Wigan Album

I grew up in Brindley Street. I remember the toffee shop had a canvas flap that was put down in front of the window to keep the sun off the display of goodies. You had to go in front of the canvas to look in the window. I nice bit of shade :)

jennifer moss used to work part time in the sweet shop,dont know if it was her aunt or grandma that had the shop,remember,train spotting at pemberton station on grand national days .she was serving behind the counter she was very small if i can recollect.

Today there's a few pounds in the metal signage..Probably got scrapped when they demolished the shops..

Those little dears walking to and from school today would be acting all cocky and coming out with the F word. Those shops will now be full of CCTV cameras; there are more cameras in the local corner shop than there are at the Pentagon, and they won't be switched off. The days of the friendly shopkeeper akin to Arkwright have long gone, replaced by foreigners you can't understand a word they're saying. The community spirit has largely vanished and noone talks to each other now. People don't know their neighbours.

So comforting to know you could nip to a shop like those anytime. So many of them you could take your pick on nearly every street. We all had our favourite shop and like the ones in the photo, they all seemed to look alike. Faded woodwork needing paint, I wonder if there was a shortage of paint due to the war. I know of no shop in Scholes that didn't need a coat of paint. What paint remained was dark and dull on the outside but inside was homely and welcoming, sometimes haphazard and chaotic, due, in most cases to the owners living behind the shop!

The fence on the right a much-favoured way for rapscallions and train-spotters alike by the shape of things. For'ard.

When the Beatles played at the Ritz they called at the sweet shop for cigarettes and gave their autograph to the lady owner she had it pinned up behind the counter would be worth a few bob today with

I can't remember what the shops where. Was the end one an Outdoor.? What was the middle shop, I think that was a sweet shop too?

I suppose some will remember the lorry crashing through the bridge wall, and onto the railway line,1963. The bridge just the Highfield side of the station.

Seems to be an off licence as through a magnifier it looks to be Dickinsons For Guinness.

Great memories, Ron. The middle sweet shop was run by two elderly sisters who would always greet you with: "Now my dear" and finish with: "Now there you are my dear". I can still see them today...That shop later became a model railway shop in the late seventies. The end shop (Church side) was a general grocery shop that sold penny loaves and Hughes's meat and potato pies. Take me back...please!

The middle shop was Maggie Gaskells newspaper shop .As I recall from the 50's there was the outdoor ,then Maggies,uncle Billy's ,Tom Simms radio battery etc shop ,Arthur Dickinsons ( where the lads from the senior school could get a fag and a match under age ) then on the end was Marion's grocery next to Skittle Alley .

The shop far right, above the stooping man's head, across the opening from the pub was the Co-op Shop, Next door lived the Fishwicks; the Aspey family next door to them

Aspeys lived in the house with the attic on top. Fred was in the class below me. His mother had a fish shop in the front room

Aspey's was my grandparents ,remember the fish ,fruit and veg being sold from their front room .

helen and gladys ran the shop after uncle billy died iwas there bread lad until the shop closed jenny moss was there niece

My Grandparents lived in the house next to the co op. George and Julia Marwood. We lived there too from 1963 to 1969. My mum was Mary Marwood (Pate). I remember she worked at the Tupperware factory and my dad Harry Pate drove for Robeys on Enfield Street. I went to St Cuthberts 1968 until we moved to Burscough. A lot of or family lived on Norley Hall. I remember the two old ladies with the sweetshop and their niece Jenifer Moss.