Places   (Help with places, streets and buildings in Wigan.)

whups,

I may have the answer to your telephone quandary.

It is all to do with how things were done in the past.

Something called 'private lines': typically a telephone service that uses a dedicated, usually unswitched point-to-point circuit. I recall doing one of these in 1960's, from Horace's Shoe Shop, at corner of Bryn Street and Wigan Road, in Ashton, to proprietor's home on Liverpool Road. There is only one line to the exchange, and one telephone number. Both home and business can access it. The business phone would be switched through to the house when shop is closed.

In the case which you describe:

Either the chemist or the clinic may have had such a system.

If one home was in Wigan, but the business in St Helens (or vice versa) as far as telephone numbers were concerned, the the phone being connected to the exchange via the private line will apparently be numbered as if in the other area.

Anachronistic, but we did not always have cheap telephony, mobile phones, and suchlike. I remember when waiting list for getting a telephone was commonplace, and many had shared service (party lines) to stretch the available cable capacity.