Wigan Album

T’horseshoe wur ne’er in Schows owd lad. An’ tha’s ne’er a Wigginer if tha thinks it wur.

Owd Deputy is reet, Schows started after't duggie going up'thill. When I were uh lad comin deawnt Wiggin on't bus from Aspull, bus turned reet after railway bridge or't road into Station Road, on't corner wer't T'horseshoe, just theer on't reet, bus then parked up at Th'Emp.

Everyone knows I'm not from Wigan - and I do know that Scholes begins at the Scholes Bridge marked on the map - but unfortunately that's the title of the category in the Album under which two of the images associated with the Horseshoe had already been posted, and I cannot alter it.

The Horseshoe Pub was exactly were the Rev Long states it is on the corner of Station Road and Lower Millgate, many people get confused as to where Millgate end and Scholes begins, Scholes starts beyond the railway bridge at the bridge over the river Douglas.
The Reading Room became the Children's Library.
Not sure when this map dates from, I would guess early 1900's, I don't recall a map stating that the building on the opposite side of the road was once a Public House. In the 1950's this two storey building was workshops, a Mr Sumner made mattresses and another on the top floor who made waxworks heads for Madam Tussauds. As viewed on the picture, to the right was Hannon;s second hand shop and to the left a Common Lodging House.
A little further up to the left on the corner of Millgate/Chapel Lane and Douglas Street the building now a house is no longer marked as a P.H. but it used to be The Douglas Tavern.
I knew the area very well as we lived on the corner of Douglas Street and Harrogate Street, the front door was on Harrogate Street No.39 with the back door in the entry to the communal yard with outside toilets on Douglas Steet, you can see this entry etched out indicating that it was covered by the bedroom of the house next door.
At the very bottom of Douglas Street the turning on the right was Knowles Terrace which had two houses at the bottom facing the River Douglas

I was friends with a girl in my class called Margaret Stockley and used to play around there Colin. My mam used to take us to Wigan Agencies for new clothes. I think that was once part of a school where my grandmother used to go as a child. Not sure of the name there was a church as well that belonged to the school.

I only recall going to The Children's Library on a Saturday morning but I went on the bus from Ince, then walked as far as the library and then back into Wigan. I never really knew the Scholes area but stories of it, and of its close-knit community, fascinate me. I used to go up Millgate with my Mam, but from the Market Place end, as far as the Welfare Clinic, but then back into Wigan town centre....to be honest, I had no idea that if we'd carried on walking we would have come to the children's library. But what a fascinating map...I love those old maps where everywhere is shown so clearly. Thankyou for posting it.

Just noticed the church and school on the map. The school became Wigan Agencies where you could buy clothes with weekly payments In the fifties. Hard to realise how mothers had to pinch and scrape with money in those days. When you think nowadays you can just go out and buy anything full price without resorting to weekly payments. They were hard times in the post war period. Clothes bough for special occasions like Christmas and Easter and WhitMonday.

Veronica, Yes I new Margaret Stockley and her brother David.
They lived towards the bottom of Shelmerdine Street on the left hand side. their parents were really nice and friendly.
I remember Mrs Stockley giving me a slice of Water Melon in the 1950's and thinking it exotic. Couldn't wait to get back home to tell my mum.
I haven't seen Margaret since those days of the first phase of the clearance but saw David about 30 years ago in Shevington, I think he lived in Appley Bridge.
There was an agency for school clothes in Dicconson Street opposite St Johns Hall, might have been called Gunn's but not sure. I think you could pay weekly for your purchases.
Irene, do you remember the condensed orange juice you used to get in small bottles from the Welfare Clinic? that must have been early fifties when there was still rationing and fresh oranges were either too expensive or not even available. Ration Books and Utility Furniture, those were the days!
Small world isn't it.

Many people seem to be quite confused with location of everything around this area including the precise location of Douglas House in relation to this map.
Douglas House stands precisely opposite the lower part of Douglas Street, side on to the railway bridge. The main entrance was/is from Millgate opposite but lower down than the Horseshoe Pub and right alongside the railway bridge before it was demolished. There was also access from Douglas Street, that was before the new police station and garage was built on Harrogate Street.
What may confuse people is that vast chunks of land on this map including the Horseshoe and most of Douglas Street is now buried under River way. Shrinking the area on which Douglas House stands considerably.
Should anyone like a guided tour with someone who lived and breathed this part of Wigan please let me know. My fees are quite reasonable!!!!!

Veronica, the Church and School on the Map are the Presbyterian Church on Chapel Lane which was a lovely little stone building, the School was at the back accessed from Harrogate Street and the School Yard from Atherton Street.
I don't remember the school ever in use but do vividly but remember attending in 1953 a Coronation Party for all kids from the area with entertainers and music on the top floor and the occasional Jumble Sale. It may have had an agency but I don't recall this.

Colin. I do indeed remember the concentrated Welfare Orange Juice....I have never tasted orange juice quite like it since. I watched Call The Midwife yesterday and there seemed to be some bottles of it on a shelf. Yes, Veronica, I remember Gunn's Warehouse, and my Mam paying weekly for "Provident Cheques" to buy my clothes....they could only be used at certain shops, such as Gunn's, who charged over the odds. which seemed unfair, as it targeted people who could have got them cheaper at , say, British Home Stores, but who couldn't afford to pay all at once. My brother Ronnie used to get clothes from Reg Sutton's in Scholes and the man used to come round for the payments on Saturday afternoons. It was just how it was back then.

Margaret died a few years ago Colin. She was a very good swimmer she’s on some of the photos I have put on under St Pats. There’s one of a group of swimmers and she’s on it and I am on the photo at the front with a big Swimming Shield. You may find it under St Pats. Also a school re-Union in 1996 which she helped to organise.

Irene, yes it was delicious I think it was eventual replaced with those small orange juice bottled with metal caps, I recall drinking a bottle on the rug in front of the coal fire while my Grandmother toasted bread over the hot coals before we had tripe and onions. Same place for my tin bath on a Friday night.
Goodness! they complain all the time these days but they don't know they are born, when was the last time you saw someone with impetigo on their face, a boy with a calliper on their leg due to Polio or a girl asking the teacher for shoes because she turned up in bare feet, I remember that reality all too well.
Having said that, times these days are without doubt extremely difficult for most and demands on what money you have are huge. Even with all those harsh starts in life I think our generation will be looked back on as living through (60's, 70's 80's and 90.s) as a Golden Age.
Got my first pair of long trousers and Thomas More school uniform from Gunn's and and as you say probably on tick. I had an aunty who was considered posh because she had a mink coat and an account at Pendlebury's. These days we have overdraughts and credit cards but no mink coats!

Veronica, was that the photo with Pat (Patricia) Harris, who she was very grit with at the time, I think I put a comment on that.
Sorry to learn that she has passed away, really nice girl.

Yes they were both the school ‘champions’ I don’t how I got to near the shield! It’s only half a photo as well I don’t know where the other half went! I wish somebody who has that photo would post it.
The reunion photo is the last time I saw Margaret.

Now Colin, you spoke too soon! I have a fur coat, (although I doubt it's mink), and three fox furs and a fur cape, I assure you they are all VERY old and were passed to me by a lady whose Mother they had belonged to in the 1930s and 1940s. Her Mother had passed away and she knew I attended 1940s events and wanted me to look after them. rather than throw them away. But no account at Pendlebury's, unfortunately, (although I worked there in the seventies when it was Debenhams). I remember how posh it seemed in Pendlebury's when I was a child. I think my Mam only went in for a "toot" before going on to Woolworths and Oxley's, which was much more "up our street"! Lol !

Remember looking in the jewellers window in one of the shops,just before the pub. Fascinated by the pocket watches.

Irene, all those poor scalped animals, not of your making of course but how very, very posh! Good of you to preserve them and give them dignity and a purpose.
My Grandmother had one of those pre war brown dead fox stoles that Wallis Simpson used to wear, glass eyes with the mouth used as a clasp to its bushy tail. The fox that is not my Grandmother!
I used to have hours of fun taunting the cat with it, once clipping it to its tail and watching it dementedly running around the room, we had no telly in those days so you had to make your own entertainment!
You know what they used say though 'All fur coat and no k....................'s) but I am sure you never fell into that category, far too nice a lady with exquisite tastes.

Yes, my three fur stoles that belonged to the lady are like Wallis Simpson's , and were obviously very high quality when bought. I call them Winston, Neville and Monty! The fur cape was made at a furriers in Southport and the address is on the silk lining.....I call it Lady Churchill! We haven't attended a forties event since before the pandemic but might go to a couple next year.

If I ham right there was a car sales plot just a bit further up from the Horse Shoes Pub run by John Winton ex wigan rugby full back.



































(suposed to be the next Punchy Grithes

I’m sure there was a shop just up from there what sold eggs, beans and sausage to go with the ham, but you might prefer chips?