Wigan Album

Shrewd salesman! Winkles 25p for half a pound or 50p a pound!

None of your fancy, grams and kilos in them days.

Looks like Bolton's stall, which used to be in the corner entrance to the hall, nearest the bus station.

The other day I was talking to my neighbours, we were talking about seafood, ( they are from Nrw Orleans, well known for great seafood) I told them about my Mam, God Bless her, and her love of cockles and winkles, covered in salt, pepper and vinegar and they had never heard of winkles. Lo and behold here is a great picture..I'm going to copy it if that's ok, to show them...

I've looked high and low for a vinegar bottle like that one.
Everyone used to have one in the past but they are all plain glass nowadays. I've tried Ebay, Amazon, Google, to no avail. I would be grateful if anyone could tell me if they are still available.

Yes Msrgaret, I've seen them but couldn't say where. I will contact you if I see any more. They are clear glass but have a dented pattern. You see pint beer glasses with the same design.

Remember going there with my father to buy cockles and mussels, forty odd years ago. At the time they sold oysters at 9d (4p) each. Wish you could buy them for that now.

Thanks Irene. I would be thrilled to bits if you could remember where you saw them. If I did get one though, I would buy a white top for it (instead of the clear one in the photo) or I may just go all out and buy a blue one, I'm sure I've seen them. Oh the possibilities...!!
Well, they do say small things amuse small minds but I don't care. Like you Irene, I am unashamedly nostalgic about the past.

If I see one further afield from Wigan, Margaret, (on holiday, for example), I will pick one up for you. It is nice to know another nostalgic person! Which chippy did you go to as a child? I got my "six", (sixpennyworth), of chips in a newspaper bag mainly from Maggie Scott's at the top end of Ince Green Lane, but sometimes from Ernie's chippy, near Greenfield Avenue or Annie Blinkhorn's at the top of Patricroft Road.There were no polystyrene trays for a "mixture"...people took their own basin, or two plates covered with a teatowl to carry home a fish. Peter and I went to The Black Country Museum last week, and they have a restored 1930s chip-shop selling the most delicious fish and chips I have ever tasted, cooked in beef dripping and served in a cone made from paper. There are no forks.....you have to eat them with your fingers.

Margaret, they did have those vinegar bottles in the Tesco store on Central Park Way a while ago, not sure if they still have any on display though, it was when they had a lot of retro kitchenalia for sale like the blue and white Cornish ware.

As I recal, the seafood stalls under the "Verandah" as it was called, sold Cockles, Mussels & whelks etc by the quart (2 pints), & the periwinkles by the gill.
I never liked the stuff but my cousin would eat owt wi' a shell on...Even a Tortoise, he used to joke ;o)
Crabs legs & claws by the bag. I love the Wiganese twang in the way of spelling prawns in Spanish. Gambas, become Gambus

Thanks Cyril, I will have a look for those vinegar bottles when I go to Tesco next week.
Irene, if you could find one on your travels that would be great and in answer to your question, we had the luxury of three chippies in Lower Ince- Ward's, Rooney's and Lane's but the one we went to most was Rooney's. Later it was taken over by somebody else and they sold cheese and onion pies to die for. I have never tasted anything like them since. It's no wonder I piled weight on in my teens and have been struggling ever since!

I have had a look in Tesco Margaret but I couldn't find any vinegar bottles of any description, the cornish ware had gone too, there wasn't anyone around to ask if they will be getting more in. I'm sure you will be able to find one somewhere, there must be some around.

i think this is steve percival in the photo he was a friend of my brothers

Just a comment on periwinkles, Me and my mates went to Pwllheli camp in 1949, and there were winkles on the beach there. We didn't know that you cooked them first and we were spearing them with our Butlin badge pins as the popped out of their shells and eating them raw!!

My Mam used to buy winkles, cockles and mussels from the fish market, which stood at the rear of the Market Hall facing the Market Square. It was always dark in there and dank, with damp stone steps leading into the Market Hall proper. The fruit market was also separate to the main hall and the floor was always littered with slatted wooden boxes and tissue paper off the apples and tangerines.

Hello Margaret,we've been to Bygone Times this morning and have looked everywhere for your vinegar bottle,but ..no luck,but like Irene said I've seen them somewhere....I'm on a mission now....I wonder if you asked in a chippy they would be able to tell you where to find one.Will carry on looking and let you know if anything develops.Irene,hello...if you haven't been to Bygone Times it is just up your street chuck.

Hello Maureen and Thankyou. We have £5 membership cards so we can go in anytime without paying now. Sometimes we have a ride out to there just to go in their lovely cafe for our dinner. Wouldn't it be nice if we could find a vinegar bottle for Margaret?

Yes Irene,it would be great,we were there the other week and when I saw the photo of said bottle I could have sworn it was there I'd seen it.Irene...some folk strive for riches don't they,we only want to find a little vinegar bottle....oh! and riches as well ha ha,take care.

Thank you so much Maureen, Irene and Cyril for your kindness. Between us all we're bound to find that elusive vinegar bottle.
Sometimes it's the simple things in life that bring so much pleasure; long hazy summer days, nice caring people and...vinegar bottles!
Who needs riches?!

I wish i'd never looked at these comments now, I'll never sleep 'till that bottles found. Looks like it's part of a set looking at the pepper pot. Bet it was from Oobidoo in Wallgate.

Love the "GAMBUS"prawns and the "MACKERAL" failed butchers every last fishmonger.

Don't worry Wayne...we'll find one between us...please remind me where oobidoo's was or I'll never sleep!!!

On Wallgate Maureen, where the present day Scope charity shop is, opposite the GPO.

Ah yes,thank you Mick.

Noel Chadwick, Are you sure you are Noel Chadwick, I am sure he went to the Great boneyard in the sky to be rendered down for glue many years ago,Non of his sons was named Noel,Why do you not put your real name on here, Chadwicks left the Market Hall in Wigan many moons ago, They failed as butchers in the Market,

Your right Mick, it was Boltons, I worked in the market whilst that stall was there, LUVVERLY COCKLES.I could eat them by the bucketfull.