Wigan Album

Thankyou for posting this. I was gutted when I went on the Ince pages of Album and saw that someone called "jim 12" had asked in 2020 if I had a photo of Farmer Street.....I haven't got a personal one but remembered this Timepix one. I hope "jim 12" sees it either on here or on the Ince photos and wish I had seen his request long ago. I can remember standing on the church bridge as a child in the 1960s, just where the man is by the steps, and looking at Farmer Street in the dusk one Winter night, and even at that young age it looked Dickensian in the darkness, with the cobbles and the gas-lamps and the old houses. I'm glad I knew it, and Raven Street, and all the Viaducts area of Ince, (we used to call it T'viredocks!), before it was demolished. It could have told some tales!

Remember passing here many times as a child.

This would be opposite the then Wittakers general store and the start of the Grove Council estate.

Yes, Incer....Mrs. Whittaker had a small shop on the Farmer Street side of the bridge before the new shop was built at the top of The Grove; I think it was known as "Martha-Ellen's" unless I am thinking of a different shop. She was Auntie to a friend of mine who lived in Raven Street. The local children tended to pronounce the name of the shop as "Whikkiter's"! Those steps on either side of the road bring back so many memories of my childhood in Ince. I lived further up Ince Green Lane behind St. William's Church but I spent a lot of time around Raven Street.

Oh no! Look at that dodgy, leaning chimney stack. Makes me shudder to think it could have crashed through the roof at any moment.

Agreed, T.D.....that's what I meany about the Dickensian look when it was dark or when there was fog mixed with smoke from the chimneys...the street was quite twisting and higgledy-piggledy and the houses were beginning to be in a sad state in the mid-1960s but it certainly had character, (AND Characters!).

Thanks kitekat and everyone else about picture of farmer st I lived next to Jack and Betty foster at number18 I remember them installing electricity in about 1955 shortly after we acquired a 14 inch TV I remember the first ad for gibby Sr toothpaste and watch a sport from America called rollerblading with a skater called honey Manchester it sounded so exotic in farmer st just after war did you say you had a picture of the foster in farmer or raven st I would love to see it i spent many times in flurries it definitely had been a pub the sign for ales and spirit could still be readi worked with Peggy Rita dainty and dulcie as well as my sister edith rip thank youe6isx

I wish had a photo of Raven Street, Jim 12, but I haven't....it was in the early-mid 1960s when I knew Raven Street and Farmer Street as my schoolfriend lived in Raven Street and we were always backwards and forwards between her house and mine. Her name was Christine Shirley and she lived at number six with her Mam and Dad Esther and Tony and her brother and sister. I also remember Woodwards who lived in Raven Street and I think maybe a family called Bamber too. In Farmer Street I recall The Aaron family and the Hartley family. My late brother told me there were more houses at the bottom of Farmer Street in a little street called "North Square" but I don't recall it at all....my brother was 20 years my senior so perhaps "North Square" was no longer there in the 1960s. I also recall Florrie Byrne who was a well-known lady who lived in a big house not far from Farmer Street. I remember Johnny Rutter and The Aldred family, Mrs. Dootson's shop and Annie Blinkhorn's Chippy, then further up Ince Green Lane there was Ernie's Chippy and Little Amy's off-licence. So many memories. I am SO glad you saw the photo!