Wigan Album

That’s much better Keith. Very clear bright
and sharp. The faces are more identifiable.

Incredible Keith, thanks so much. I can’t wait to tell my brother, I’m sure he’ll be chuffed.

It’s so gratifying to know just how much certain images from the past are so meaningful. Thank you Colin and Veronica.

This was taken before I was born in 1948 but I recognise many of the people in this picture as old neighbours.
Of the two lady's on the back left I think one was names Iris, she like all the others lived in Douglas Street but never married and lived with her mother right up the street being demolished.
In front in the spotted 'onesie' is Mrs Hampson.
Not sure about the lady in the baggy trousers but the lady next to her is Annie MaGee.
The head she is holding is that of Margaret (Peggy) Walker with her husband Jimmy Walker at the back with the flat cap. He was a cobbler having his shop in Millgate further up from the Baths Hotel.
I can't Identify the lady in what looks like a Bus Conductresses uniform but the three lady's to the right behind are:
Sarah (Sally) Traynor (Nee Burrows) my Mum, holding my brother Alan who would be two, sadly past away in 2003 at the age of 59.
My eldest brother Bryan who would have been five at the time, was sat behind the camera at the laid out table probably eating a jam butty!
Cannot recall the name of the Lady in the middle but I think she was the daughter of Mr & Mrs Housley, I think she married a curate from Culcheth. They used to come to visit in the 1950's with two children on the train to Central Station and when departing they used to get waved off as the train passed by on the elevated section on the other side of the river Douglas from the bottom of Douglas Street.
On the far right is Mrs Hooton and her son Glenville, he would be the same age as 'Our' Alan and he came to his funeral in 2003.
Within what seemed a few short years all that was gone, everyone dispersed to flats and housing estates.
Parts of the old cobbles of Douglas Street still remained for many years trapped and inaccessible between the new Harrogate Street Police Station Garage and Douglas House.
I walked down there recently since the conversion to a Premier Inn and it looked like the last vestiges of a once proud community, cobbles and all had vanished beneath a new, extended car park.
All that's left are the memories of a simple but happy childhood with my brothers and friends, the games we used to play and learning to ride a bike on those old cobbled Street which are now well defined thanks to Keith's much appreciated and incredible enhancement.
Many of those cobbles were still in place until recently at the side of Douglas House, now they are covered over or removed for the extended car park of the Premier Inn Hotel.