Wigan Album

looks more like platt bridge labour club

They all look the same once they're reduced to rubble. That's Abram.

I would have gone with Platt Bridge as well tbh , but Steve took the photo presumably , so he should know .

I can see why it looks like Platt Bridge....I live about halfway between where BOTH clubs stood! But the photo above is definitely Abram. Oddly, Platt Bridge and Abram Labour Clubs were quite similar when they were standing and in use, and both now have new buildings where they once stood...... the ones on the site of the old Abram Labour Club are houses known as "Grimshaw Park", named after Lt. Col. John Elisha Grimshaw of Abram who was awarded The Victoria Cross in the First World War.

Albert and Hilda Hart were stewards of Abram Labour Club 70's. Hilda was my mother. Lots of good memory's. The photo is definitely Platt Bridge.

Interesting this …
I can only recall going into Abram labour club on a couple of occasions . This would have been around 1970 or thereabouts , and I would have thought that the place would have been flattened long before 2014 .

I went in with a workmate who lived across the road , Brian Walsh was the lad’s name … sadly he no longer moves amongst us .

Platt Bridge labour club on the other hand I used quite frequently in the late 70s … I think .

They used to have ladies removing their garments on in there on a Sunday dinner time … or so I’m told … AND bingo .

Irene you are right its Abram. I could see its not looking towards Warrington Rd and I did not think they would build 'ont clayhole'. Google Maps confirms.

Perhaps they were "two fat ladies" mentioned in the Bingo game, Ozy?!

The building in the background looks looks like the Belong care home in Platt Bridge.

An easy mistake, Dave. It could quite easily have been either club but I recognise the modern building which is also shown. I was in two minds whether to have a meander up the road and photograph it but it's too cowd!!!

It's definitely Abram, the picture is taken looking towards Park Lane whilst Warrington Road would have been to my right when I took the picture.

I think curvaceous would be a more fitting description of the ladies that I saw Irene , rather than fat . Although I’ve yet to hear the caller shout “ all the eights … two curvaceous ladies “ I must admit .

While I’m on here , and you’ll know …The building on the corner of Lily lane that’s coming up on streeview as JR Webster & Co … wasn’t that some kind of club or other at one point years ago ?

I’m probably wrong … but why change the habits of a lifetime eh ?

It was The Royal British Legion when we moved to Abram in 1974, Ozy, and had been for some years. I remember going to Aerobics classes there around the 1980s. However, there was once a cinema there, on what is now the car park, but that was before my time. It was called The Miners' Hall. I was only joking about The Two Fat Ladies!

Ah ! Now that would explain my confusion , as I’d assumed that the shot had been taken looking from Warrington road .

Subsequent to this shot being taken , the two blocks of 3 storey terraced properties that were built along the approximate line of where the rubble lies were built with what I would term dormers , whereas the apparently newly built terraced block in this shot wasn’t.

In other words , Kingstown road is at my back … right ? … right !

Yes, you are right about Kingsdown Road, Ozy. As they say in all the best pantomimes, "It's be'ind thee!". But Abram and Platt Bridge Labour Clubs looked very similar, both standing and as a pile of bricks.....I saw them both before and after, due to living so near. I'm sure there are ghostly voices on windy nights in Grimshaw Park, Abram and on the site of the new Burger King in Platt Bridge saying "Tha' cornt sit theer....eawr Nellie allus sits theer" and "Give order fer th'artiste" !

That should read Kingsdown road by the way . You have to keep an eye out for this predictive text constantly , although one does occasionally slip through the net .
And yes , I do realise you were only joking about the tfls Irene .

All the best my dear .

I hope Mr Carter will forgive me for posting this on here , but all this talk of Abram and Platt Bridge has just resurrected a memory .

If you’re familiar with the Platt Bridge Community Centre Irene , you may recall that there was a church that used to stand on that spot .

It was demolished around 1975 or so by Forshaws from Westhoughton . Well , much of the material that came out of the church … bricks , slates , timber etc. was purchased by my former employer , Tom Liptrot from Golborne to be used on a farmhouse he’d bought in Parkside view , just up the road a bit from where the royal train parks up overnight
close by Huskisson’s memorial .

We spent weeks transporting the material up to his farm .

One day however , he sent me down to the chippy in Platt Bridge to get the dinners … with a £50 .00 note .

I ask you !

A bloody fifty pound note … in 1975 . That was a weeks wage for me back then .
I don’t think anyone in Platt Bridge had ever seen a £ 50.00 note , or were even remotely aware that they actually existed . I know I’d never seen one before .

The bemused staff at the chippy refused to accept it of course .

I don’t recollect precisely what we had for dinner that day … but it wasn’t chips … most likely two jumps at t’cupboard door and a bite o’t’latch .