Wigan Album

lovely photo keith, those were lovely times, why do young uns want everything these days ,them two were happy with that bike they didnt need owt else.i love looking at these old photos ,i do know of birkett st cant think where abouts though.

Bernard has sent me the same photograph. The large white building with two chimney stacks in the background is what used to be called "The Lodging House" on Birkett Bank Terrace. It has been mentioned a few times on this site. I believe it became a youth club in the 1960's/70's.

Thanks for the orientation John, although I lived in Birkett Bank I wasn't getting my bearings quite right. If I'm not mistaken (and I could easily be) my father may have at one time used the structure to the right (black door?) as a shelter (couldn't call it a garage) for his old Hillman car in the early 1950's. I think (IF I'm right) he paid 2shillings and sixpence a week for the privilege, 12 and a half pence in today's money. Again I may be completely wrong but I think he rented it from the Bithell family, it was a long time ago. The "old lodging house" would be in Birkett Bank Terrace.

I've just remembered - those two chimneys have gone down in Birkett folklore. Don't know which one it was but one of them contained the hidden gold sovereigns of a poor man who never returned from the First World War. However, they were retrieved and spent, a story that was told to my father by customers at the Crispin Arms which was at the bottom of the street where he was Landlord in the first half of the 1950's. At least one of his customers was lodging at this house in the 50's, "Long John" by name.

John, are you related to the Gormallys who used to live at Wingates, and, later, in Kenyon Road?

Keith,
some neighbours did store cars in the yard at the back of 13 Birkett Street and your father could have been one of them. However, I am almost certain that Billy Bithell wouldn't have been involved. Bithells had a builders yard in Ince, not far from Clarington Brook.

Just to give some orientation to the picture, the back yards of houses in Leader St were to the right and Birkett Bank Terrace was on the left. The wall on which the bike is resting surrounded the back garden of 13 Birkett St.

Michael,
My great grandfather, grandfather and father all lived at Wingates during the early part of the 20th century. The Gormallys who lived in Kenyon Road were descended from the brother of my great grandfather and they also lived at Wingates, but somewhat later than my great grandfather.

Thanks John. Never really expected to see the old lodging house which existed only in my imagination, generated by stories handed down by others. Often wondered where it might be, now I know.

keith,we used to play cricket again,st the back wall of the lodging house,scared stiff retreiving the ball when it went over

What great memories and such a nostalgic insight of how we used to live and play as kids in the fifties when I lived in Golborne St Scholes but attended St Catharines's school, Church and BB. Mated with David Masonn who lived at the top of Caunce St and Alan Asbcroft who live at the bottom of Birkett St although they was a little older than me. Alan has been dead for some years now and david died a few weeks ago. I remember the White House youth club in the sixties and some properties are still thereabouts

Following on from what Bernard has written, the wall against which we played cricket was about eight feet high. However, it had a telegraph pole against it so my pushing your foot between the pole and the wall you could climb to the top - that was the easy bit. Once the ball had been located and retrieved came the hard bit - climbing over the wall from the other side without the help of a telegraph pole. We were all terrified of being spotted by a "lodger", although I have no reason to believe that they were at all aggressive or nasty.

I remember Bernard kING. ,WENT TO ST.PATS .THINK. HE WAS 8N MY CLASS ,HE LIVED IN LEADER STREET,WE LIVED IN 5HE BIG HOUSE IN CATHERINE TERRACE