Wigan Album

thats Hardybutts on right -correct on Churches though- in background just make out the Wutchie, Grey Hills & Rockies

Malc, to get my bearings, is the main cleared area, with rounded corner, where the Royal George lodging house used to be?

The building in the foreground is The Stanley Arms. The new buildings is Acton House(still there)The bulildindg on the extreme left is Seddons Stocking Factory, by this time it was The Paradise Club. The shop on the right hand side of Hardybutts is Mr.Pomfretts ,a gentleman if ever there was one!

Picture taken from were Brookhouse flats are now

Spring Street with the corner shop (where I was born and lived until I was 7). Stanley Arms pub looking to rear and Amy Lane is the narrow pathway bottom left, it ran down to Scholes Bridge.

that spare land in the middle is where the royal george lodging house was

Is the road in the foreground, Warrington Lane, coming from School Lane, that road would be to the left, if I have got things correct.?

Ron - next street after your was Silver Street where my Grandparents raised their 'clan' (the Griffins)
Slaughter house at the end of the sreet - remember when the odd cow escaped!

Malc you could get from Spring Street to Silver Street by way of what was colloquially named "PIGGY BREW" I think originally there were houses there which had been demolished??? I went to Warrington Lane school and my friend, named Raymond Stotherts, lived next door, or next door but one, to the slaughter house. I remember the first time I saw a NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine was at his house I was in awe <g> I must have been 6 or 7 but I can still remember it very vividly.

scholes malc thats no way to talk about your granma

roy sturgeon; You missed an exclamation mark or lol at the end of your comment.

could not resist just joking

that area used to be my paper round about 1955 hardybutts seemed like 10 mile with a paper bag

Ron, in the war an air raid Shelter was in Piggy brow, My route to Whelley School, was through there past it, and into Silver St past Mc Avoys slaughterhouse and along Union St to Scholes

I remember there was an Air Raid shelter in the 'backs' behind the top house on the right, as you faced the Royal George, at the top of Spring Street

There was 3 lodging houses, The Royal George,one in Hardybuts and on the corner of Union St and another in Union St near the Scholes end.The one in Hardybuts had double doors and from Silver St I used to see a big open fire Also in Silver St opposite the slaughterhouse was An Irish Club a drab place with wire over the windows there just seemed to be a door and a flight of stairs to it, on a Saturday night one could hear the "Diddle diddle and thump thump"of Irish music. I recall the lament of a couple of bruised teenage girls who had been in there the previous night,"They sup guinness and dance in their working boots"

I remember the white pub and Amy Lane. What does interest me was how did people get access to Brook House. If the pub was in front had the car park not been built? Interesting. When was the pub demolished. Also, is there any history of when the high rise flats were built, what year etc?

Very interesting photo here.
However, I can't my bearings as to where it is!I recognise the churches though. Is the long road on the right Scholefield Lane?

Centre-stage is the (then) GPO pole erection unit. This was brand new in 1966. Prior to this holes had to be dug, and poles manhandled. One of the people with the device could well be me. Time and place fit.

Where the two women are stood is now the location of a bus shelter, heading out of town, just past Scholes Crossing.The road running north south is Hardybutts.

Barry

The photograph was taken from Woodcock House, not Brook House.

the planners certainly got scholes right with those lovely universally hated five storey blocks.
no lifts in them and designed for young families, wmbc still as thick now as back then.

baker boy

Those five storey blocks you mention with no lifts, were the 'Maisonettes' and they were poorly built and basically crap, but Wigan MBC demolished them all circa 20 years ago in the 1990's

Just to avoid confusion - the now-demolished development in Scholes in which the unlamented 'upside-down' maisonettes featured, was built over the site of the housing between St Patrick's and St Catherine's churches, and spreading off to the left towards the top of this pic.
The two blocks in build here still exist, along with the adjacent bungalows - as Wellington Street and Acton House sheltered housing. St Patrick's Way runs along on the other side of them, between Scholes Precinct to the left, and Darlington Street East to the right. On the other side of the road from them is St Patrick's Club, and St Patrick's Primary School, which severs the lower end of Hardybutts, which is the road running up the hill, from its upper end, which runs past St Patrick's Church.
My 2013 pic taken from St Catherine's spire shows a recent view taken from the opposite angle, down the hill:
http://www.wiganworld.co.uk/newgallery/photograph.php?opt=stcaths&photo=540

The maisonette block now demolished that was built on the land were the wagons in the pic are was called Lowes House

stuart only the design was crap the brickies and other craftsmen where first rate,all employed by our works dept.

Reading the comments above brings back some really good memories for me, I was born in Spring St and remember Pomfrets and Piggy Brow very well and the air raid shelter at the back of the first 3 houses, we used to play in them and found a couple of gas masks , they were happy times. I went to Warrington Lane infant school then on to St Catherine’s then Whelley sec mod, went to South Africa with my parents in 1967

That's such an amazing photo, once I got my bearings. I was born in Gaskell Street (off Schofield Lane) then moved to Spring Street/Darlington St East, aged 4 (1964) - Ann's Chippy. Fascinating to hear everyone's recollections of the area, including a lot I didn't know. We used to race our bikes up Spring Street, onto Hardybutts, and sweep round onto Brookhouse Street, if I recall correctly. Bit daring at the time. I went to Warrington Lane school, then St Georges, and Deanery. Moved to Douglas House in 74. I've nothing but fond memories of those days. The piggy broo, the sweet shops, BB and Sunday school at St Catherines, paper rounds (phew), and all the great mates. Brings a memory to my eye.