Wigan Album

What a fantastic photo. It looks like it could be a scene from a film.

is this somewhere near cathrine st, i cant quite make out where it is taken from......

Yes, I think its from Catherine St area, forgot to add the caption which read:

"The mean little terraced houses are the curse of industrial Lancashire". This is Chancery Street, Scholes, an area of the old town which the planners haven't got round to yet.

TUE STREET RUNNING ACROSS IS ANDERTON ST

A cracking photo which has been in a number of publications over the years. I was talking to Dave Howarth about it only last week in Sams Bar and he named all four girls. I think the middle two were the Cunliffe twins

That is the front of St Catherine's church, so it would have been across from there and going down the hill toward St Patrick's church. Those houses look a lot better than the maisonettes they put up in their place, they have also gone now.

Thanks for this brilliant picture. Look how happy the little girls are, just skipping along, not trying to be grown-up before their time, as a lot do today. And look how clean and litter-free the street is.

Chancery street ran from the side Of St.Patricks church, Hardybutts, near the main doors, up to where the front of St. Cathrines school is now on Scholefield Lane. From St.Patricks church it crossed McCormick street, Higham street, Anderton street, the opposite end was St. Patrick street which also ran up to Scholefield Lane.

There was no bored obese children then,was there?,that's a lovely photo.

from left Marion O'leary,Bernice Cunliffe, Julie Cunliffe and Margaret O'Donald.If my memory serves me well.

the white bit showing at the right at the top is the spotted cow pub it was next to playground

by Brian
["The mean little terraced houses are the curse of industrial Lancashire".]

... and in this modern day we want those mean little terraces back! I am not a religious bloke, but if ever there was a case for 'the grass is greener' this photograph say it. MY soul, my inner person YEARNS for those days to come back, I am old enough, or young enough to remember them. I did that, I ran about like some crazy happy youth through streets that were safe, they may have been grimy, they may even be called filthy... but oh lord... they were safe! I can remember going out of my parents front door at 8am... not getting back until after 5pm...

.. and the police were NOT looking for me! My mum, my dad... trusted they had done a good job, and I could look after myself. Parents cannot let go these days!

Dennis,you are so right and you expressed it so well,every time I see photo's like that I take a big sigh,call it nostalgia,whatever,I also yearn for life to be so simple and carefree,we would go out playing,my mam only shouting us back at 6-45pm every night when Dick Barton came on,oh happy happy days.

I agree with everything that's been said about this fantastic photograph. I went to St Catharine's School 1947 to 1953 and this is the only photo I can recall that shows any part of the actual building, I can remember a large plaque on the outside of the building, on its first floor, declaring the date of its building which I think said 1834. This must have made it a very early school. To say that its replacement is somewhat disappointing, from an architectural point of view, is an understatement of some magnitude.

A stunning photograph - it just says so much about how simple, happy and carefree life was back then for children, and how wonderful it would be to have it like that again - for so many reasons ...

Hy Dennis & Keith. you both hit it on the head with your words. What a shame that they wiped aside people lives and replased the homes with second class building. Taking the heart & soul from the workers who lived & felt proud to be Wiganers. I to went to St Catherines. My Dad a miner coming home with his blackened face. But we felt safe playing throw out can and skilly. Hop scotch, and murps on the lucky brew. Me winning the lads murps and not wanting to go home till they won them back. Wish we could change the clocks to return to normality, but we have to move on with our children working overseas, or in another part of England. Gone are the dyas when families remained in one working enviroment, looking out for one another. Sad but true

It might be worth remembering that when this photo was taken the school was already 96 years old and the houses around it of a similar age. In other words the community, and it was a community, had formed a settled and acceptable way of life. They did not enjoy "wealth" as we know it today but had the riches of knowing one another and the reliance of others when times were hard. After all what will our present modern houses look like in another 70 to 80 years, I suspect not as reassuring as the ones we see in this photo.

St Catharine's School was started in 1834, as Keith mentioned. I live in Sussex so this is not my area but the past few months I have become involved because my Great Grandfather was the Head Master of St Catharine's from about 1867 until he retired through ill health on 7th May 1875. This photo means a lot to me as shows the area as it was. An ex-pupil has kindly sent me some old drawings and maps of the area and how it has built up from 1827 to 1929. Unfortuntely Copyright laws prevent me sharing this.

It is a great photo and the same street with the girls and scooter in the back ground appeared in Lancashire Life magazine on April 27th 2007 (www.lancashirelife.co.uk). I still attend St Catharine's Church and went to the school from around 1954 to 1960. The scooter incidentally belonged to the Yates family. You notice the disticnt lack of traffic!

Nice to see this pic. Doing Family Tree have discovered my great grandparents lived at number 15 Chancery St and ran a shop at number 6...this was around 1911...shame I don't know if these places are on this pic!

Im the little boy in the background i think walking home we lived at number 10 chancery street till we moved to lowes house along with bernice cunliffe , imanthony woodhouse.

The twins mum keeping an eye on the children.
Their older sister Agnes was a mate of mine. How clean looking the street is and the houses look well kept.