Wigan Album

Is Stella Richardson 2nd from left on front row?

Well you all look a happy bunch, Bob.

Hello Elizabeth,

Not sure which one is Stella, or if June Mayberry was in our class at the time. I Remember June's parents buying the "confectionery" shop {think pies and cakes, brilliant pies and cakes mind} off my mother and dad.

If memory serves me well it was on the corner of Salmon Street, other shops that I remember were Clarks shop and Sharrocks, both of them grocery shops.

Memories hey, some fade, some seems to stay with you forever.
It's nice to look back almost 70 years tough hey, and wonder were are they all now...

Bob.

Hello Edna,

In a way were were, or is that just down to selective memories.

The reason I remember more of the lads than the girls is, most of them had fought one another by the time we were 7. I remember having a scrap with David Kenny, he was a hard lad at the time, but after the fight we became almost best of mates.

I lost touch with all of them when we emigrated to Canada in 1982, mind you I'd lst touch with most of them when we all moved up to different High Schools around 1958, but sometimes in quiet moments or by a chance meeting with an old school mate some names and faces come flooding back.

Bob.

Haha...I can tell it's my dad by the big ears ????

David Winstanley lived next door but one to me, he was quite a bit older than me but I remember him and the family well. I used to bump into him occasionally, but I haven't seen him for a few years.

Thanks Bob.

Hello

Louise, I was told years ago that your dad has passed away, sorry to hear that, there was more to David than met there eye. We became best of mates after than scrap we had. Did you know that David was a decent cross country runner, at least at Whelley Secondary Modern {I wonder it that's still there} ?

If memory serves me well David won the cross county race the first year he was at Whelley. My family had moved to 21 Higher Lane, Aspull by then, Punchy Griffiths Wigan's Full Back/goal kicker lived next door at 19.

It was YEARS later that by chance we bumped into each other in Wigan, still way too young to have a pint, but we were glad to see one another and to recall our time at St Stephens.

Bob.

Hello Edna,

In a way were were, or is that just down to selective memories.

The reason I remember more of the lads than the girls is, most of them had fought one another by the time we were 7. I remember having a scrap with David Kenny, he was a hard lad at the time, but after the fight we became almost best of mates.

I lost touch with all of them when we emigrated to Canada in 1982, mind you I'd lst touch with most of them when we all moved up to different High Schools around 1958, but sometimes in quiet moments or by a chance meeting with an old school mate some names and faces come flooding back.

Bob.

Hello Stephen, so you knew "Wink" hey, as for not seeing him for years, well, I almost dread to ask about "who's still around" when I bump into some of my classmates of 70 or so years ago, there's more than a few that have fallen off their perch's.

I've come to that point now where I'm starting to feel like Chingachgook, Last of Mohicans, maybe that's down to having lived in Canada for the last 40 years, 40 good years for the most part, but, as they say, you can take a man out of Wigin, but you can't take the Wigin out of the man.

My generation aren't breeding like flies anymore, we are dropping like flies now...

Bob.

I think I've narrow it down to where I am on the photo, on the back row behind Patricia {the blonde girl, that I had a crush on at the time} with Geoffrey Hargreaves on my right hand side.

Bob.

Bob, I seem to remember David talking about moving to Scotland, so maybe that's where he is. I remember him and his family well as neighbours, he also had a younger brother and sister who was round about my age.

Hello Stephen,

Scotland hey, well, that beats Ince Cemetery, I can't remember who said David had kicked the bucket, but they were sure of what they said.
It wasn't recent either, it was a good few years ago.

So you lived near "Wink" would that be opposite that 1930's style petrol station and garage, a bit lower down from where the vicarage used to be.
Rev Wiffen in those days if memory serves me better than my spelling of his name.

Maybe he didn.t make it to Scotland then. We lived on the main road just about where you said, a bit further up the hill than David and his family. Our house was demolished in 1966 along with many others in that area.

I remember a row of houses set back a bit from the road, a shop at the top end, just up the road from what's now Salcombe {where do they dream the names up from} Close.

Looking at Google Earth it seems like the Street where David Lion was demolished to make way for the new houses.

Did you live on the street where there was a little / terraced house / toffee shop in the front room of the house ?

Memories flooding back now, to days when an ape-ney would buy you a sort of stick, yea, a piece of a tree or maybe a root, and as lads we would chew it, tasted like aniseed if memory serves me well. Or, you could get three little square 1" x 1" x 1/4" toffee chews for a penny, wrapped up too you were Posh if you ate them.

70 years hey, how things have changed, and not all for the better.

I think the shop that you're thinking of was in Beaconfield Street, Mrs Wodsworth ran it. We lived on the corner. There was also a shop next to David's house, it had the best penny tray in the area.

Beaconsfield Street, you've got me beat on that, was it the street one up from where the bus to Bottlingwood turned up ?

I remember a shop, if you could call in that, it was just the front room of a house in the middle of a row of terraced houses, we couldn't get there quick enough of the ape ney selections, mostly sticks of "spanish" or them twigs {gawd knows what they were} that we used to chew on.

Tried to find a map of how the streets were then, but came up with the blank domino :(

The street where the bus turned into was Bradshaw Street, after that was Lindsay Street, then Beaconfield Street, the next street was Newman Street which is still there next to the White Lion. There were only a couple of houses and the shop in Beaconfield Street, it linked the main road to Derby Street. I can remember a family called Norburn living in Derby Street.