Wigan Album

A lovely scene, the two shops are now houses, in those days we actually had a council that could act independently and in the interests of the community. Now we are part of king of the north Burnham's land and have a council that can't make any decisions at all.

freddie. the end shop was the Post Office.

Ron, I wasn't even born in the 1950's, so I can't say whether the end building/shop was only a Post Office. But, I remember the end shop being a combination of a number of things: Post Office, sweet shop and grocer's.
As well as being a Post Office, the shop sold sweets, soft drinks, some grocery products. I cannot clearly remember what was stocked, but I can clearly remember the shop having all kinds of sweets and soft drinks. Also, I vaguely remember the shop having grocery products, such as: tins of... possibly: soup, beans, fruit etc., and I am sure the shop had bread and biscuits. Possibly, they also stocked newaspapers and cigarettes, matches, tobacco etc.
At this time, it was also a Post Office.
At this time, the shop next door was a book shop.
When I was a kid, these were the only shops in this area. The nearest shop down Wigan Lane was on the corner of Freckleton Street and the nearest shop up Wigan Lane was at Boar's Head - therefore, quite a long walk if you lived around Marylebone and just wanted to nip out to get a stamp to post a letter or a packet of cigs. The nearest shops would have been down Mesnes Road, but still not that convenient.
I think that it is a real shame that these old shops and the famous "corner shop" have mostly gone, like so many of our pubs and other places, such as old market halls.

You're right Ian, I was a van lad with Harvey's Red Seal bread for a short time in 1968/69. The post office was the first drop on our round, which included Worthington,Standish,Parbold and Dalton.

I remember the Post Office selling huge Meat & Potato Pasties in the late '70's when I was a pupil at nearby Whitley High School