Wigan Album

I know which scene I’d rather have. I wonder what the little lads are up to. If they are still around I hope they see this. You never know they might well recognise themselves.

I grew up within walking distance to this shop. Didn't Rylance's still have this shop until a few years ago?

I do remember the canopy but only vaguely the Shell petrol pump, wonder if this was also for general sale or reserved just for Rylance's delivery vans?

The boys look to be very inquisitive and the two on the right seem to be egging on the lad on the left to do something mischievous - maybe he has a catapult and perhaps about to aim at the bending man.

There was a butchers a little further down from here by the name of Sweeney - I always thought that if I had the shop I would change the name.

A nice thought Veronica, they would be in their mid 70’s today. Looks as if any cars filling up with petrol here would have to pull onto the pavement - health and safety?

I seem to recall the previous proprietors of these premises were Abbott & Smith before it became Land of Bedwetters .

I’m actually sitting here looking around at some of the stuff that I purchased from there when I first got wed .
The stuff wasn’t cheap either ….although it was a damn sight cheaper than the divorce as things turned out .

Oh no ! ……… the memories , those awful memories …….The darkness is descending .

Incidentally Keith , nicking photos from street view , cropping them and sticking them on here is a bit cheeky , don’t you think ?
….terrible man , terrible man , terrible terrible terrible man … yon woman’s been standing at that stop waiting for the 360 into Wigan for the last two years to my knowledge.

Only joking mate…..

…….or am I ?

Cyril , I get the impression that you’ve always lived in Wigan , whereas I on the other hand only arrived here relatively recently when my intergalactic spacecraft unexpectedly encountered a downdraught over the gents toilets at the Bellingham bowling club and crash landed in Bottling wood .

So you may recollect that back in the early 60s there was a dental practice up Whelley by the name of Edward McGraw , ….if memory serves .

At that time , there was also a kids cartoon on telly called “ Quick draw McGraw “.

Dentist ?…McGraw?….Quick draw McGraw ?………

Well , it always made me smile anyway .

I lived across the road from Rylances.
They used to sell brown tea pots and some of my relatives who lived in Parbold used to come to Rylances to buy their tea pots.
Apparently Queen Mary was found of brown tea pots but I doubt if she bought them from Rylances.

Never ‘nicked’ anything in my life Ozy, borrowed perhaps, some consider that worse. C'est la vie.

I was living in the Pemberton area in the early 1960s Ozy, so didn't know the dentists in Whelley, I was always taken or went to what was always known as Brown's in the town centre.

I do remember the cartoon character Quick Draw McGraw, and an excellent pun too - did you ever tell your dentist that jokey term, he may have found it hilarious, or have done your next filling without anaesthetic, and you'd have come out with McGraw's catchphrase - "Ooooh that smarts!".

And yes, I had to look that up, been looking at the other characters too and there are some excellent comical names that I'd forgotten such as Sagebrush Sal and Tombstone Jones.

My grandchildren have never liked the cartoons from that era and just watch modern ones with the cartoon characters drawn like they are on the handheld computer games they play, we didn't have that choice did we with computers in the 1960s being as big a house and only used by NASA the US DOD and the Russian Roscosmos and GRU too of course.

There's an interesting photo taken by Ron of a plan from 1927 of
J. Rylance & Sons shop that is on the Album. https://www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/photo.php?opt=5&id=29605&gallery=Pemberton&page=5

Interestingly it appears that you could at one time purchase petrol in two gallon cans from chemists, hardware shops and hotels, as well as from garages. So maybe Rylance's later began to sell petrol from a pump as well as in two gallon cans.

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/what-is-designation/heritage-highlights/englands-first-filling-station/

I was born just across the road from there ,on Ormskirk Road ,( now where the Bargain Booze Store is ) in 1947 ,i think in fact i know Veronica i would prefer the older years ,the amount of furniture we have had from is quite a lot and for me they have always been of good quality ,i wonder if any of you knew me or my family? Do any of you remember across from HALF -WAY -HOUSE -PUB a shop called
BAXTERS ?? it was 4/5 doors up from me it was a very small shop ,they had a son called STUART BAXTER ! just wondering !!

Alan, I remember Baxters shop and I remember Stuart.
I lived at 502 Ormskirk Road and my dad's auntie and uncle Billy and Maggie Hurst lived on the opposite side of the road at 461.
I remember there was also a ladies clothes shop a few doors away from Baxters right next to the bus stop.

Come to think of it , it’s hardly surprising that yon woman’s been waiting two years for the 360 bus into Wigan .
Maybe someone should tell her it’s the 352 that she needs to be flagging down eh ?
I’ll more than likely be passing there tomorrow when I go for my spuds , and if she’s still there , then I’ll give her the wire
I won’t bother inserting a full stop after the word “ wire “ , as punctuation marks tend to end up everywhere except at the the places where one intends them to on this site .

See what I mean ?

Ozy, is the owner of the fruit & veg shop the same lad (he'll be a man now) who would be stood outside on the corner of the shop that was there previously with a fruit & veg barrow, and, admirably, would be there in all weathers and seasons, if so he deserved to get on with his business. (I'm going back some 30 years and throughout the 1990s whenever I would go past he would be there)

I wouldn’t know if I’m being honest Cyril , as I’ve only been getting my veg from there for the last four or five years , ever since I gave up hope of ever finding any species of vegetable in Tesco that I would consider being fit to offer to a horse in fact .

In my opinion , whoever has the job of sourcing vegetables for Tesco , should have been handed their P45 years ago .

Take the tomatoes that Tesco sell for instance .
Normally , the longer you keep tomatoes , the softer they become , … whereas with Tesco’s tomatoes , the opposite is true .
In fact , Tesco could do much worse than donate their toms to Volodymyr Zelenskyy and let him fire them at the Russians , as they’d probably inflict far more damage on the red army than anything NATO could ever hope to provide .

But getting back to your original question , I’m led to believe that the owner of premises at Halfway House , also owns that veg shop on Atherton road at Hindley and another one at Fingerpost near Parr .

And yes , the lad deserves to do well , as the stuff he sells is as good as anything I’ve seen anywhere , with the possible exception of Bylorus ; although I do have a cautionary tale to relate regarding their premises at Hindley .

I’ll hold that one back for another occasion though on the advice of my solicitor.

The shop at Hindley was already open in the 1980s, I think it was then called 'Fresh Pickins,' I would call there on occasions as they sold a lot more of the exotic fruits before others began selling them. It is now called 'Self Pick,' so if the two shops are now connected to the man who would stand outside with a barrow I can't say, but if you are happy with the produce then like others you'll continue going back.

Bradshaws Girl , It was heartwarming knowing someone from my past may know of me or my parents Thomas & Elizabeth , I hope you not put off by me asking are you still living there ? IF so i would dearly like to see you for a chat ,i will understand if you don't though ,so all the best , P.S. Did you know someone called Beckets .

Alan, I don't live in Wigan any more. Can't say I remember anyone called Beckets. Our next door neighbour on one side was a Mrs Murphy (never knew her first name) and on the other side were the Broadbents.

Bradshaw Girl.
ARGH , You turncoat leaving good owd Wiggin , Only joking B/Girl Thanks for conversing with me just sorry i can't resolve or find out more about that time period ,it's like they say we don't ask our parents /Grand-parents enough when they are here ,it's only when they have gone we decide to ,then it's too late ,so bye Bradshaw LASS all the best X

I lived behind Rylands in what used to be police houses on Larch Avenue. The gardens backed onto the the back of the shop, there was a dirt lane there.