Wigan Album

It’s the Leigh branch of the Leeds/Liverpool canal Philip. It looks like this photo was taken from the other side of the canal to the towpath although if it was taken with a long lens it would tend to give that impression.
That definitely looks like St Jame’s and according to Google Maps there is only one set of locks on that stretch so I reckon it’s the same area Philip.

Many thanks for your kind reply, DTease. I look forward to more of your photos.

I've just cycled past here coincidentally . It isn't possible to see the tower at St. James' from this point nowadays owing to the height of the trees.
There are actually two locks between here and the junction with the main canal, the next one along being midway between Circular Garage, and that defunct Indian restaurant on Poolstock lane opposite the old labour club. I've forgotten its name,...Jumbo's Paradise or summat. Your photo was taken within yards of the one that DTease took Philip . Is it one that you took yourself ? The similarity between the two is uncanny.

Ozmandias.. One night in the early sixties, I was doing a patrol (foot) with another officer. (Frank Leigh). On checking the labour club you mention, we discovered someone had blown the safe. We had only just missed them, as the powder smoke was still quite thick. There weren’t many competent safe blowers in Wigan, at that particular time. It wasn’t long before he was arrested by the C.I.D.

Albert , I was talking to a chap up at the Three Sisters at Bryn this afternoon , a chap of around 80 years old. A nice bloke , an ex Bobby like yourself .
I mentioned your name and he seemed to remember you . He remembered you transferring to Kent . He told me his name and said he' d done 30 years in the force , as a dog handler mainly .
I've forgotten his surname already , but I remember he said his name was Tony and he came from Bamfurlong originally .
He was in a mobility scooter but he favvered he'd been a big chap in his day.....Ring any bells ?

Cannot bring him to mind Ozmondias. Maybe if you remember his surname. It is such a long time ago.

Very arty Philip - even in black/ white...

Many thanks, Veronica.

Many thanks for the further info Ozy; Another (See DTease, above.) chew more digestible than the numerous food outlets that I'd struggled with when searching Google's map of the area.
This photo - A 'fair' compliment to DTease's more-appealing recent Poolstock photo -, is one of a number taken by my brother and I as we walked alongside part of the waterway and a few of its near-by 'birding' areas. And after considering that we had our respective cameras, the number of photos taken and how my brother sends me his photos for inclusion into my album, it's hardly surprising that, when reflecting, we sometimes have difficulty in recalling which of us had taken certain photos. However, two photos that I can lay claim to having taken on the day are 'a snow-covered hawthorn tree', and 'a view across the frozen Scotsman's with the church tower in the distance'.
Poolstock's Poona Plonkthidaewn restaurant doesn't seem to have lasted very long, so perhaps it would have enjoyed a longer existence had it have rubbed shoulders with the Ajmeer Manzil on Market Street.
And its labour Club: My only visit, there, had been with two or three others to watch the very good amateur/part-time Snooker pro Des Myler take part in a Money-match. I don't remember who Myler's opponent had been, nor which of the two players had come out victorious, but the room was almost packed.
Bring back the Ajmeer Manzil.

Albert and Ozymandias - that would be Tony Bate. I think his collar number would have been either 86 or 90 in Wigan Borough, Albert.
In the later years of his service in the 1980s, he worked on the Community Contact Dept., at Wigan.
Strangley enough, I was out with his cousin (also a retired bobby) a few days ago.

Thanks for that Mick ,.. Bate , yes that's the man , I remember the name now that you've said it .
I'll no doubt be seeing him again at some point soon , as he lives on Bryn road and goes across to the Three Sisters quite often .
I'll have a bit of a laugh with him by pretending to guess his collar number .

" I'm seeing an eight and what appears to be a six here Tony,.....but wait...........the mists are clearing ,..............could it possibly be a nine and a zero ? .....I'll have to rest now Tony , all this clairvoyancy can be very draining . ".............Cheers Mick.

Regards. Ozy.

Here's one that might make you smile Albert. Back in April 1965 , the Beatles had just brought out ' Ticket to Ride ', with the far superior ( in my view anyway ) ' Yes it is ' on the B side.
Anyway, a group of us 17 year olds were out on the town in Wigan , and by about 2230 , having spent all our beer tokens in either The Vic , The Minorca , The Turnkey , or The Casino , or more than likely all four , we caught the last bus back to Ashton from outside the Old Dog .
No one used taxis back then, and the bus was crammed with inebriated juvenile merrymakers .
Just as the bus proceeded down Wallgate , the conductor came upstairs to collect the fares.
Well, a couple of wags , not from our group I hasten to add , decided they weren't going to pay . This soon spread across the entire upper deck , with everyone refusing to pay , then some comedian struck up with " We've not got a ticket to Ry - hide , we've not got a ticket to Ry - hy - hide ".
Well, the place fell apart . We all joined in , and the poor defeated bus conductor retreated back downstairs to hoots of derision from the assembled throng ...Bus conductor - nil . Us lot - one ......we were on a roll........until we arrived at Pottery road that is .
To this day I'll never know whether it was by accident or design , but around about Trencherfield Mill , the bus pulled into the kerb , and a deathly hush fell over the crowd as the biggest bobby I've ever seen in my entire life climbed on board .
I've already said he was big , but this guy must have had his uniform made at Pecks .
Needless to say , the instigators of the uprising were quickly identified and ejected from the bus , the rest of us collaborators having to pay up and suffer a severe tongue lashing from Judge Dredd .
Big bobby - one .......Us lot - nil .
The rest of the journey home continued in a rather more subdued vein I seem to recall .
Who would he have been this megabobby Albert ? Any Idea ?. From memory , he was about a yard across the shoulders .

Mick LD & Ozymandias. It may be that Tony joined in 1962, when I was at Pemberton, then you lost touch with all new entrants, at Central. I transferred to Kent in, July, 1964.