Wigan Album

My late in laws and mother in laws parents had the off licence in Tunstall lane but that was in the 1970's. Nice to see photo's of earlier years

The lane gives the impression of a time so much earlier than the 50's. My Uncle Joe Bradshaw & wife Jenny lived along there. Also an earlier Grt Uncle William Gaskell Bradshaw & family.

I don't know Pemberton well even now, and was only born in the early fifties, so didn't know Tunstall Lane, but how clean and tidy it looks. I love the cobbles/ setts, (call them what you will), and the gas-lamp. We still called them gas-lamps even when they became electric.

Yes Irene, they really were gas lamps when I lived at Holland Moor. I sure I will sound as old as the hills when I say that I remember the lamp lighter coming along on his bicycle with a long pole to pull a chain to light the gas light on the corner of Back Lane !

My grandad Alexander Morrison Simpson had the off-licence in the 1950s. My Aunt Julia Telford also had the 'Offy' For a short time, Frank and Mary were her children. In those days people would take a jug for a pint of Draught Ale.

I remember the lamplighter coming up Ince Green Lane on his bike, Helen, with the pole to light the lamps. They were much shorter than they are now and cast a softer, yellowish glow.....I can remember standing by the one near our house and watching the snow falling in the light coming from the lamp. Because those old gas-lamps were so much lower than today's electric ones, the stars seemed nearer too. I'm sure the modern tall electric street-lights light up the streets much better and that they have brought with them an added safety for people out at night, but I feel we have lost something too. I feel privileged to remember the lamplighter.

I certainly remember the gas lamps they had a softer gentle light than what came next with the electric lighting. Doing my ancestry I discovered my Welsh grandfather ended up being a Lamplighter. Us kids played around the gas lamps on dark Winter nights before bed. Even in the snow we still played out. I remember the chapped knees and Fullers Earth Cream for chapped skin.

This pic looks to have been taken on the corner of Tunstall Lane & Kensington Road. I grew up not far from here. I never remember the terraced row further down on the right hand side. When I was kid in the 80s these had already been demolished for the small row of town houses and the patch of land that leads through to Newland Avenue. Does anyone remember the factory on nearby Campbell Street that was known as the ‘Slipper Works’?

CJ