Wigan Album

Edna bought the bakery from Jimmy Cain, and people still called it Cain's for years afterwards. As Edna had been trained and worked there before owning it, the pies and cakes retained the same delicious quality. Edna had two daughters and a son....I remember her son from school, although I think he was slightly younger than me. That is such a lovely photo.

The good old days, the council would close them down today, no stainless steel worksurfaces and inappropriate clothing ha ha, all we have today is nationwide shops at twice the price, Gents in Standish sold out in no time everyday and had affordable prices they will be missed

What a wonderful hand operated pie blocker and crimper, wonder if it still had all the different sized blocks and crimps. Sadly, it would have most likely ended up in a skip when the shop was demolished.
It would have been hard slog with long hours each and every day, to make by hand enough pies for the many folks that queued for them, as Irene told yesterday.

Cyril Ive been sat here all day waiting for you to come on and tell me the name of that pie making tool.

Well, I for one am always glad to acquire new knowledge, Cyril, so thankyou for that information about the pie blocker and crimper, and please be assured that some of us on here are grateful for your input. That shop holds many memories for me.

You can just imagine him hunched up over his device like Owd Steptoe …”What daft stupid thing can I moan about now to get attention - I know I’ll pretend I’m interested in the pie blocker and crimper tool”…..As if!
Seeing as I did a stint at Greenhalgh’s when the kids were at school I find that interesting Cyril. I’ll bet those pies were better than Greenhalgh’s.

Yes, Irene Cyril is very good at digging up information on certain things, I seem to him remember him once saying that he operated something similar when he was stamping out herbal tablets at Potters.

The machine was made and sold by John Hunt of Bolton, and they still do manufacture and sell them, and apparently Si King of the Hairy Bikers bought one for his new restaurant venture.
https://www.johnhuntbolton.co.uk/

Mick, I did do a couple of years at Watkin's Bakers & Confectioners, though I didn't do the pies as I did the mixings, such as cake batters, dough etc., and I never made any herbal tablets when at Potter's as they came in already made, trillions of them and going out in the different bottles as fast as they came in.

Veronica, I once reported the Greenhalgh's shop in Mesnes Street to environmental health inspectors, we had got a sponge cake from there, and later when I'd bitten into a piece it was horrible and full of hard bits, when I looked it was lumps of eggshells within the cake. We took the cake back to the shop who phoned the bakery manager; he too was puzzled as all the eggs went through a sieve prior to being used. However, the health inspector told me later that it was someone at Greenhalgh's main bakery, they had a grudge about something and been putting eggshells into products.

It was the eighties when I worked there Cyril in W/H I did seven years. That sounds awful though. I never came across anything like that. I did like the products but I think they are really expensive these days.

Did they recompense you though? I wouldn’t be surprised Cyril if they didn’t.