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Photos of Wigan
Photos of Wigan



Wigan Album

Wallgate

20 Comments

Wallgate Stocks and Pump and Dog & Partridge dates?
Wallgate Stocks and Pump and Dog & Partridge dates?
Photo: Keith
Views: 4,983
Item #: 30866
Two different views of the same scene in Wallgate. The top illustration was completed by John Cooper (an early Wigan photographer). I think this might have been his interpretation from an earlier print or drawing, his photography came later I would have thought.
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.

Comment by: GW. on 30th November 2018 at 08:48

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.

Comment by: Mick on 30th November 2018 at 10:47

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.

Comment by: Veronica on 30th November 2018 at 12:38

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.

Comment by: George B on 30th November 2018 at 18:07

Veronica, it is difficult to make out, but I see the lettering as Billiards.

Comment by: Veronica on 30th November 2018 at 19:45

Oops! spec savers here I come.....! I'll take your word for it George!

Comment by: Josh on 1st December 2018 at 14:43

Stocks for punishment apparently were first introduced in England around 1800 and the last recorded use of them was in 1865 at Rugby.

Comment by: Josh on 1st December 2018 at 15:39

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.

Comment by: Owd viewer on 1st December 2018 at 18:46

Is the dog and partridge the oldest pub in Wigan?.

Comment by: Keith on 1st December 2018 at 20:41

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.”

Comment by: Ben on 1st December 2018 at 21:25

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 '

Comment by: Owd viewer on 1st December 2018 at 23:16

Thanks Ben, is the dog and partridge the oldest pub in Wigan still standing.?.

Comment by: John D on 2nd December 2018 at 18:52

I'm guessing that the Collier's Arms in New Springs is the oldest in the Wigan area, built in 1700

Comment by: Roy on 4th December 2018 at 09:45

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.

Comment by: Veronica on 7th December 2018 at 18:50

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(

Comment by: Philip G. on 8th December 2018 at 09:58

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 … .

Comment by: Veronica on 8th December 2018 at 14:15

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.....,

Comment by: Philip G. on 8th December 2018 at 18:44

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.

Comment by: Veronica on 9th December 2018 at 13:25

That room was probably where they stored all the old iron beds and hospital equipment no longer in use Philip.

Comment by: Philip G. on 13th December 2018 at 13:52

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.

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