Wigan Album
Wallgate
20 CommentsPhoto: Keith
Item #: 30866
In the 1861 Census, Cooper was living in Wigan (he'd been born in Bury in 1834) as a Grocer and Photographer in Millgate (he'd married a Wigan girl, Alice Lancaster in 1855). He later became the Landlord of the Royal Oak in Standishgate. It's possible then that the top drawing was completed in the 1850's.
I have no idea when the stocks or pump were removed.
Fascinating find Keith. Mr Cooper would have been one of the earliest of artists to embrace the then hi tech world of photography. Hats of to him.
Keith - John Cooper's drawing shows the old pub, that once stood on the site. According to the Grade II listing of the 'new' pub (the present building standing on the site), it was built in the late 18th/early 19th century, before Cooper was born, so it looks as though it may be his interpretation of an earlier print or drawing, as you say.
I always thought The Dog and Partridge was a very old building and didn't realise there was another one before it. You can just make the name Millards on the side of the building - would that just be an advertisement for the photograph studio I wonder.
Veronica, it is difficult to make out, but I see the lettering as Billiards.
Oops! spec savers here I come.....! I'll take your word for it George!
Stocks for punishment apparently were first introduced in England around 1800 and the last recorded use of them was in 1865 at Rugby.
Correction, what I meant to say was that use of the stocks as a punishment began to die out in the early part of the 1800’s. This probably means these stocks depicted here had been there long before 1800.
Is the dog and partridge the oldest pub in Wigan?.
For information, “Sources indicate that the stocks were used in England for over 500 years and have never been formally abolished. Public stocks were typically positioned in the most public place available, as public humiliation was a critical aspect of such punishment.”
According to the Wigan Town Trail information...."The Eagle and Child was Wigan's oldest known public house being mentioned in documents of 1619" and..... "Between 1865 and 1905 the vast majority of the town centre was rebuilt on a piecemeal basis '
Thanks Ben, is the dog and partridge the oldest pub in Wigan still standing.?.
I'm guessing that the Collier's Arms in New Springs is the oldest in the Wigan area, built in 1700
The Boars Head in Standish is registered as the second oldest pub in the country, although the plaque outside the pub may read that the existing site dates back to 1450 Russell Jervis the landlord in 2008 found old newspaper cuttings which seem to indicate that the pub was running in 1271,and,as a result, went about trying to prove that it was the oldest pub in the country, i don't know how his research transpired.
In Wigan today I made sure I looked to see for myself if there was any vestige of the lettering left on the side of The Dog and Partridge. Sadly the building next to it was taller than where the sign was - although there was still a narrow bit at the top of the pub to be seen! ( I felt a bit cheated!) ;o(
In Wigan yesterday, I made sure that I wasn't seeing things; and I wasn't. A bus's destination display showed the lower-case 'g' of Leigh to be entirely 'above the line', creating an angular feel to the lettering ('I felt a bit perplexed'). How many other similar cases have I failed to notice? I must pay more attention, I must pay … .
Know what you mean Philip. I just kept thinking about the building next door covering those upstairs windows! Would they have had planning permission to do that!?? Or have the windows been bricked up? - I'm just curious that's all.....,
Know what you mean Veronica, and it was good of you to have gone out there to have a look. I don't think that planning permission would have required too much consideration; it would probably have been a case of "Get it Built!". Left my notebook in the hospital yesterday, so I'm hoping that someone manages to find it. Curiosity, and Hospital remind me of the time I'd followed what must have been a hundred-year-old banister rail, hopefully into an abandoned upper room of the 'old hospital' - I must have looked like Marley's ghost, in my dressing-gown at the top of the stairs. The door was locked … Doh! … and so ended my search for a real life amble through the 'Time tunnel' … they had encouraged me to 'get going again', though.
That room was probably where they stored all the old iron beds and hospital equipment no longer in use Philip.
My sincere thanks to Level 1's Super' - and her two adorable charges - for the safe return of my notebook, which I'd left behind at my appointment last week.