Wigan Album

on the old maps in history shop millgate went up to scholes crossing if that is the horseshoe just showing on left it is millgate

Yes It Is The Horseshoe Pub

A base model Hillman Avenger passes the Horseshoe pub, and a newsagents. I think the other shop was an antiques business. Around the corner, was a hairdressers, and the Powell library and art gallery before demolition in 1985.

This is not Douglas Street it is Millgate.
Building on the left is the Horseshoe and the building on the far right used be be Davenports Jewellers. I once apprehended a thief one night who had climbed over the gate, broke a window and was helping himself to watches, the police were quickly on the scene.
Doubt if either myself or the police would be bothered these days.

PS, the boarded up window of the building in the centre building used to be a large bay window.
Below in the 1950s early sixties was Mrs Kelly's coffee bar that had a small juke box on the wall. Above lived the McNamara family, they had three children the youngest being twins. They had Pekingese dogs and a huge Chow Chow.

Colin, you are perfectly correct regarding the area. I assume, the bay window you mention matched the bay window which can be seen in the photograph.
Wasn't Douglas Street off this road and almost opposite the swimming baths?
Virtually opposite these shops, two large blocks of flats were built.
If I remember correctly, they demolished all the houses around Douglas Street (Harrogate Street etc) and, for a time, a part of the area was just waste land - then, they built the "new" Police Station on the land.
By the way, I cannot remember if it was the newsagent's shop or a sweetshop that I used to go into after coming out of the swimming baths.
Was that middle shop (with the boarded window) a sweetshop at one time?

Ian, the bay window would have been similar if not exactly the same, the windows at each side did open as I can remember hanging out of one window on the left hand side.
Douglas Street ran from Chapel Lane almost at the junction of Rodney street and Millgate. If you walked down it would take you all the way to the River Douglas but halfway down it branched of to the right which was the start of Harrogate Street leading to Darlington Street.
We lived on the corner of Harrogate Street and Douglas Street, No 39 to be precise although the entry to the back door was on Douglas Street. The new police station or to be exact the garage at the side was slap bank on top of our old house!
Only one block of flats built on the land was Douglas House.
The sweet shop that you refer to might have been Lilly and Bill Gaskells on Douglas Street, it was next door down from the Printing Works on the right, further down and around the corner on Harrogate street and opposite our house was another sweet shop, originally the two Topping sisters had this and then later Lilly and Bill Wilson before the entire area was blitzed.
So it would seem that apart from a still cobbled bit of road between Douglas House and the now Premier inn, Douglas Steet has now vanished into history.
Makes me a bit sad to think of this, even though times were hard in those days I have a lot of happy memories playing on those long gone cobbled streets and swinging around the gas lamps on foggy nights.

Thanks for that, Colin.
Didn't this part of Millgate connect to Chapel Lane and almost as one road?
And, wasn't this road altered regarding the direction?
I only vaguely remember some of this area and what it was like, because I was a very young kid when the houses in and around Douglas Street were demolished.
Weren't those streets (Douglas Street, Harrogate Street etc.) cobbled and wasn't there a red brick wall at the bottom end of Douglas Street?
I vaguely remember a red brick wall at the bottom of one of the streets and the River Douglas being on the other side of the wall.
By the way, Colin, I meant the two blocks of flats on the other side of the road from those shops: one being opposite the buildings and the other being further along the road towards Scholes and just over the River Douglas. I can never remember which is which. I know, and never forget, that the one at the top of Scholes (at the top of Greenough Street) is Boyswell House and I am quite sure that the block of flats opposite those shops is Douglas House, but I am never sure of the others. I know that there is Derby House and there is Crompton House - I think, Crompton House is the one opposite Wigan Little Theatre. Also, there is Woodcock House and there is Manion House. But, there are seven blocks of flats and I clearly remember the one closest to Pepper Mill had a pub/bar on the ground floor.
Colin, it is sad to compare the past environment of Wigan and the surrounding area and the present Wigan. To think, there were so many shops in that area: Millgate, Darlington Street (from the traffic lights at Pepper Mill to the top of King Street) and even in some of the small streets off the main streets and roads. I recall, there were some shops opposite the old Fire Station.
I think, Crompton House is the one opposite Wigan Little Theatre.

Ian, if that cat veered immediately to the left it would enter Chapel Lane with the top of Douglas Street again immediately to the left.
That part of Millgate is now one way going down only to access Douglas House and Scholes.
Douglas Street as I said went all the way down to the River Douglas with Harrogate Street branching off to the right. Down Harrogate Street before you get to Darlington Street on the right there was Atherton Street and a covered entrance to Gees Court and Shelmerdine Street and Foy Street to the left.
The lower part of Douglas Street was always cobbled up to demolition but I remember in the 1950's Harrogate Street and the upper part leading to Chapel Lane being tarmacked over and in-lade with chippings.
You remember correctly, there was a brick wall at across the bottom of Douglas Street with the river Douglas on the other side. To the right of that wall was small alleyway Knowles Terrace, there were two houses at the bottom facing the Douglas. To the left was a sort of garage with a room above which when it was built in the 1800's might have been stables. There was a man, Jack Higgins who lived in Douglas Street ran his upholstery business from the upper floor. He moved his workshop to Burrows Yard off Millgate when it was pulled down, his wife Kitty made curtains for theatres and cinemas, I remember her working on a set for the Ritz Cinema stage.
PS did you know that Wigan Little Theatre used to be the Canada Picture House?
Darlington Street from the Derby Arms up to the Pepper Mill was a township in itself, with butchers, bakers and probably the proverbial candlestick makers, everything you would need for day to day living. It went rapidly into decline as the 50's rolled into the Sixties. You can still see that evolutionary process happening today in the town centre.

Correction - As you will have noticed there is no cat on the picture.
I meant to say 'if that car veered to the left!!!!!!!!!!!!!'

Palatine soft drinks was to the right of Davenports before it was demolished and millers scooter shop was across from it at the side of the river Douglas
I lived in Douglas House and used to walk along the cobble path along the river douglas to St George’s school calling at Barry Knowles house (just behind Wigan little theatre)