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Photos of Wigan
Photos of Wigan



Wigan Album

Hardybutts

12 Comments

Living in Hardybutts 1939
Living in Hardybutts 1939
Photo: Keith
Views: 776
Item #: 35378
A b/w photo that I have in a 1939 edition of Picture Post (found in my father’s memorabilia) published November 11th 1939, that I’ve colourised. It shows a 27 year old miner in what is described as "a row of slum houses in Hardybutts, due to be demolished by the council". It also mentions that this miner has been unemployed for the last 9 years.

Comment by: Helen of Troy on 19th October 2024 at 07:46

A telling image. Some time ago I read a report published in the 1800's on Can Row...somebody mentioned the area recently on PAD.... It is very hard today to read about the conditions that
folk had to live in back then. Children never living beyond infancy, disease & filth. How people coped I don't know. Things can't have moved on much if this was 1939 but people did the best they could.

Comment by: Irene Roberts on 19th October 2024 at 08:01

I have seen this photo before and I believe it was posed especially for Picture Post. There is another one taken in the Scholes area, and very similar, also for Picture Post, of a man standing against a wall with two children near to him; if I remember correctly, one of them is carrying a box advertising something, (Stork margarine, maybe?). Your colourisation of these black and white photos, Keith, is excellent, as the colours are muted rather than bright, and bring the photos to life without making them look too modern.

Comment by: Veronica on 19th October 2024 at 09:45

The children could still be alive in their 80’s. I wonder what the child on the left is doing.
Reaching up for something..might be a cat! I wonder where it was exactly. There was a yard I remember leading off Hardybutts into Scholes where Pie Joe’s shop was. Those terraced houses were really old. I don't recognise the tall buildings in the background.

Comment by: Veronica on 19th October 2024 at 10:01

I wonder if the man was called up in the Army in 1939 . Many men volunteered around that time.

Comment by: tom on 19th October 2024 at 10:54

the lad may looks like he leaning on the outside of the old toilets .may he is waiting his turn .

Comment by: Keith on 19th October 2024 at 12:20

An official report in the 19th century into Lancashire housing stated that the Wigan had some of the worst of the county’s housing problems. My maternal great grandmother who lived in 6 different Wigan town centre houses at that time gave birth to 14 children. Only 6 survived to adulthood. All others died either before their first birthday or shortly after.

Comment by: Keith on 19th October 2024 at 19:20

An official report in the 19th century into Lancashire housing stated that the Wigan had some of the worst of the county’s housing problems. My maternal great grandmother who lived in 6 different Wigan town centre houses at that time gave birth to 14 children. Only 6 survived to adulthood. All others died either before their first birthday or shortly after.

Comment by: tuddy on 19th October 2024 at 19:56

Veronica, could the tall building at the back be the old boy's School?

Comment by: Veronica on 20th October 2024 at 10:37

I see where you’re coming from Tuddy - around the area where the Cotton Tree pub was
but not too sure. Behind the bottom end of John St there was some very old houses which were demolished before the rest of John St.

Comment by: Colin Traynor on 4th November 2024 at 11:32

Keith, your Grandparents story is very similar to my own.
My Grandmother on my fathers side gave birth to 18 children all died except for six who grew up into Adults, two girls and four boys. I have the birth and death records on paper having to see proof to believe it. Most if not all of these deaths were in the late 1800's early 1900's.
The housing conditions, sanitation and lack of health care around Scholes and Hardybutts where they lived at that time must have been shocking.

Comment by: winnie on 4th November 2024 at 13:38

My family the Morans lived in Hardybutts at this time

Comment by: Keith on 5th November 2024 at 10:17

If just two of us who contribute to this site have such similar stories Colin, I wonder how many families in Wigan, living around that time, have similar stories. The death rate of children must have been horrific. I’ve mentioned this before but in a survey of Lancashire industrial towns in the 19th century Wigan, it was named, as having the worst of all housing conditions.

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