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Woodcock Street, Wigan

32 Comments

WOODCOCK STREET AND 'LEGS OF MAN' PUB.
WOODCOCK STREET AND 'LEGS OF MAN' PUB.
Photo: RON HUNT
Views: 3,555
Item #: 33345
EARLY IMAGE TAKEN LATE 1800'S

Comment by: Maureen on 22nd September 2021 at 19:46

What a brilliant shot of days gone by.
When I was in my teens I would go to Crank & Burtons further down that street just to gaze at a bottle green Aga cooker in the window..I used to dream of owning one..alas it never happened.

Comment by: Veronica on 22nd September 2021 at 20:37

This is another memory jogger. We usually see the entrance to the arcade with its lovely stained glass but this is different with the pub frontage. I haven't seen this one before. Next time I'm in Wigan I'll stand and 'gawp' and figure out where the pub actually stood. I had completely forgotten about it.

Comment by: Dave Lewis on 22nd September 2021 at 23:22

Great pic Ron, i have not seen that one before, where the pub is situated is where the fire escape is from marketgate in galleries leading into billinge arcade.

Comment by: Peter Walsh on 23rd September 2021 at 07:09

This pub went right up to the market place with little arcade.

Comment by: Veronica on 23rd September 2021 at 08:08

It must have been a massive pub to stretch all the way up the little arcade. I do remember it inside the arcade. Now I am puzzling where the little arcade was. The pub was on right side going up the arcade and it was covered over with glass. So where is the entrance to the little arcade.? It can't be the archway can it? Or did the arcade not exist when the photo was taken? Questions, questions, and more questions!

Comment by: WN1 Standisher on 23rd September 2021 at 08:10

First time I've ever seen this image. Seen lots of the ' Top Legs ', never the bottom. Great photo Ron

Comment by: Veronica on 23rd September 2021 at 09:13

I remember now the arcade was dark as you went inside, then it got lighter with the glass covering joining the the two sides. The first arch of the pub was an entry... correct me if I'm wrong.

Comment by: Roy on 23rd September 2021 at 09:53

The Legs of Man were two separate pubs, nicknamed Top Legs and Bottom Legs, it was rumoured that they were joined by an upstairs passageway.

Comment by: RON HUNT on 23rd September 2021 at 10:21

The passageway connecting the two pubs ran behind the shops in the Little Arcade I can remember walking along it. It frosted glass like a verandah

Comment by: irene roberts on 23rd September 2021 at 10:46

Like Veronica, I can't see the entrance to the Old Arcade, and I LOVED that arcade!

Comment by: Veronica on 23rd September 2021 at 11:04

I think it must have been the first archway Irene, it must have been an entry at the side of the pub.

Comment by: Tom on 23rd September 2021 at 11:19

I think it's at side of the shop on the left the archway has no step

Comment by: Roy on 23rd September 2021 at 11:19

Thank you Ron, i always thought there was a strong likelihood of the two pubs being linked.

Comment by: Maureen on 23rd September 2021 at 11:27

One of our friends was a policeman and when they were demolishing the Legs of Man the boss of the gang of men asked him if he would keep his eye on the place over the weekend..when he went back to see if everything was okay on the Monday morning,the boss told him that they'd knocked a wall down and found another room which contained a pulpit of some kind and table and chairs...plus a massive book with names in and the amount they paid for overnight stay eg: one night one halfpenny etc..the friend asked where is the book and furniture now..the boss said that they'd burned them...all that history lost..can you believe it.

Comment by: Veronica on 23rd September 2021 at 12:15

Or were they stolen Maureen - it makes you think! They had no right to burn the stuff until it had been seen.

Comment by: Maureen on 23rd September 2021 at 14:45

I suppose we'll never find out Veronica...I bet the book could have told a tale or two.

Comment by: Cyril on 23rd September 2021 at 16:53

Makes you wonder what was found and kept by the finders when all those buildings got demolished, as we know time capsules were often put into buildings when they were being built.

Comment by: CJAlan on 23rd September 2021 at 18:22

It is reassuring to know the building on the far left is still standing after all these years, but sadly the town planners made the mistake of surrounding it in a small 'enclosure' when the market area was redeveloped into the Galleries in the late 1980s.

I am hoping that whatever is planned to turn around the town centre's economic future (if that is possible!), that the arcade structure will be preserved for many years to come.

Comment by: Rainh on 23rd September 2021 at 18:37

Maureen , You had me going there for a second . I thought we were about to go on a journey to the Holy Land , in the writings therein ... Burned them? A likely story !
Remember Maureen , tomb robbers got through the ‘first’ wall
before Carter found the second one untouched ...

Comment by: Maureen on 23rd September 2021 at 21:16

Rainh,I know you're probably correct with Veronica..I would loved to have seen the table and chairs and of course as I have said,that book would have held names from all over Wigan and elsewhere...oh well I'll keep watching antiques roadshow...you never know do you? Lol

Comment by: wigginlad on 24th September 2021 at 07:58

I can remember being about 4 years old (1951) and in town with my dad. Dad bought me a little book of cars and sat me on the steps of this pub telling me it cost 3 big pennies, dad went inside to have a quick pint and told me not to tell mam, great memories !!

Comment by: Veronica on 24th September 2021 at 15:28

Made me smile that wigginlad. Can't imagine that happening these days, the same when you could leave a baby in its pram outside a shop or the front door of a house.

Comment by: WN1 Standisher on 24th September 2021 at 21:58

Never ceases to amaze me that they demolished a road with a cinema on it to build a retail outlet and now, just over 30 years after being built, they are now taking the wrecking ball to another retail outlet to build, among other things........ a cinema.. Priceless !!

Comment by: Veronica on 25th September 2021 at 08:46

I have heard it's going to be a bowling alley in what was Debenhams!
Agree Standisher !

Comment by: Veronica on 25th September 2021 at 08:48

It could only happen in Wigan ...

Comment by: Bruce Almighty on 29th September 2021 at 22:47

No, Veronica. It's happening everywhere. Force majeure.

Comment by: john hanks on 15th October 2021 at 08:51

i think i am right in saying the legs of man did not have any windows. remember the jockey scales in the little arcade . try your weight friend he use to shout. happy days

Comment by: Colin Traynor on 7th November 2023 at 08:25

Really is a great picture, I cannot recall this frontage to the Legs of Man, nor were the Little Arcade came out onto Woodcock Street.
Was it just like this at the time it was demolished, I would have thought that something this impressive would stick in my mind

Comment by: Ian on 7th November 2023 at 12:41

Colin, I cannot recall the Legs of Man, also. But, most of the buildings to the right were demolished to make way for, the then, new precinct (Market Gate Shopping Centre). This was the precinct which only ran from Woodcock Street up to the Market Place area and which was later incorporated into the "new" Market Hall development, which was constructed in the 1980's.
I am not fully sure of the construction date of the precinct (Market Gate Shopping Centre), but I would give a guess at it being built around 1970.
The shops on Market Street, on the right side as you waliked down from Market Place to Woodcock Street were there in the 1960's and, I would assume, the Old Arcade, Legs of Man, Alstead's Clothiers were also there in the 1960's. But, I am sure that there are some members who can give us more details and more accurate dates.
Regarding the photograph, The Market Hall is behind the photographer and Mackinson's Arcade is to the left. Thankfully, Wigan Council did not demolish Makinson's Arcade in those, I can only describe as, destructive decades.

Comment by: Ian on 7th November 2023 at 12:52

I forgot to add: Great photograph and thanks Ron for uploading it.
Sadly, a large number of those fabulous buildings were demolished and replaced by a characterless structure which was possibly not needed and one which eventually failed as it became, as to say, a large empty vessel.

Comment by: Kenee on 8th November 2023 at 17:00

As for Marketgate, I was working in Wigan in 1973 and it was under construction then. I think it opened in 74/5.

Comment by: Colin Traynor on 9th November 2023 at 09:43

Rather than stick a new shed on the site (I think they call it a New Market Hall) keep the existing one and take the opportunity to recreate a new 'Little' Arcade with small shops like the Royal Arcade and also the Commercial Yard containing the much vaunted new food outlets, bars and restaurants on the old footprint all in a modern but still sympathetic style to Wigans heritage.
We all have our better suggestions over what is proposed, you can only dream but in the end and as we all know Wigan Council know best!!!

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