Wigan Album

JUST CHECKED THIS IMAGE AGAINST AN IMAGE OF COOPS FACTORY AND THE WINDOWS LOOK THE SAME I.E. WITH A ROUND TOP .

Did they have a memorial for ww1 in their foyer just seen in history shop commemorated 1921 droning st wigan

My thinking in identifying the venue is indeed just as Ron says, the windows are the clue. Secondly it is a clothing factory rather than cloth weaving which is consistent with Coops. My grandmother was a skilled seamstress and made clothes for her family over many years. She had at home a pedal driven Singer sewing machine just as you see in the photos. She was born Frances Maud Blackburn and we identify her as second from the front in the middle row. We think the date is around 1920 as Maud would then be aged 22 and living in Wigan Road. Two years later she married and so would have given up work, moving later to Tunstall Lane with her husband Rowland Lang where he ran a butcher's shop. We think her parents were also resident in Tunstall Lane. I have searched on-line but not found any other photo taken inside the factory.

The Imperial War Museum has an image said to be of a WW1 Memorial at Coops https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/82897

Scroll Down on the image
It commerated 1921
At dorning st wigan

Photo of the inside of Coops, I sent this picture in to Wigan World, but I am unable to find my original among all the other stuff that we all keep!! sorry about the quality. My Mum Nellie Barrow is in the centre of the picture.

When I was at St Mary's, Lower Ince, we renovated the plaques for WW1 and WW2 in the church. One of those on the WW1 memorial, Harold Beach, is also on the Coops memorial. A member of the congregation had been given his medals and 'Death Penny' by his last surviving relatives. I had them mounted to sit beneath the St Mary's Memorial. I think they were handed over to Wigan Archives when St Mary's closed.