Wigan Album

What a piece of Wigan history! Thankyou so much for sharing this with us.

I was born at no.66!

Can someone give the location of School St. please

I might be wrong but at one end you could come out in Greenough St and the other end near Crompton St also Upper Morris St ran into the middle??
Just guessing as I think I cut through the street when going 'up town' from Scholes. It's a long, long time ago...

Where are they now ?
What's left of this place,
are memories still present,
or gone without trace.
The people who lived here,
the children who played,
the grind of the daily,
that only graft made.
So what does it matter,
to someone like you ,
it's really quite simple,
this picture is true..

Your quern sits nicely mid-stream, FW.

A great nostalgic photograph.
My 2x Great Grandparents lived in School Street in 1841 with my Great Grandfather, then a boy of about 3.
I bet it looked different again at that time.

Barry Carter.
Sorry to pry, but do you have connections to Powell/Houghton by any chance?

Looking at an old map School St started from Greenough St, went through Boyswell Lane then Kay St, Upper Morris St, Lower Morris St and came out on School Lane near the Little theatre.

John, School Street ran from Greenough Street more or less on the same line as the new Morris Street, in a straight line to School Lane, at the corner of Orchard Street (still there) just near the Little Theatre. I think a bit of School Street is still there in the middle of the new property,
another John.

Barry: I was born in School St. At the Greenough st end (no 72. . . I think) My mother's maiden name was Carter!

Hi Helen, yes on my wife side of the family. How are you connected?
Hi John, when I was keen and first started out doing the old family tree I looked at the old Wigan Burgess books and there were Carters living at No 15, 21, 23 and 27 at around 1912 to 1920. I don't remember having links to a Brown though John.

Barry,
I sent you an email message

In the 1930's I lived at No.32.At 34 were the Moran's and at 30 the Urmstans. One of the Urmstan famlily was a train driver and had a 'Knocker-up'very early every morning. All the houses had coal fires; our coal place was inside the house;my mother and Aunty hid in there whenever there was thunder.During a thunder storm, the back door had to be left open in case a fire ball came down the chimney.My mother used to put a chair at the front of the house and chat with Mrs.Johnson who lived across the street. Our lives are now so very different and better(?) but what wouldn't we give to be able to sit in the street and chat to a neighbour

That's something I remember well - the old ladies who sat on chairs outside their front doors in the summer months. I recall one lady who just used to stand on one leg with her other leg tucked up behind, like an ostrich, and leant with her shoulder on the wall!,,I was baffled at how she could do that!
Perhaps she had been a ballet dancer or gymnast in a former life!

I was born at no. 48 in 1947 as were my 2 brothers and sister.my grandmother live round the corner at 52 upper morris st and we shared the same back yard.we live there till 60s when they were demolished.the best time of our lives.

I lived at number 16A School Street from birth in 1959 to when the houses were demolished in the 60s. We lived next door to Mrs Heppenstall who had a son called Clifford

I remember Clifford quite a character every one loved him i was born in foundry st in 1948.the fitzhenry,s lived opposite. Used to play in school st.we played Scilly across the road i can into your window sill and banged my head.

Were the Fitzgenrys you mention Bill with a daughter Pat by any chance?

I lived at School Street in 1950s l was young round 6 by 10 years old they knocked down School Street, we lived a few houses up from the corner shop,,we was the burns family ,,the clees lived next-door,,hitching family across , that row of houses was taken down first ,round a year and a half later our side of School Street was knocked down,the last few houses was type of red brick houses ,whole community was divided..there was 16A,and 16B..if l can remember...we lived in 16b...

If anyone is interested, that particular area of Wigan (School Street, Orchard Street, Upper Morris Street...) was mostly demolished in the 1960s and before the other side of Greenough Street, which, I am quite sure of, was demolished in the 1970s.
I wasn't born nor lived there, but my father worked on that particular (School Street etc. area) building site.
In the 1970s, he was working on the building site which was in the Platt Lane area.
My father was not totally in favour of all the demolition work going on and strongly felt that it was breaking down good solid communities. He also felt that the multi-storey flats were inappropriate regarding the environmental landscape and would cause certain health issues due to the decline of social interaction and the decline of strong friendly support from neighbours.
By the way, my father was totally against the demolition of the old Market Hall and he tried to persuade certain people that it would be mostly in the best interest of Wigan people to keep the Market Hall as it had a strong sense of community and was one of the strong focal points of Wigan town centre, it would maintain its historical value, many businesses were strong family businesses and local, the renovation costs would be lower than the demolition etc costs... Also, he stated that carrying out the plans to replace the old Market Hall with a completely new shopping complex would kill off some of the local small family businesses due to increased rental costs and would possibly kill off areas of Wigan town centre shopping areas as these areas would get neglected by a majority of shoppers, areas such as King Street, especially in bad weather conditions.

Excellent photo to complement the one recently post by Ron Hunt.
Although we had very many relatives in the area, walking to visit them in the 1950’s was like visting ‘Alien’ territory, I alway seemed to be getting the unspoken look of ‘What are you doing here’.