Wigan Album

i can well remember going in there
what a change now

where's Spooner?

Now that is a good photo, Thanks Ron 9/10

Great photo, brings back many memories. Think Millgate looks much better then than it does now, much more character. Thanks for posting.

Got my first class swimmers certificate in there around about that time, my prize was a 12 months free pass for the baths, the school I attended had 3 weeks holiday longer than the other schools, so I had 3 weeks in the baths practically on my own, sheer heaven.

more character and obviously better drivers ?no grit on those roads

What was across the road from the baths, houses and shops? It looks like a house at the end, what a great place to live! Were the baths and houses opposite demolished at the same time?

Great picture Ron

I have great memories of going there...paid sixpence a week for a German lady to teach us to swim who appeared also on What's my Line on the telly..I could not learn to swim with her..my dad said to my mam she'll only learn if she teaches herself(I must have been a stubborn little so and so)he bought me a khaki coloured lifebelt and that's how I learned...and does anybody remember the little shop right facing where we used to get a little penny loaf that was delicious...lovely memories..thanks Ron.

I REMEMBER GOING AS A VERY SMALL CHILD TO THE NEARBY WELFARE CLINIC, WHERE MY MAM GOT WELFARE ORANGE-JUICE FOR ME. IT WAS HIGHLY CONCENTRATED STUFF WHICH YOU DILUTED WITH WATER. THEY ALSO HAD TINS OF NATIONAL DRIED MILK.

Brilliant photo Ron, where did you get it? I've been looking for a decent photo of the Old Baths for years. My Grandfather, Jack Cockrell, was the Manager there for nearly 40 years before he retired in 1966. He used to drink in the Baths Hotel opposite (seen on the right of your Photo). My Grandparents and Father lived in the house on the corner,immediately down from the entrance.I must have been the most spoiled kid in Wigan having a swimming pool to myself on Sundays and in the evening when everyone else had gone home...strangely enough I seemed to have lots of friends as well !!!

Irene that orange juice was the best I have ever tasted. I can remember it well, they gave it to us at nursery school. It came in medicine sized bottles. I got the photo from a friend .

I could cry with nostalgia looking at this photo of our great town that was ... full of character .. and look at it now ... nough said ..

There is an excellent book, "A Wigan Childhood" by John Sharrock. It mentions the baths and surrounding area of Millgate and Sharrock brings the area to life. It was one of the few books I have read recently that had me laughing out loud!

I remember going there as a small child ... not for many years as I was born in 1959. One vivid memory I have is having a cup of hot instant chicken soup from the machine in the entrance. Tastiest thing ever after mouthfuls of chlorinated water.

John Sharrock Taylor the authur of the book, a Wigan childhood, is my second cousin.Now retired to southern Spain, he mentons my Grandparents Jack and Margaret cockrell in the book, along with Photos. His late Mother, Beatrice, was brought up at the Baths by them when her Parents sadly died when she was quite young. Hence the connection.

Saturday mornings we all went to the baths in the fifties
what i remember is the brylcream machine on our way out. happy days

Remember the changing rooms at the side of the baths with the wooden doors and the coloured wrist bands they gave you as you went in, the man blowing the whistle shouting red bands out.

In answer to frazhm,s question,one of the buildings is probably the Bath Hotel which stood across the road from the baths. Does anyone remember going to the dentist in Millgate having been sent there from school? Enough to put you off dentist,s for life!

Hi Maureen it,s me again,your Mikes classmate from TLS.Iv,e got a photo of him at a wedding (Jack Ashhurst,s sisters wedding) Do you remember Jack? I,ll upload it in the next few days.

I'm sure that entrance was miles, miles bigger when I learned to swim there aged 4 in 1959. Girls baths on the right up a couple of steps amd the lads at the end of that tiled corridor. Spooner in waiting , being forced to get under that freezin' shower, swimmin', then to British Home Stores Cafeteria for welsh rarebit wi me dad.

I can remember using those baths quite regularly.They used to have the changing cubicles around the plunge and above it. They used colours for the hangers you had to use. Never seen anything like it before or since. Me and my brother used to throw the scrubbing brushes at the rats that used to walk just below the ceiling along pipes in the male showers. We thought it was funny to knock a rat off the pipes, it is when your 9 years old. We weren't the only ones who threw the scrubbers at the rats, I think they all did it.

bg, the entrance just SEEMED much bigger in childhood; we were smaller, I suppose, but this has happened to me so many times.....you go back to childhood's haunts and find them TINY in contrast to the way they have stayed in your memory.