Wigan Album

Looking at the photo makes me wonder how on earth 5 parishes, the Ceilidh Bands and all the paraphernalia that went with the walking day processions,managed to come together on Whit Monday on the Square - but they did and it was wonderful!

Hardly changed in this pic from how I remember it in early 1960's. My daily journey: alight from bus at top of Market Street, and walk down same street to Tech. Also back and fore along market street, as back then we were using both Parson's Walk and Library Street Tech buildings.

1960. Early one morning, caught a well known Wigan “Tea Leaf” having stole a spare wheel off one of the parked lorries, on the Market Square.

Much prefer it then than now.

Every town should have a Square like the one Wigan had - a place to rally to - and not forgetting the fun of the Fair! Yes it was really important in those days. In fact it would have been great for the entertainments in the summer months instead of the Market Place - think of all the money wasted there in the changes made recently!

Before the M6, there would be a lot of lorries parked up overnight. The drivers stayed in the local boarding houses.

'Broke my Indian teeth' at the Ajmeer Manzil (on the right of the photo) back in The Seventies and always enjoyed eating there - a 'smashing' place it was.
We also ate (once) at the 'Indian' that was situated just further up the road, but found this to be, erm, quite remarkable.

Thats a scene I remember well. Full of lights,colour & noise when the fair came to Wigan & yes Veronica, wouldnt it have lent itself to an open air space for all manner of things today.

Phillip, the Indian restaurant further up was the one and only sweaty Betty's.

Thanks Tuddy. Come to think of it, the place was as good as empty when we arrived, and the woman who'd served us could well have been the eponymous Betty - sat by herself at a table she was.

Tuddy, the lady in question preferred to be called by her Sunday name, Perspiring Elizabeth and wee Ronnie, th'usband.

So that's why the sauce had that sweet and sour taste going on!

The Santi Bag was even better. Cuisine for the Connoisseur.

Now 1985 isn't that long ago in real terms is it?, although I appreciate the fact that for someone who is 34 years old it may appear to be. But a 34 year old probably wouldn't appreciate what Wigan relegated to room 101 twenty five years or so ago when a group of myopic clowns in the planning department, ( who's bifocal wearing inbred forebears probably arrived on Romney marshes from the planet Tinytodger under cover of darkness on Thunderbird 2, ) signed a document allowing construction of The Galleries on a site that could well have proved to be the focal point of a veritable Mecca for visitors from far and wide.
Doubtless an opportunity lost.
Well these clowns have no doubt departed by now, retired at 50 with a nice fat index linked pension.....but their legacy lingers on.... it happened again with that obscene temple to consumerism on Station road.
We could all learn a great deal from our European neighbours if only we weren't so far up our own backsides with our superior British attitude and our profit above all other considerations ethic.
In countries such as France, Belgium, or Spain even, an area like this would almost certainly be paved with granite setts, arranged in an attractive fan pattern and would be revered by both locals and visitors alike for its beauty and its potential for a variety of activities, as well as being freely available to all at no charge.
But this 'ere is Wiggin, so let's throw up an ugly pile of bricks, construct a supermarket with supporting columns spaced precisely to inconveniently restrict access to the aisles, then lease out the remaining units at exorbitant rents, before remorselessly screwing the tenants until the pips squeak and they all bugger off to somewhere cheaper, then we can flatten it all and erect some other abortion in its place.
Well all I can say is,....that worked out well didn't it chaps?
I'll no doubt get slagged off for clinging to the past, but what's wrong with taking the best from the past and marrying it with the best from the present? It doesn't have to be all of one thing or all of the other does it?...surely?
I'm not advocating returning to clog irons, bratts and mangles, outside privies and spitting in the fire, knockers up and ' porrin' matches, but why get rid of all of our heritage in the name of so called progress?
In my view for what it's worth, 40 successive years of mostly catastrophic planning decisions coupled with a short sighted emulation of the Milton Keynes interpretation of how a modern town should look, have reduced Wigan from the potentially ' must visit ' eponymous Northern town that it could have been to what it has ultimately become...Anywheresville UK.
What a waste.

Follow that if you can!