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Photos of Wigan
Photos of Wigan



Wigan Album

Ince

22 Comments

Ince Bar
Ince Bar
Photo: John Collier
Views: 8,347
Item #: 6228
Photo taken of Ince Bar whilst Smithy Green was still in existance. Note the mobile burger / hot dog stands that used to be all around Wigan in the late 60's early 70's.

Comment by: minnie on 29th May 2008 at 23:02

That looks really pretty and makes you wonder why those houses could not have stayed...

Comment by: Karen on 29th May 2008 at 23:11

I can remember Ince bar looking like this and it was a lovely place

Comment by: Brian on 29th May 2008 at 23:17

Great pic, I remember Ince Bar very well during the 70's as I attended Ince C of E School. We did a school play and sang "Ince Brittania... there'll never be a better place than Our Ince Bar". Shame they demolished the old houses for a KFC and other non-descript buildings, all in the name of progress.

Comment by: aitch on 30th May 2008 at 00:10

The Orange coloured Door was Postelthwaites butchers shop which later moved across the road next to the Squirrel

Comment by: she44 on 30th May 2008 at 06:47

i agree with the comments that have been made i also remmember it like this

Comment by: Joseph on 30th May 2008 at 15:52

I also remember the mobile library parked outside the butchers and opticians in the 1960s and the Fish from Fleetwood van parked just to the right of the hot dog stand nearer the bus stop.

Note: The fish mans van used to read "fish from Fleet oo" on one side with the W and D missing,never did find out where Fleet oo was!

Comment by: irene on 30th May 2008 at 19:38

i feel i could walk down ince green lane to our house,1950s and 60s. we lived opposite the "long neck",(anderton arms), a row of 6 houses set back behind the wall of st. william's presbytery...anyone remember it? thankyou to everyone out there for these wonderful scenes of Ince...things I thought I'd never see again.

Comment by: Joseph on 31st May 2008 at 10:50

Irene,yes the houses set back from the lane,Mrs Grimshaw lived in one of those she was a dinner lady at St.Williams.

Comment by: Evelyn on 2nd June 2008 at 22:56

Irene, are you the daughter of the Mrs Grimshaw mentioned earlier

Comment by: Gareth on 5th June 2008 at 15:47

The few cobbles under the hot-dog stand still exist to this day. I always wondered why they was there with the new tarmac and now I do! lol

Comment by: irene on 7th June 2008 at 18:23

hi JOSEPH! glad you remember our row. It's good to share memories.....hi EVELYN! Mrs. Grimshaw did have a daughter Irene,but my name was Griffiths. we liwed a few doors away from the Grimshaws.

Comment by: Gerry on 11th June 2008 at 19:04

I remember Mrs Grimshaw the dinner lady living there too I also remember Mr Riley the caretaker and Mr Fleetwood his replacement.. and the doctors surgery higher up with Dr Hyde and a Dr with a polish name we could not pronounce so of course to us he was Dr Jeckyll..

Comment by: Joseph on 13th June 2008 at 10:57

Oh yes the doctors Hyde and Cheznack(spelling?)Dr Hyde loved a chat about James Cagney films.Mr.Fleetwood,i can see him now in his boiler suit shoveling the coke in the school yard,tall willowy chap.

Comment by: viv on 28th May 2010 at 17:48

dennis the barbers shop was here

Comment by: Stuart Jarvis on 25th September 2010 at 14:44

Is the gap between the buildings in the background the way through to Stopford St.? My grandparents John and Edith Owen lived at no 16 Stopford St. for approx. 60 years until 1962 we used to stay there on holidays. My memories of the area are mainly of the 40s and 50s. Does anyone remember the cinema known as 'The Ince Bug House' was its real name The Doric? was the pub on the corner ever known as The Glass Barrel? any help with these questions would be much appreciated.

Comment by: irene roberts on 1st April 2011 at 11:09

Yes, the gap led to Stopford Street, and there was a building, (a warehouse I think), down there that we used to pretend was haunted. The Bug WAS really called the Doric, and I believe the pob on the corner of Manchester Road and I have heard of The Glass Barrel but not sure which pub it was.....may have been the one on the corner of Pickup St.

Comment by: irene roberts on 2nd April 2011 at 11:55

Sorry, made a bit of a mess of the above comment. Hope it made sense.I had altered what I had first intended to say but omitted to erase some of it.

Comment by: Stuart Jarvis on 6th April 2011 at 12:52

MANY THANKS IRENE ROBERTS I saw the name DORIC on a building when walking around Ince over the 'other side' of Manchester Road about 1952 and thought that it could be the 'Bug House' my parents had told me about. I don't think they could remember the proper name of the place - it was always the 'Bug House'. It looked as though it was no longer a Cinema and I wonder WHEN DID IT CLOSE ? WAS IT OPEN AFTER THE WAR ?
My mother used to mention the Glass Barrel when she talked of 'the old days' and I thought it was on the corner of Ince Green Lane but it is a long time ago !!
My mother Edith MAY Owen married William Jarvis who lived at 15 Whelley and they moved to Leicester in 1938.
On holidays I walked miles with my Grandad John Owen and talked about when he worked in the mines, went to the 'Rec' where he played bowls and sailed my model boat on Mellin's Flash - GREAT DAYS !!
Towards the end of his working life he was Park Keeper on Walmesley Park. He retired in 1946 and died in 1962.

Comment by: irene roberts on 9th April 2011 at 16:13

Hello Stuart. I was born in 1952 and I believe The Bug closed around 1957, but I have a hazy memory of being taken to see The Wizard of Oz when I was a very small child, and of hiding under the seat when the green-faced witch appeared. My brothers, many years my senior, used to attend the Penny Rush on Saturdays, when orange-peel flew through the air and a hundred Lancashire voices yelled "E's be'ind thee"! I used to write for a local heritage magazine called Past Forward and one of my articles was about cinemas and my family's memories of The Bug. I remember when there was a park-keeper in Ince, (Walmesley) Park, and the cry of "T'Parky's comin'!" if we were caught up to mischief!

Comment by: Stuart Jarvis on 18th April 2011 at 18:30

Hello Irene. My mother was born in 1913 and used to go to the 'Bug House' in the 20s. She and my father said that some kids took bags of small hard pears, ate some and then threw the rest. There was a man with a long stick who tried to keep order and the lights would be turned on if people threw at the screen which started everyone yelling and stamping.
I was 'surfing' around W.W. and saw thet 'aitch' posted a comment saying the Doric building was still there in Humphrey St. I 'Googled' the Street and saw the building at the bottom on the right. Is it the one? l

Comment by: irene roberts on 19th April 2011 at 10:07

Yes, the building is still there and is the one you saw.In the sixties, Hesketh's ironmongers on Manchester Road used it for their storage room, and I went with my brother to collect some hardboard he had bought; there is something sad and rather eerie about a disused cinema and I was glad to get back out to the bustle of a Satuday morning on Ince Bar. My Grandma, who I sadly never knew, told my brothers of the days of silent pictures at The Bug. Some elderly Incers in those days couldn't read and would take along a child to read the captions, and in the silence, perhaps during a scene with a jealous lover, a deaf old lady would shout "Wozzee say"?, and her young companion would bellow "'E sez 'e's gooin' t'porr 'im!". The man who used to shove the kids along with a clothes-prop was an ex-wrestler known as "Cocker", (pronounced "Cock-Ker" in the ince dialect), and a relative of his manned the pay-desk. She was a very smart lady with beautifully- styled blonde hair, and once when she was holidaying on the Isle Of Man, a family from Ince were staying in the same boarding-house, and during the polite, murmured conversation in the dining-room, the little lad of the family spotted her and yelled, "Ey look Mam, it's T'Bug-Lady"! Like Queen Victoria, she wasn't amused! I will happily send you a copy of the article I did for Past Forward about local cinemas if you would like to read it.

Comment by: jim12 on 16th November 2012 at 20:55

i think irene robert should be classed as a wigan treasure with her wonderful memories that give such happy memories thanks irene

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