Wigan Album

It reminds me of Gracie Fields in the film, "Sing as we go". And I love the clogs! I had clogs as a little girl in the 1950s, and my son Jamie had them in the 1970s! What a shame they are no longer in fashion....they were so supportive and good for the feet.

irene, I had a pair in the 55s. Wearing them in the snow was a bit tricky though had to keep banging my feet against the wall to knock the packed snow from between the rubbers.

There's actually a term for that jack, when the snow builds up under the instep of your clogs, it's called ' cloggy boggy '...... No, seriously,....check it out if you don't believe me.

I also wore clogs up to about eight and I had to polish them every night. Mine had laces in them and rubbers on the bottom whereas boys had irons on them. I remember the snow 'clogging' up at the bottom too. They didn't half rub the protruding ankle bones on the sides of the feet though. I think they were bought from Timpsons shoe shop in Scholes although I must admit as I got that bit older I preferred shoes ....but they were for Sundays!

I've commented on the Royal Cinema before in that I was brought up just
up the road there in Great George Street and my Grandma used to go to the Royal cinema...she lived at the top of our Street..anyway the story goes that while she was watching a film,the words came onto the screen ( I believe this used to be the norm) it said "will Mrs McGovern please go home as your Son has nearly drownded...that is how it was pronounced ..my Dad was at the time in his teens..Wallgate to me was my life..I wouldn't like to have been brought up anywhere else.

What a great picture: young women happily off to work! The single/double parent slobs of today should hang their heads in shame. No hand outs in the thirties: you had to graft to survive. And these lovely lassies did just that. Bravo!

Hardy souls. Looks wet and windy and only one wearing a coat.

My mum worked at Eckersley's about the time this photo was taken. She had old footwear for work and she always called it 'trashers'However it was,like all her shoes, well polished.

Wigwann Id forgotten all about that word 'Trashers'..that's what my Mother in law used to call them.

My Uncle Billy, who lived with us, used to say "trashers".....that had completely vanished in the mists of time for me!

It would be no wonder, that the factory girls in later life, would suffer from hearing problems. The noise was absolutely diabolical. When my mother took me into the factory where she worked, in the late forties, I was glad to get out of the place, because of the noise.

Glad to have jogged your memories!

My mum, Irene Callaghan (nee Wilding from Alder Avenue, Pemberton), worked at Eckersleys in late forties early fifties. She says they were some of the best few years of her life. And she's just turned 90

You wouldn't want to argue with the one at the front with her hands in her pockets!