Wigan Album

The number of times I have been under that bridge on the bus !

You and a 'few' others Helen.

Those two men on the left look as if they're going to work at the railway station. I remember my brother Colin having one of those canvas bags on his shoulder when he worked on the railway and there is a man in the film "A Kind Of Loving" similarly attired, on his way to his job. Nearly everyone occupation some kind of uniform then, if only blue overalls, and you knew where people worked.

I don’t know what year this I found the photo on the internet and it wasn’t mentioned. I imagine the car and bus experts will know though no doubt. It looks like a train is just passing through from the billowing steam clouds. ( unless my eyes are deceiving me again.)

That's a fantastic photo Veronica absolutely fantastic. The car to the right is a mk1 Cortina and in front a Vauxhall Victor estate, and of course a Leyland Wigan Corporation bus. Not too sure of the year, but British railways steam ended in August 1968. So before that time.
Great to see a steam train entering the
North West Station.

Williams of Wigan...Ford car dealers, situated on the right just after the bridge in Lower Wallgate.

No rough sleepers there of junkfood outlets, such a clean and tidy Town.

It's so quite because most people were at work, just like the two people on the left with their jack bit bags.
Oh how I miss old Wigan.
That's a great photo Veronica and thanks.

Beautiful photo of our great Wigan.
Looks like early morning in the Working week. Fantastic era that I was much apart.

Thats an excellent photo, one of the best. It captured a working week in Wallgate between 1962 and 1968. The bus the steam train and people going to work. A brilliant photo of how we use to live. Fantastic. Thank you Veronica.

This is definitely early morning working week, I estimate the Cortina mk1 launch from 1962 and the ending of BR steam on the 11 August 1968. So Veronica I would say from 1962 to 1968, at a guess 1965 ish.
But hey, what a capture of transport and people going about first thing in the morning in the Working week in our beloved Wigan Town.
The steam train has blown off steam so I would imagine just entering the Station going towards Platt Bridge.
One of the best photos on Wigan Album. Many thanks Veronica.

I remember my dad going to his job at the gas works with one of those shoulder canvas bags. He worked there from demob in the Army to 1986. Most people then worked for a living very few ‘on the sick’ not like now. It’s not just Wigan that is missed it’s the country itself that’s changed beyond belief.
It’s a different World today and it’s worrying.

It is a different world today and is indeed worrying but can and should be sorted with a government with bottle.
We are slowly turning into a 3rd World country with no identity.

This photo in my opinion has got Sunday morning stamped all over it.
Two ( possibly railway workers ?) going in for a bit of overtime or a scheduled shift?

I don't think this is an early morning weekday photo due to the lack of traffic on the road and lack of pedestrians?

Definitely a working week, the Wigan Corporation bus never started so early on Sunday morning.

The last Wigan Corporation buses at night from Town was 11pm when the whistle was blown. The buses started early but much later on Sunday.
Remember Sunday's in the 1960s was a very quiet day for workers and I can't think of any shops open only the corner shop and that was after dinner.
I think like many it's a early morning working week and remember there weren't all that many cars about.

Railway workers in those day started work at Springs Branch Depot. Especially Drivers and fireman. Maintenance worked in gangs and were taken to the job in vans from Springs Branch.

I agree with most comments on here, Its a Working week. Great photo Veronica of a time we all loved and remember.

You're right, Alan. My brother worked at Springs Branch but we lived in Higher Ince so he used to go to work on his bike; I remember he had a "dynamo" light on the front. When I was a small girl in the late 1950s he used to take me on Friday afternoons to collect his wages, and he would buy me a cup of tea and a cake in the canteen. Such lovely memories.

Beautiful Wigan, today it's such a scruffy Town with poor shops and fast food outlets, look like third world Country by massive overcrowded people. Not just Wigan but all over the Country. So sad the see the comparison. We live in a very uncertain World. After saying that, I have to smile at the photo Veronica has so kindly uploaded, it's absolutely beautiful and shows how we use to live, fantastic Wiganers going about their early morning day. No layabouts there.
The Government needs to get a grip.

My beloved Wallgate,the times I’ve walked there to meet either my boyfriend or my mates.
My mam told me about the gang of men that would stand together outside of the Victoria pub and wouldn’t budge for anyone wanting to pass,she said one night my dad just ploughed through them,they were that shocked they apologised..my dad was a big bonny fellow,but apart from that night he wouldn’t hurt a fly.

Of course it's a working week, out of the photo the bus and traffic stopped in a jam up to Library St. Never a Sunday, Wigan Corporation buses only started service mid morning on Sunday.
Our outdoor corner shop opened 11am on Sunday's but closed at 10pm.
I would say it's around 6.30am Monday to Friday, around 1965.

I got one of them shoulder bags for my first day at work . What a surreal feeling that was ! In my mind I was still a child straight from school and now I was going to work . Sounds so mard I know . I did a days work and remember thinking my god is this what I'm going to be doing for the rest of my life ! I'd only done a day and I was already fed up !
I remember going with my brand new shoulder bag with my sandwiches inside , with everything telling me my childhood was now over .
Today , I look back how we are moulded into stages of our lives , this time was for this and the next one for something else .
When I was in my final year at school and the somebody mentioned a career it was a shock to me because it had never even crossed my mind. All I wanted was to to play in the fields with my friends but it was not to be and I went into the factory as did all my friends .
The next stages was learning to drink beer , start courting , and for many , before they could realise , looking after a baby - some weren't even shaving proper yet!
Wonderful picture Veronica , thank you for posting .
Amazing what memories a picture can trigger.

It was quite traumatic Dave I agree stepping into the adult world…especially leaving school on a Friday and starting work on Monday. We were still green and still children at 15. What a wake up it was! Life is certainly made up of stages when you think about it right up to the end.

The bus, fleet no. 128, reg. no. EJP 510, was new in 1959, so no help in pinning down the year of the photo.

It was a Leyland Titan PD3 with bodywork by Northern Counites, and one of the first Corporation double deckers with doors at the front, as opposed to an open rear platform. This particular bus survived into the Greater Manchester Transport era (scrapped around 1977). I don't think it ever got an orange & white repaint - although a local bus guru like Mr X might know different.

With this probably being a workday, I was surprised that any bus coming up Wallgate from the Ashton direction would be so empty. There's no sign of any passengers on board, although there might have been one or two lurking unseen on the bottom deck. Most likely the bus was coming empty from Melverley Street depot to start service on the No. 2 to Ashton. At this time route 1 and 2 buses from Ashton ran through the town centre to Beech Hill via Walkden Ave & Gidlow Lane. Normally this bus would be showing destination "Beech Hill via Wigan".

Comments saying "no Corporation buses ran on Sunday mornings" are wrong. There was a very sparse service on Sunday mornings, but only on a few of the main routes, such as Ashton, Standish and Abbey Lakes. Where they existed at all, Sunday morning buses only ran every hour, sometimes once every two hours - so you really needed a timetable or you could be waiting a very long time!

Speaking of timetables - did anyone ever have a Wigan Corporation Bus Timetable book? They did exist - you can buy almost perfect specimens on eBay - but I suspect next to no-one in Wigan ever bothered getting hold of one. Mostly you "just knew" that your bus came at 10, 25, 40 & 55 minutes past each hour and the last one was 11pm from the town centre. Essential knowledge which was handed down word-of-mouth from father to son. If you were going to some unfamiliar part of town, you tended to just wait at the bus stop, assuming there would be a bus along within the next 5 or 10 minutes - no website, no apps, no Google maps - and no wondering whether the next bus was still stuck in traffic somewhere on the outskirts of Bolton.

The Ashton Bus like many other from Melverley Street did start the service from Wigan Town.
Many comments did say the buses only started late on Sunday morning they didn't say none ran on Sunday mornings. But good info English Electric.

Never in a month of Sunday, it's a working week. Cracking photo.