in Douglas Street but never married and lived with her mother.
In front in the spotted 'onesie' is Mrs Hampson.
Not sure about the lady in the baggy trousers but the lady next to her is Annie MaGee.
The head she is holding is that of Margaret (Peggy) Walker with her husband Jimmy Walker at the back with the flat cap. He was a cobbler having his shop in Millgate further up from the Baths Hotel.
I can't Identify the lady in what looks like a Bus Conductresses uniform but the three lady's to the right behind are:
Sarah (Sally) Traynor my Mum, holding my brother Alan who sadly past away in 2003.
Cannot recall the name of the Lady in the middle but I think she was the daughter of Mr & Mrs Housley, I think she married a curate from Culcheth. They used to come to visit in the 1950's with two children on the train to Central Station and when departing they used to get waved off as the train passed by from the bottom of Douglas Street.
On the far right is Mrs Hooton and her son Glenville, he would be the same age as 'Our' Alan and he came to his funeral.
Within what seemed a few short years all that was gone, everyone dispersed to flats and housing estates.
Parts of the old cobbles of Douglas Street still remained for many years trapped and inaccessible between the new Harrogate Street Police Station Garage and Douglas House.
I walked down there recently since the conversion to a Premier Inn and it looked like the last vestiges of a once proud community, cobbles and all had vanished beneath a new, extended car park.
All that's left are the memories of a simple but happy childhood with my brothers and friends, the games we used to play and learning to ride a bike on those old cobbled Street.