Wigan Album

There was a stone set on the outside indicating that the store had been built (or opened) in 1938. There were grocery, butchers, shoe, clothing and, later, electrical depts. There was also a café and where the white car is parked (Water St?)was the Co-op dentist.

This brings back memories. The first store I went in on a Saturday afternoon after walking down Greenough St. The building looks so sound and modern!

Thanks Ron, lovely memories brought back, in 1962 I was 15 years old and worked for the then ' Wigan and District Equitable Co-operative Society' and though I never worked in this Emporium I was often sent down from the store on Bolton Road, Aspull, to collect goods ordered from here. The main office was in Dorning Street, Wigan and the bank was on Standishgate a round trip for me on a Friday morning delivering and collecting items of mail etc to and from these places.

My dad was manager of the grocery department for years. I used to help put things on the shelves in the school holidays. Sugar, butter and cheese used to come in bulk and had to be weighed out and put into separate bags etc as everything was rationed during the war.

Hya walt I remember the coop on Bolton road I lived on Bolton road I can remember it when I was a little girl walt mind me asking are you from aspull if so were did you live.

Alan H, I envy you! I have an absolute fascination with the days when things were weighed and wrapped in greaseproof paper or put into bags.....especially bags which the shop assistant made him (or her) self from a piece of paper, and there were strings of paper bags hanging on nails. Thora Hird, who worked at the co-op in her young days, paints a lovely word-picture in one of her books about the customers' purchases being gathered together on the counter and made into a neat parcel with just brown paper and string. I would love to watch someone perform those skills but have had no luck with books/youtube....I imagine they have died out now. When I was a little girl, the co-op ladies wore little caps with CWS on, and reckoned up my Mam's order on a long thin slip of paper, using a pencil which they kept behind their ear...first adding top to bottom, then re-checking the figures bottom-to-top, (no calculators). Then they passed my Mam a little yellow "check" that she stuck in a book for her "divi"!

Hi Julie, I think we have chatted before back in January when David posted that P O D of the new Aspull Coop. I am originally from Aspull but lived in North Yorks for the past 33 years. As a young boy I worked mainly at the Coop shop nearest to the Finger Post but did from time to time work at the shop lower down, its now a bungalow I think. I was born on Crawford Ave 1947. I started in the transport industry when I was sixteen and remained in this line of work until I retired back in 2010. I love looking each day at ww it always brings back fond memories. Best Wishes Julie Ta-Ra.