Wigan Album

Wow! That is absolutely fascinating! I have a "thing" about old shops and old ways of packaging goods, and how I would love to walk into that photo and have a good mooch round! My husband was born in Bridge Street but moved to Mornington Road in 1962 when the house he grew up in was demolished, but, strangely, he can't recall Mrs. Felton's shop at all.

No junk food in there.
1/4 cornbeef, 5llb spuds, 1d tray,
bottle of Worthington beer, take empty bottles back with money returned. No packet food all freshly sliced and wrapped up in front of you. Great.

Those were the days Cathy. More lovely memories.

Hard to beat shops like these they were ‘short of nothing they had’! She would have known each single item on those shelves and where exactly it was. I remember the big book with the customer’s names written in and what was owed at the end of the week..a lot of trust was needed when you think about it. Sometimes it was a case of ‘ Turn over’ into next week for some.

Can remember this shop from when going into Rayner Park.My parents had a shop like this on Manchester Road in Ince,great memories.x

I like the tower of tins on the top right shelf . Looks like Heinz's soup . If the Till rang out too loud and shut like Arkwright's they might topple down .

Yes I too remember the big book, Veronica. People settled up on pay day. Trust with the locals and it worked.

Yes,nearly every family used to 'put it at the back of the book' till they paid up after getting their wages.

So many memories of local shops.....babies' dummies, pocket-combs and pencil-sharpeners hung on little cards on the wall, bottles of "Drene" shampoo ans bundles of firewood jostling for space on the shelves, and sometimes the shop's cat having a snooze in the window amongst the sweets and packets of Fairy Snow washing powder! Elizabeth, do you have any photos of your parents' shop in Ince, please?

There was so many of these shops in the streets and on corners it was hard to pick your favourites. One favourite was Monica’s on Scholefield Lane she ‘christened’ me Drene because I used to buy sachets of Drene Shampoo. It was a great toffee shop as well. Then there was Ginny Dykes ‘(save mi legs!’) because me and little friend Carol used to help in the shop. I loved dusting the window displays and sorting them out and serving as well. She had a flat glass case on top of the counter with all sorts of stuff inside it… laces, needles, bobbins of cotton, Fenning’s Powders a right mish mash of small items. We were never bored as kids..how could we be?!

Great photo. But when ever you went to these types of local shops, customers were always chatting with the shop keeper about mrs such a body and Mr lazy.
Thing was when you had four in the shop it was full. Not really good when your in a hurry.

My mum and dad took over this shop from Mrs Felton in the early 70’s and we lived there (along with my brother). I must have been 3 or 4 years old. It was run as a general store. It became Invader City in the 80’s