Wigan Album
PENDLEBURY'S STORE STANDISHGATE
34 Comments
Photo: RON HUNT
Item #: 34636
MORE PHOTOS TO FOLLOW.
John White Tate (1899-1988) – the forgotten architect of Wigan?
As a child in the 1960s I remember going into Wigan town centre with my mother to spend my Christmas money on toys and paperback books. It was always a special trip and we used to go into Pendlebury’s department store on Standishgate as they had an excellent selection of doll’s house furniture and Britain’s zoo animals. The store with its building dating from the 1950s was taken over by Debenham’s and now no longer exists. Some unique photographs exist which show the rebuilding of Pendlebury’s in 1955 after the original building had been destroyed by fire. The architect was John White Tate – a name that will not be familiar to the majority of Wiganers today even though he was an architect who designed some of Wigan’s best known buildings in the 1950s.
For many years John White Tate had a flourishing practice as an architect in King Street. He was responsible for the design of various buildings in the town, both public and private, in and around Wigan, notably the Pendlebury store in Standishgate and the Prince’s Cinema on Wallgate. He was the architect for his own house 8 Kingsdown Crescent off Sittingbourne Road. In the Swinley area of Wigan opposite the Monument on Wigan Lane (junction with Freckleton Street) there is a block of flats that he designed.
The photographs of the rebuilding of Pendlebury’s are taken over a period of months in 1955. They were shot by a number of professional photographers including C E Willis Ltd of Bolton (‘specialists in engineering, technical and legal photography’), Guttenberg Ltd (33 King Street Manchester) and Eric Thursby (‘High class photographer’ of 17 King Street Wigan). The photographs show the destruction to adjoining buildings after the fire (and also the proximity of the back walls of these buildings to each other), the clearing of the construction site, the steel works, the brickwork and the final frontage of the new building complete with not one but two flagpoles! The steel works were done by Booths of Bolton and J. Jarvis and Sons Ltd look to be the main building contractor. There are also some photographs of the ‘Crawford Lounge’ which was the new cafeteria inside the store. It looked to be the epitome of 1950s style! A number of the photographs are reproduced here but the full set has been donated to Wigan Heritage archives.
As with all old photographs it is often the incidental details that grab your attention. Does anyone remember Maltby’s wine and spirit, ale and stout merchants who had a shop on the corner of Standishgate? How about the Crawford Pharmacy next door (presumably to cure those hangovers)? The shop window of the chemists looked to be crammed with all manner of useful packages. And what did Ellor’s shop round the corner sell? The old British Home Stores and Timpson’s can be seen on another photograph together with, in the distant, a Wigan bus! A couple of the photographs show some of the cars of the time. There seem to be plenty of parking spaces available in Wigan town centre in 1955 and no yellow lines at all. My favourite image though has to be those guys laying a cable under the main road. No high-visibility jackets or hard hats just a couple of wooden signs saying ‘danger’ around the man down a hole in the middle of the road with his mate using one of the signs as a personal prop!
John White Tate was born on 5th May 1899 in Ince and he lived in Wigan all his life. His parents lived at 249 Darlington Street East, Wigan. His father, Alfred Tate, was a draper’s traveller. However his grandfather on his mother’s side was John White who owned a cotton waste mill in Wigan. John was clearly named after his grandfather. His mother, Mary Ann, had had four daughters before son John arrived. Another son Alfred followed three years later to complete the family. All of the daughters went to St Catharine’s the local school but the family paid for John and Alfred to attend Wigan Grammar School. A certificate awarded to Alfred Tate in 1918 (then age 16) showed that they took the Oxford Junior Local Examinations at the Wigan Grammar School centre in 9 subjects (English, history, geography, religious knowledge, Latin, French, arithmetic, mathematics, and drawing). The certificate is headed ‘University of Oxford’ with a crest. John went on to train as a Chartered Architect. Alfred studied to be a pharmacist but tragically died in his late 20s.
John was just 15 when the First World War broke out and so was too young to be enlisted then. His time came later during the war and there is a photograph of him in uniform with the one stripe of a lance corporal. I think the cap badge is of the Royal Engineers. He returned home safely and on 16th July 1924 married Edith Belshaw at King’s Street Baptist Church in Wigan. John White Tate died on 6th October 1988 at the grand age of 89.
Thats just how I remember Standish Gate My mother would go into Pendleburys on a trip into Wigan. I don't remember Maltbys but think I have a receipt made out to my father for beer delivered to St Clements Rd. I remember Timpsons & the BHS & other shops. Wigan was a really busy town where you could buy anything from a dishcloth or scrubbing brush to a evening dress.
Thanks for the information on the architect, very interesting.
A brilliant photo and a very interesting read, Ron. Thankyou for posting this. I remember going in Pendlebury's as a child and finding it very posh, as was Lowe's. My Mam shopped at Oxley's which was also a department store but not so high-class, and good old Woolworths. Oxley's had one of those payment systems where the customer's money was sent along tubes up near the ceiling to a cashier's office, and the receipt and change were sent back the other way. I think Pendlebury's and Lowe's did too, but Woolworths had tills behind the counters. There was always a bit of a clatter and banter going on in Oxley's and Woolworths whereas Pendlebury's had a hushed atmosphere. I worked in the store 1973 to 1976 when it was Debenhams.
My favourite store of all. I never went in there as a child it seemed too posh when it was Pendlebury’s. When I did go in eventually it was with a friend who was trusted to buy her own sandals in the sale. We were only about 11yrs old then. I never looked back! Plus going up and down in the lift was quite something then. There was a lift attendant so you had to behave! It changed when Debenhams took over but I will never forget the real Pendlebury’s with its ‘hushed atmosphere’ and the assistants wearing black skirts and white blouses. They were always addressed as Miss or Mrs. ( and Mr). The ‘Sales’ in January when people queued up for hours before the store opened…still expensive but good quality.
My old neighbour who was married in 1936 bought all their furniture from Pendlebury’s it was still in place in 2000 when he died…. His sons placed the furniture outside around the ‘back of the house’ inviting the neighbours to choose something. I have a ‘nursing’ chair which I had re-covered as a memento of a good neighbour that definitely came from Pendlebury’s ..
I recall that Pendlebury's always had decorations on the front of the shop towards Christmas.
Just posted a comment on the WW1 picture of him. This article is fascinating.
His name should be listed among Wigan's 'Notable People'.
Veronica, when I started at Debenhams in 1973 the sales assistants had
address each other formally when on the shop floor, so I was "Miss Griffiths" and my friend Carmel, who started on the same day as me, (but sadly died at only 53), was Miss Jones. We both married in 1974 and became Mrs. Roberts and Mrs. Hawthorne. However, by the time I left to have my son in 1976 it had changed to christian names being used and I felt it lost something; I actually liked the formality. Two of the ladies who worked there had been there from the 1950s when it was Pendlebury's, and somehow you could tell that....they had an air about them of store assistants from a different era.
According to the Church Registers, John White Tate was married by the Rev G Belshaw, relative (uncle?) of his wife, Edith Mary Belshaw, at St Nathaniel's, Platt Bridge on, as you say, 16 July 1924. His address is given as 249 Darlington Street East, hers as 72 Warrington Road, Platt Bridge. At the time of his Baptism his family lived at 7 Cecil Street, Scholes - near St Catharine's, where he was Baptised on 2 August 1899. (There is another Cecil Street in Spring View - but I think that would have been recorded in the Register, given there was one in St Cath's Parish).
As for his cap badge in the image of him in uniform - it could be the Royal Engineers, but the bandolier containing bullets, the horse-whip, and what look like straps for spurs on his boots, would seem to indicate he was a horseman in whatever unit he was in.
Irene it was my ambition to have a job in Pendlebury’s when I left school but it wasn’t to be…I didn’t think I was ‘posh’ enough. I ended up in Aspinall’s instead on Mesnes St. But that was the highlight of our ambitions then! My mam and dad weren’t pleased at all they wanted me to go in the mill but I wasn’t going to do that. I was told by Career advice to do ‘Office work’ I still thought I wasn’t clever or posh enough.!! But later on I did everything they mentioned off my own bat! NO encouragement in those days!
You mention Christian names being used - that happened in the NHS with qualified nurses having their Christian names used by patients. That was unheard of at one time.
Veronica, are you any relation to Jack Griffiths? He used to do the advertising posters from a basement room in the back of the store. I worked with him at Wigan Poster Writing Company top Floor above Wigan Printing on the corner of Chapel Lane and Douglas Street, I think he lived in Schofield Lane and we used to go into a pub called The Spotted Cow although I would only be about 16.
He had a wife Dorothy who sadly died young leaving Jack with two small boys. He later married a lady from Debenhams (Think her name was Joan) and they opened a lady's fashion shop in Pemberton. He still continued with his poster writing in a room above the shop. These days he would be in his early 90's so may no longer be with us.
Colin Traynor, pardon me if I'm wrong but I just wondered if it was ME you meant, rather than Veronica, as I mentioned being called "Miss Griffiths" when I worked at Debenhams? If so, I am no relation to Jack Griffiths. Apologies if you DID mean Veronica.
Yes,remember it well,lovely store.i had a Saturday job there when still at school,in household items department,I was really envious of a schoolfriend who got in the record department ! We earned the princely sum of £1 for all day Saturday,with 3d deducted for contributions.Another world,can remember all the employees were addressed as Mrs or Miss.Loved the cafe and remember my children going to 'Breakfast with Father Christmas ' when they were small,a friend who worked there always got them tickets.x
Can also remember Maltby's on the corner.
You are correct Irene Colin meant you. Griffiths sounds Welsh though and I have Welsh ancestry with Morgan being the surname.
It brought it home to me watching the old film
’ How Green Was My
Valley’ the other night. The miners left their valleys to work in the pits around Wigan because they weren’t paid enough. I do remember the pub the Spotted Cow though and the old Scholefield Lane.
Apologies Irene, yes I did get the name wrong, as I see now it was Veronicas ambition to work at Debenhams.
You are quite right about the loss of formality, I wonder what ever happened to Young Mr Grace!!!!
Veronica, my granddad was from Wales and his family DID leave to find work in the mines in Wigan. My granddad married a lady from Spring View, and I'm afraid my singing voice is from the Spring View side of the family rather than "The Valleys"! However, I stayed "Welsh" as I married a "Roberts". Colin, young Mr. Grace always seemed to have a skimpily-dressed young nurse to look after him in "Are You Being Served?", so I think that's what kept him young! One of my brothers was called Colin.
Veronica, I went for an interview at Marks and Spencer when I was in my teens and was told I wasn't suitable for a department store and that I would be more suited to a bookshop! And yet I was only 20 when I got the job at Debenhams, so it just shows that different "personnel officers", as we used to call them before this daft "human resources" business, had different ideas about people, and I'm sure you would have been fine at Pendlebury's.
I believe interviewers know within the first 5 minutes who will be ‘successful’ Irene. Anyway it was their loss…;o) I didn’t even have an interview though, I put myself down, but you learn the older you get.
Correction the new store opened early 1957.
Ron - did you spot my Comment?
Colin, I knew a Trevor Griffiths, when I was young, would that be Jack's son?
Irene, clearly you mother was a very decerning lady to name you brother Colin! and as far as M&S it was said at the time that they only recruited girls from the Convent or Girls High School, don't know if that was true! Mere mortals though were frowned upon and told to try Woolworths!
Edna, I know Jack had one son Gary, cannot remember the other boys name but it wasn't Trevor. I think Gary became a professional conjuror.
I remember identical twins from St Pat’s who were recruited by M& S and they were both on the same floor level Colin. I would say late sixties early seventies and they were there years. They must have caused some confusion between them. I wonder if it was a ploy by M&S to boost sales.
Veronica, I do remember those twins, I think they were tallish with dark hair. Don't know their name but wonder where they are now.
Their last names were Gannon I can’t remember their first names Colin but I would have got confused with the names because they were so alike anyway. I knew their older sister better she was called Maureen. We all went to St Pats.
After my poorly paid job at Aspinall’s I moved on to a sewing factory off Darlington St which specialised in candlewick bedspreads. It was like being at school again walking there and back home and at dinner time.
( what fun we had there ! ) It was called John Whites I wonder if it was the same family who owned it. ..
Thanks Veronica, I went to St John's, Brick Kiln Lane. Like most from St Pats, St John's, St Mary's and St Joseph's who did not pass their eleven plus we were packed of the St John Fisher Beech Hill or St Thomas More in Newtown which I went to.
I remember St Patrick Church well and when the bells were replaced by a recording! If we went to a morning service on St Patricks Day 17th March we got the rest of the day off, naturally I never missed Mass in those days.
The pay might have been poor in those days and jobs were easy to get, but we enjoyed the work and our work mates, all in the same boat and much more socialising outside of work.
Things might be much better these days, I had excellent work career, opportunities and world wide travel that lasted until I retired at the age of 72! in 2020 as Director of Sales for a major International French Company in Paris but still think back to those early days when life, friends and simple entertainment was taken for granted.
Never had an aptitude for languages and still do not speak French, thank goodness the rest of the world does, I always said that I was from Wigan and still learning English!!!!
Veronica - there was a Brook Mill between Spring Grove and Kent Street, south of Darlington Street. When John White Tate's eldest sister was Baptised in 1890, her parents' address was Spring Grove. When her twin sisters were Baptised in 1895 their address was 7 Cecil Street - which is the address given for the place of deaths of John (1894) and Margaret (1896) White - so it looks as if her parents moved there to look after Margaret following John's death.
When their parents married in 1889, Alfred was living on Standishgate, and Mary Ann White was living at Brook House. Her father John White's occupation was given as Waste Dealer. John White married Margaret Ashurst at All Saints in 1844. His occupation is given as Engineer. They had a daughter, Ellen, born 1848. His occupation at her Baptism is given as Engine Tender - but when she married in 1875, her father's occupation is given as Builder - but one of the witnesses was John White (Junr.). Ellen died, aged 56, in 1905, and is buried with her parents - and both Alfred Tate (aged 62), 1927, and Alfred Tate (aged 27), 1930.
Mary Ann White was born in 1862, daughter of John & Margaret. His occupation is given as Engine Tenter, and they lived on Warrington Lane.
If John White (Junr.) was also a child of John & Margaret, I've not found his Baptism.
Someone with access to Ancestry or whatever could probable work out the family tree in more detail....
It sounds likely John White was of the same family. I don’t remember ever seeing the owner of the place though Rev.David. The building was very old it looked and sounds as if it was a mill originally. The floors above were very uneven and sloping. I worked there until I was 18 also Spring Grove rings a bell. The building is long gone. There’s houses built there now.
A further look in Worrall's 1881 Directory yields: John White, cotton waste manufacturer and flock manufacturer, Brook House, Darlington Street East; and John White, jun., waste dealer, 13 Cecil Street.
The only official I remember was a dark haired woman perhaps in her sixties who used to help out sometimes handing work out. I can’t think of her name though, I wonder if she was a relative. She seemed a ‘cut above’ the rest of us employees. I have wracked my brains trying to think of her name Reverend. Yet I can see her in my mind’s eye. She seemed old to me being a teenager though. She wasn’t there all the time and you knew she wasn’t ‘ordinary’.
More on John White, junior - his Baptism was at St Catharine's in 1854. Father John, an Engineer from Scholes. He had an elder brother, Robert, Baptised there in 1852 - when his father was recorded as a Miner living in Ince. Also a younger sister, Margaret, Baptised there in 1858, father John an Engineer, living on Warrington Lane.
John White jnr. (Waster Dealer, Brookhouse, Wigan) married Martha Ann Strafford, the sister of his elder sister Ellen's husband, in Salford in 1878. His father's occupation was also Waste Dealer.
Do you remember a shop on Darlington Street East, it was on the right hand side walking up from Wigan. It was something to do with the Blind and they used to do basket weaving, trays, plant pot holders etc. I loved basket weaving when young and used to go in and help out.
Also used to by all the materials from Tickles in the Weind. Loved that shop for craft materials, even the smell inside was of creative materials.
Yes Colin but it was on the left side walking from Wigan with the ‘Blind steps’ at the side
( which are still there .)
Played on those steps sometimes as a child they led onto Hardybutts at the top. Now called Woodcock’s Way ? After the man who won the VC Cross from the First World War.
Thanks Veronica, I said right hand side but meant left!