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Photos of Wigan
Photos of Wigan



Photo-a-Day Archive
Photo-a-Day Archive

Photo-a-Day  (Monday, 14th October, 2019)

Old Lamp Post


Old Lamp Post
Ince Green Lane.

Photo: Mick Byrne  (Panasonic DMC-TZ100)
Views: 2,358

Comment by: Veronica on 14th October 2019 at 00:06

That's one nicely painted lamp post, no chance of anybody pinching that. I bet it looks lovely lit up in winter.

Comment by: Anne on 14th October 2019 at 07:41

I'm almost sure that is the house a friend of mine once lived in. Most of those houses have now been replaced or re-fronted.

Comment by: irene robertsI on 14th October 2019 at 08:48

I was born and brought up in Ince Green Lane and I didn't realise there were any old lamp-posts left. Is this one that someone has bought for nostalgia reasons? I remember the lamplighter coming up Ince Green Lane on his bike as the nights drew in, lighting the lamps with a long pole. We always called then "gas-lamps" whether they were gas or electric. They were shorter than today's lamps and cast a yellow glow and you could see the stars beyond them. There was something magic about watching snowflakes falling round them. Today's lamps are at least twice as tall and light up the roads much more efficiently but they are austere and characterless and, whilst I admit to feeling safer than walking in the part-shadow that the old lamps cast, I can't help feeling we have lost something along the way.

Comment by: Anne on 14th October 2019 at 09:32

Irene.... it is a privately owned one in someone's front garden. If you look closely the lamp part looks to be newly fabricated, the post part COULD be original. My neighbour has a complete original one salvaged from over fifty years ago.

Comment by: Veronica on 14th October 2019 at 10:13

Not forgetting playing out around the gas lamp when it was dark, before it was time for bed Irene. I remember it took some getting used to when the modern lighting came about. I can't remember exactly when gas lamps were removed completely. As you say it was a queer unnatural form of lighting, and very austere.

Comment by: Mick on 14th October 2019 at 10:58

Irene I was born and brought up in up market Shevy, but because I go around with my eyes open I still managed to spot this bit of Wigan nostalgia

Comment by: Helen of Troy on 14th October 2019 at 11:00

A lovely memory Irene. There was a gas lamp on the corner by Holland Moor school, the old school where my friend Jean Gaskell lived. It was a sort of meeting point for local children as the evenings got darker. The lamplighter never got off his bike to light the lamp, just used a long pole to catch the chain. A different world back then & it was only the late 1940s.

Comment by: Maureen on 14th October 2019 at 12:22

There used to be a huge gas lamp outside our house and just to the right..I can still picture us throwing a long rope around it and going round and round,it was brilliant fun..until my Mam shouted"Maureen Dick Barton's on" at 6-45 ..tha world seemed a lovely place,being allowed to play out without any fears,and didn't we enjoy life without mobiles TV's.a top and whip,empty polish tin for hopscotch,a skipping rope..hide and seek..I could go on about my childhood which brings a smile on my face the more I picture my memories.

Comment by: lloyd on 14th October 2019 at 12:36

i am leaning on a lamp

Comment by: From Where on 14th October 2019 at 17:24

Watching the snow in the gas lamp glow .
indoors I’m safe and warm.
magical dreams with snowman themes
what’s better than falling snow .
A place we would meet
sat by gas lamps feet
protected by light from its head
School for now don’t matter
Just giggle and laugh and chatter ,
just run round the post till we fall .
Mam shouts it’s school in the morning ,
we groan that we are not yawning
and beg for a few minutes more .
So snow near a gas lamp is best
surpassing the magical test ,
Hypnotic staring , nothing comparing ,
just my friends, the gas lamp , and me ..

Comment by: irene robertsI on 14th October 2019 at 19:00

That's lovely, From Where.

Comment by: Maureen on 14th October 2019 at 19:22

From Where,you have a beautiful imagination.

Comment by: Ken R on 14th October 2019 at 21:16

Good one Mick. I remember the lamp post in Aspull at Wigan Rd and Woods Rd, I used to wait there for the Horwich Bus, one morning it was snowing and there was about an inch of snow all over, a man next to me lit a cigarette and dropped the match to the ground and whoosh a thin crack line in the asphalt lit up with gas fire. The crack was about ten feet long. we scuffed snow all over the flame and it gradually went out. The gas company made the repair the next day.

Comment by: Helen of Troy on 14th October 2019 at 21:19

That verse paints a beautiful picture in the mind From Where, just lovely.

Comment by: Veronica on 14th October 2019 at 22:59

I also recall the Lamplighters used a ladder that narrowed into a point. They must have been made specially for the job, to lean on the cross bar at the top. It was a lovely warm glow from the gas lamp. I remember about 2 or 3 of them in the street I lived in. So quaint, it's no wonder people buy them for their gardens. When searching my ancestry I discovered my Grt Grandfather was a Lamplighter after retiring from the pit. They must have had their own rounds, I wonder how long it took them to complete their task.

Comment by: Ned Stark on 15th October 2019 at 08:13

Lol brought up in "up market shevy" and he thinks he's special

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