Wigan Album

yes it looks like him. did,nt he live on the corner of soughers lane & downall green rd ? .

I never knew the man whups, they're not my photos, they belong to Bob Grundy, but the house that you describe had a model railway running round the garden did it not ? It was directly across from Hackett's garage.

The house on Downall Green Road with the railway is still there and was owned by Mr Waterhouse a teacher at Downall Green Rectory School his large side garden now holds a bungalow, directly opposite this is a large house on the corner of Soughers Lane and Downall Green Road, Mr Derbyshire lived in the Soughers Lane side of the property

when i was at rectory school.1952/55.mr waterhouse did take the class on nature rambles to his garden to play trains and do a bit of weeding..he was a member of wigan model engineers

Just a wild guess..... That's not Lenny Ball is it ?....Probably not.

Ozy, Wasn't the garage "Liptrot's" in 1963?

I'm not entirely sure to be honest AP. You could very well be correct, it's all such a long time ago. I just remember that there was a big tall lad at my school by the name of David Hackett, who's family owned the place at the time. I've referred to it as Hackett's garage ever since. Also, there was another gent by the name of Derbyshire, or Darbyshire, who lived in the end house on the corner of Downall Green road and what is now Jennet Hey, where the pig farm used to be. This man delivered newspapers and also ran a betting shop I believe. His son was in my class at school and revelled in the nickname of ' Satchmo '..or ' Setch ' to his friends.......just another useless bit of info I'm afraid.

Regards. Ozy.

the newspaper man was jack Derbyshire.he lived opposite hackets garage.liptrots garage was just round the corner in soughers lane.next to where the wood yard is there is a
few houses built there.

I'd forgotten about that one bert, but you're right. To be honest, I'd never have known it was called Liptrot's though. Blimey, that place must have been flattened in the mid to late 60's. As you say, it was right next door to Sherman & Young's timber yard. Also, on the other side of the garage,a bit lower down, I seem to remember there being a short row of terraced houses, maybe 4 or 6 of them. Do you remember them bert ? Maybe the garage and the terraced houses together provided the site for those new houses ? I remember delivering papers in Downall Green road for Jimmy Glover in about 1960 when they demolished a few of the semis near Our Lady's to make way for the M6 motorway. I remember knocking Harold Ogden down with the paper bike on Birch Grove as well, but that's another story. Civilisation mate. Pyeupeh !

I think you should tell us the tale of knocking poor old Harold Ogden down - seeing as he was a Wigan man and you were a Wigan paper lad on a Wigan bike Ozy. Did he end up in Wigan Infirmary?

No Veebs, the lad wasn't injured in any way,....not unless we're counting the imprint of a 26" x 1 3/8" Dunlop tyre across his forehead that he carried proudly with him for several days following the event.

Oz! I think it was Liptrot's garage in Soughers Lane.On a Friday before going to meet you on Spindle Hillock Bridge I used to go there, in my dad's Vauxhall Victor, for four gallons of National Benzole.The cost was £1, hard to believe, 5/- (25p)a gallon. My dad was a mate of Ken Liptrot (Wendy Liptrot's dad), so maybe this garage was an outpost of his Garswood empire.

I am not 100% sure this is Darby it might be the infamous Simister because the classroom this photo is taken from is Simisters classroom. He dosnt look tall enough for Darby.
Half of the teachers at Ashton would be in jail if they were still teaching today.

This is definitely Derbyshire. Simister was a tiny man but incredibly fierce.
I've trained many teachers over the years and these two characters feature prominently under the general category of 'How it shouldn't be done.'

I have a vivid recollection of Mr Derbyshire.He was my form teacher when the boys and girls school amalgamated and I did a fifth year.He told me in a stern voice that he didn't like girls at all but that if I was a boys he would probably like me,I always felt very sorry for him !!!