Wigan Album

Great picture Tom,it will bring back lots of memories for Platt Bridgers,shortly after this photo was taken Allen Bros moved in ,knocked down Burrows farm ,filled in the Perchy,and the pit shaft on the Hill 60 then built the roads and sewers for the Giro City.

It is hard to imagine Croal Avenue, off Webster Street, here, where my parents, and my brother and I were moved to when our house in Ince was compulsory-purchased by the council and we were all moved to Platt Bridge, with no say in the matter, in 1971. I assure you we weren't all "Giro City" residents, and we worked to pay our rent.

Sorry Irene no offence intended,it's just that people called it that 45 years ago.I had many friends on the estate and they all worked.

That's okay, John. It's just that over the years I heard so many disparaging remarks, (some with good reason, I admit), about the influx of Incers and I hated to think of my honest, hard-working family tarred with that brush. If I had a pound for every time I heard "I wish that lot on the estate had stayed in Ince" I'd be a rich woman; the thing is, we never wanted to come to Platt Bridge.....the council pulled our homes down and we had no choice. However, we settled there and my parents, who anyone who knew them will testify, became respected members of Platt Bridge to the end of their days. Thankyou for getting back to me about it, John.....much appreciated.

This was taken after I left. Was the iron bridge still there?

Hi Maggie,I think the Iron Bridge was dismantled when the Glass Works was built ,I had just gone into Moss Lane so it would be circa 1956 ,a gang of us from Millers Lane would play on the site after school ,you might remember some of them,myself Balmer,Baldwin,Redford,E Wolsey,Wack Stevenson,and the Brookses,there was a picture of the Iron Bridge somwhere on WIgan World.

I remember as kids growing up in Platt Bridge the big fields as we called them were a great place to play, fishing in the perch pit, Football, Cricket, you name it. In later life I worked at the C W S Glass Works built on the same site.