Wigan Album

My granddaughter worked at a fish and chip shop along there not long ago, to earn a bit of money whilst she is at college...I wonder if it was that one? I remember the old Mortons' grocery shops...there was one in Ince when I was growing up.

It possibly is, Irene.
Its called the Seven Seas fish and chip shop.

Thank you for uploading this wonderful photograph, Rich.
I certainly cannot remember Morton's, but I certainly remember the other shop. I remember the shop, with the Bovril poster, being a gentleman's clothes shop and it seemed to be high class with quality clothing. It always looked semi-dark inside and it was always immaculate looking as the dark wood was well kept and the windows clean.

Yes, that's the one Rich. She was there for a while but has a different job now.

Ian
I remember the shop and I totally agree with your description of it!
It had black exterior with the name John L Barbour at the top.
However, I can't recall ever seeing anyone go in it?
There is a John Barbour who has posted previously on Wiganworld, I wonder if he is any relation as its not a very common name?

Name Norman Morton
Gender Male
Marital Status Married
Birth Date 23 Jun 1900
Residence Date 1939
Address 24 Wigan Lane
Residence Place Wigan, Lancashire, England
Occupation Retail Grocer Grocery Supervisor Civil Defense Role A.R.P. Warden Norman Morton Male 1900 Grocer
Annie M Morton Female 1900 Unpaid Domestic Duties
Derek Morton Male 1927 School
This record is officially closed.
Polly Hoy Female 1909 Housemaid

Rich., the same for me, I can't recall seeing anyone go in to the shop.
I walked past the shop far too many times to give a number and I was often near the shop with friends. We often sat on the low wall at the front of the petrol station just chatting, especially on evenings when the weather was fine. The wall was a perfect place to eat our chips or to eat a pie which had bought from Sarah Lynn's.
Also, some of my friends lived in Charles Street.
I do remember the gentleman's clothes shop looking quite old fashioned inside and outside and looking very formal.

There was also a small Mortons on Darlington Street East near Chatham street. I don't think it lasted very long though.

Ian.
I remember the wall very well. Sat on it many times.
It was a flat wall paved with small flat flags. And very comfortable to sit on. There was a bit of a ditch at the back of it and a bit of a retaining wall at the back of that, or it could have been a small wrought iron retaining fence?
Either way, the ditch in between the wall and the rear retaining wall / fence was a litter magnet!

Rich., it was a wrought iron fence, approximately the same height as the wall and I remember it being painted white for a period of time.
You are perfectly correct about the wall and the land between the wall and the wrought iron fence. The land was, under the paper etc., was a combination of dirt, small stones and grass.

Imagine taking that pic now. That stretch of Wigan Lane is like the wacky races for parking especially when the takeaways are trading late afternoon or early evening. Definitely worse than the top of Gidlow Lane where the Tesco Express is.

Rich
The John L Barbour of the shop was a Town Councillor for Swinley in my young days
The John Barbour who contributes will be his grandson

Thanks Donald.

Winnie.
Thanks for the info. Very interesting.
Number 24 Wigan Lane was further down the Lane in a row of shops just past where the second newsagents is now.
That was also a grocers shop when I was young but sure if it was a Mortons shop? They may have just lived there?
I do remember someone called Harry Close owning it. He ran it with 2 women. I'm not sure whether they his sisters or his wife and sister

Rich., you are right. It was Harry Close. The two women were his sisters. We (including my mum) always referred to the shop as "Close's.
I was sent, by my mum, to the shop about four times a week for one thing or another: bread, tin of peas, tin of baked beans, onions, carrots, some cheese... Those, as to say, little things which were either forgotten on a Saturday whilst shopping at Whelan's, the Co-op, Morrison's or Asda. Or, those things which were regularly used, such as: carrots, onions, potatoes, tins of soup, tins of baked beans etc.
Mostly, Mr Close ran the shop, but sometimes one of his sisters helped. The taller of the sisters, with dark hair, was rarely in the shop.
The shop was full of food items, with shelves up to the ceiling. The counter, which was long, was on the right as you entered. The slicing machine and shop scales for weighing cheese etc were on the window side of the counter, which would have been on Mr Close's left as he served a customer.
Amazingly, as I type this, I can picture the shop, even down to the cereals being high up on the shelves between the front door and the door to the back room, the front/shop door being small panes of glass and set in about one metre (not directly on the pavement) and the shop next door selling quite expensive clothes for women and the shop being set further back from the road.
Next door to the clothes shop was a butcher's and next door to the butcher's was an extremely large billboard, which some of us kids would climb up the back of it to the top. Strange what you would do as a kid for either entertainment or just to prove that you could do it and it is amazing that some us are still here today.

The clothes shop at one time had the name B-Line over the shop.
The butchers was Lawtons, John Connolly ran it for them.
We called him singing John as he was always singing and whistling.
Do you remember the paintshop, Ian?

Good memory, Rich. I remember the woman who ran the clothes shop had a sports car; MG Midget, I think. She parked it at the top of Douglas Road.

Yes, Rich. It was on the corner of Clifton Street, next door to the launderette.
On the other corner of Clifton Street was the hairdresser.

Rich, please correct me if I am wrong.
Wasn't the outside woodwork of the paintshop light blue and white?
Wasn't the hairdresser's Sylvia's?
The newsagent's (next to Close's) became Lawless's after Cunliffe's and I think that Mark owns/runs it now.
I also think that the other newsagent's (next door to the launderette) was Blakelock's.

Ian and Rich, I grew up in Ince and my only connection to the Wigan Lane area was walking up to the plantation gates with my parents on Summer Sundays to go to Haigh Hall on the tractor, but I have really enjoyed your detailed reminiscences of the shops along there.

Thank you, Irene.
It was a great place to be associated with back in the day!

Ian.
Yes, the outside woodwork of the paintshop was light blue and white.
I can't remember the hairdressers shop name?
The second paper shop ( as we called it ) was ran by Graham and Sylvia Cunliffe. She had very light blonde hair. They also had a son named Ian.
The newsagents next to the launderette, was run by Don and Joan Blakelock. Don was from Burnley, Joan was from the Midlands or the West Country. They used to live at the back of the shop until they bought a house on a street just off Clifton Crescent.
They had an alsatian dog named ( I think, ) Astra, and a poodle named Freddie which was always on Joans lap whilst she was sitting on her stool in the shop smoking here untipped cigarettes.
In the 1960's the shop next door where the launderette was, was a cobblers shop run by someone with the surname Kelly.

Thank you! Irene. Most kind of you to say.
As Rich said, it was a great place to live.

Carrying on from what you mentioned, Rich., the alsatian used to stick its head over the small door/board in the corner between the end of the counter and the wall.
Yes, you are perfectly correct, Mrs Blakeloch sat on a stool behind the counter. She was friendly and much friendlier than Mr Blakeloch.
I remember Ian C. and I clearly remember what he looked like. He used to often come in to the shop from the back room for chocolate and sweets from the shop. His dad, Graham, had been a professional footballer and he often came out of the back gate to watch us play soccer on, what we called "The Folly", which was that enclosed tarmac ground at the flats.
By the way, we once had our bommy on there one November and the fire brigade had to be called out, because... Well, you can guess what nearly happened.

Rich., I remember Sylvia always being well dressed and, I believe, very fashionable.
Graham was very friendly and very chatty; he seemed to be well liked.
By the way, I meant Mr & Mrs Blakelock, with a "k".

I don't remember the cobbler's, so it might have been just before my time. But, I remember the ironmonger's next to Blakelock's and I remember the baby clothes shop on the corner of Scarisbrick Street.

Irene, a little local artist news for you. On the way to the Plantation Gates from the shops on Wigan Lane, when I was a kid, a walker would pass by Lawrence Isherwood's house, one of the famous Wigan artists.
I regularly saw Lawrence Isherwood walking up and down Wigan Lane and he was often in Mr Close's grocery shop when I was in. I can still remember, he always had one of those shopping bags made from relatively hard plastic.

Thankyou Ian. A friend of mine knew Lawrence Isherwood but unfortunately they had a quarrel before Isherwood passed away, which they never made up. I would have had no idea who Isherwood was in the days when we walked up Wigan Lane, but I was always fascinated , as we came out of the Plantation Gates after getting off the tractor, by the houses on the left, with steep slopes going up to them and trees around them. I used to know the names of them but just can't recall them now, but some ended in "dene", (Elmdene or some such name), and they were so far removed from our little terraced house in Ince where we had no hot water or bathroom! However, we did boast one of the plastic shopping bags that Mr. Isherwood had; I remember them well....people used to take them to the seaside, holding sandwiches and flasks of tea.

Irene, I believe, Lawrence Isherwood was not one of the easiest people to get on with.
My grandma knew his brother very well. I'm sure, his brother had two shoe shops: one on Darlington Street East and one down Wallgate, near to the railway station. When I was a young kid, some of my shoes were bought from his shop and he always served us; I think, because he knew members of my family very well.

By the way, I think that you mean "Kingsmede". A girl in my infant school class and my junior school classified on Kingsmede.
The next round down was Bellingham Mount and delivered newspapers to some of the houses there.
Then it was Bellingham Drive, which was next to the hotel and the tennis club was down there at the bottom.
When I was around the age of twelve, I delivered newspapers to many houses around that area.

Yes, it was Kingsmede! It just wouldn't come to me. It used to fascinate me but somehow the "mede" bit always appeared to be spelled wrong to my eyes, but it was another world to a child from Ince. I had decided to check it out next time I go up Wigan Lane but you have solved the mystery.
Yes, Gordon Isherwood did have a couple of shoe shops but I only remember the one down Wallgate. It was more "homely" somehow than Timpson's and Freeman, Hardy and Willis in the town centre. I can see the shop in my mind like it was yesterday. Apologies if this answer appears twice...I lost the internet when I pressed "submit" before and I don't know if the comment got through.

I think, I need to stop typing using my mobile phone and in the sunshine, because there are too many errors.

It should have read: "a girl in my infant school class and then in my junior school class lived on Kingsmede."
"The next road down was Bellingham Mount and I delivered newspapers to some of the houses there."
I delivered newspapers to a house which later became part of Bellingham Hotel, newspapers to a house on Bellingham Drive, newspapers to houses in Clifton Crescent, newspapers to the first house on The New Lodge and the Bowling
Green at the bottom, newspapers to houses on Springfield Street, Kingsway, Monument Road... Certainly, a lot of newspapers.

Do people still get there daily newspapers deliverd??

Ron, one of the paper-shops in Abram stopped delivering years ago as it was costing too much for the paperboys, (obviously they must want paying much more than when Our Jamie was a paper-lad!), but last year we saw what looked like a paper-lad with a big orange bag over his shoulder, riding on a bike passing our house on quite a few mornings, perhaps from the other paper-shop up past The Buck's Head. Haven't seen him for a long time now though.

The last time I saw paper lads was in the eighties when I worked for Alan Crompton’s in Market St. we had a team of them all with a bike apiece. Alan the owner used to call them his men! “Right men —
c’mon let’s be having yer -gerr on them bikes!.” They were all good lads no cheek from them at all.