Photo-a-Day  (Wednesday, 20th July, 2022)

was it worth the hassle

Unrecognisable to me …

Lovely section of road for motorist, pedestrians and cyclist

I had a walk along this section last week, I would have thought the cycle lane would be along the side of the main highway but it intertwines and parts of it pedestrians are at the side of the main road. I saw two mobility scooters use the cycle lane and all the pedestrians were walking along the cycle lane because they could not be bothered to keep crossing from one side to the other?

of course it was look at all those wonderful cycling lanes full of cyclists

So after months and months of disruption the traffic doesn't flow any better

My husband Peter worked in a butchers in Wallgate as a young lad, in the 1960s and used to deliver orders on a shop-bike, with a huge basket attached to it, to the terraced houses that were there back then. He says it was a very close-knit community, a warren of streets with many people related to each other, neighbours chatting as they mopped their steps and children playing on the cobbles. I wonder what they'd think if they saw it like this?

That bike track is totally useless. Every time I go past there is never a bike on it.

Apart from the railway bridge nothing looks familiar to me regarding Wallgate.
Arnold Clark currently does the best trade-in deals of any major car retailer in the UK and is good for vans. With so many people self employed that range is sound business.

Veronica, I will give you a clue. From Wigan North Western station, walk
down Wallgate under the railway bridges for about 300 yards, then turn
around and look back where you have just walked from, and you will see
this location. Cheers, Ray.

Brilliant job !
Considering it was completed in just under a decade , by what appeared to me to be just three lads doing a foreigner in their dinner hour .

Thanks Ray, there’s been so many changes in that area though. Nothing stays the same
it would be impossible in this day and age.

The change from recent years is unrecognisable. A lot of time spent on simply blocking a cut-through.
Compare now with THEN -

https://www.google.com/maps/@53.5423879,-2.6380461,3a,37.5y,37.73h,85.21t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1skPC6-2dkfcua-SvS3i9pdg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Is it only Wiganers that can get so lost so easily in the town they grew up in.

Bring back the 60s

I've not been down Wallgate for years, but I know where the photo was taken.
We usually go to the ASDA in Skem.

Within five years it will change again....Council money wasting policy.

Yon 0zy bloke thinks his cleaver.
Great job the highways department.

James people used to remember an area by its pubs /churches. Over time even the smallest of areas around Wigan have changed and if you do not live in these areas then it takes time to get your bearings A good example is the area around Robin Park/Martland Mill

I didn’t know you were an axe man in your spare time Ozy….
I haven’t driven for a few years I would hate to go down that way these days, even though I passed my test in Wigan. It was bad enough 30 odd years ago.

Mr Hanson, I dont think it is only Wiganers who get lost. I knew Wigan till the 1950's and after that had been back several times to visit relatives but last time it was a disaster.....hadnt a clue where we were, nothing looked as it had been the time before & it wasnt till we had cleared what I remembered as the Seven Stars Bridge that anything made any sense whatsoever. I think a good Lancashire town has been ruined.

A big mistake was the loss of the market. Still have happy memories of fresh local veg outside and the wet fish shops. The Lanashire tomatoes were so good my mum would get two bags so we could eat lots of them on the bus home. My aunt ended up going to Chorley instead.

What a characterless and unpleasant sight Wallgate has become, all those familiar unique and full of character buildings replaced by grey day concrete, plastic and tarmac, could now be any town, any place, anywhere.

I know some of the buildings along there couldn't be described as being desirable, but the majority of the buildings especially the pubs were kept in good order, pleasant to look at and enjoyable to go into.

Wallgate looks lovely very modern and clean, the photos even got a Tesla electric car on it.
Well captured Mick

A massive white elephant. cost a fortune. had to be redone because of cock-ups. the road works caused chaos and chucked many more tonnes of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. in fairness there are thousands who have jumped out of their cars and onto their bikes to use the cycleway. a total success.

It’s a strange feeling because I haven’t lived in Wigan for half a century. But I have always felt I still belonged in the town of my birth, there’s always been a ‘pull’ for me, strangely It’s now more a feeling of being ‘pushed’ away as more and more changes take place. I always felt at home when I came and now it seems there’s not much to come for…Wigan for me was an addiction that has been forcibly ‘overcome’! Sad to say.

Two bikes coming down the bike track past Clayton st yesterday. I shudder to think if they had been on the road.

Two in one day Bill? O man, it's total gridlock!!