Wigan Album

No critical comments from me, I assure you. I like photos that look as if they've lived a life and I love black-and-white photos. I can imagine the film being taken to the chemists and sent away to be developed and printed, and then being picked up a week later in a paper folder with "AGFA" printed on it, and the family crowding round, anxious to see the 12 or so photos that films took back then. Lovely! Thanks for sharing it with us.

me neither . it looks like it,s looking towards simms rd ? .

Neil, you had a great view from your window.

Irene, to us children taking films to the chemist always added to the mystique of photography, and also as you mention there was always the excitement to look forward to when the photos were picked up from the chemist and brought home. I also remember Ilford and Gratispool films too.

or maybe towards spingle hillock ? .

I like trying to see if I can make maps of the world out of black and white cows patches.
But I cant see much on this herd.

Looking towards Spindle Hillock.

Cyril. I just couldn't think of the name "Gratispool"....thankyou! Just before I retired from Boots, (I took early retirement in my fifties to look after my granddaughter), I actually developed and printed photos in Boots' Photo-Lab, but I have happy memories of working in a Chemists when I left school where the films were sent away and people couldn't wait to get their photos back!

The Barker 'family'? All stood in a field in Garswood?

Good pic Neil, if I'm not mistaken to right of photo would be school lane then railway line.

‘Almighty’ the photo is going into the Barker Family category…! Under People..

same view today https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.4930583,-2.6687312,38a,35y,94.61h,79.17t/data=!3m1!1e3

I recall Gratispool if you sent the films off you got a ‘free’ film back. But Oh! the disappointment when some of the photos weren’t all that good. Fuzzy and out of focus! But that was the fault of the one taking the photo I suppose, or light got into the camera when taking it out.

Neil, you'll have some great memories and a superb photo of this scene as to how it looked when you lived there, thanks for sharing it with us as on the link by Gary it looks to be all houses now so it will never be grazed by cattle again.

Veronica, we were only allowed to go wild with a Box Brownie, which had fixed controls, I remember our photos sometimes came back out of focus depending on the camera shutter speed as sometimes it would click fast and sometimes could be a bit slow possibly with being dropped a few times I suppose, also if you didn't get someone or a group within the red marked square in the viewer you would cut heads off in the photo, which some found to be funny. Irene, I can imagine you saw some funny photos during your time developing and printing films, and probably a few X rated ones too.

Garswood Gates

https://i.ibb.co/Zh7Bbtn/IMG-1702.png

That photo looks to have been taken from around Smock Alley, as the angle of view shows the west-facing gables of the Spindle Hillock semis which wouldn't be seen from Station Road houses.
Of course, the photo wouldn't be taken from the front of Station Road houses so it could be argued that it was 'behind' your house, although not directly behind it.

and just missed the pump house in the middle of that field .

I certainly did, Cyril!

I used to know a woman who worked at a chemist and she told me that she could get X rated photos done if I wanted to take any of her.

I picked spuds in that field when I was a kid .
Tommy usually drove the tractor whilst Arthur and John would load the hampers onto the trailer

I would imagine the job of looking after the cattle would have fallen to Jimmy , as I recall livestock seemed to be Jimmy’s speciality.

All gone now unfortunately apart from Jimmy .

Dairy farmers may in the future be growing spuds in all their fields too, as many are saying they'll be giving up dairying as there's just no money in it, and what about this so called plant milk which is being highly advertised now, it isn't a patch on dairy milk which is a naturally produced and original 'Plant Milk' with being processed by cows from plants i.e. pure grass and herbs growing fresh in the fields, and not from dried genetically modified soybeans that are crushed and processed by machines in a factory and with a 94% water content. I know which milk I'd sooner use - the pure natural dairy milk with 87% water content and tasting far nicer. I wouldn't mind paying a bit more either as long as supermarkets and other middlemen don't benefit, and it goes to the dairy farmers meaning they are getting a good and fair price for getting up at 4.00am on a dark, freezing and finger numbing morning to milk Daisy & Co.

If that is the field at back of spindle hillock I remember at a very young age my uncle Maurice who took me everywhere on tractor mowing that field, he worked for Arthur Wayne and the entry was on Victoria rd after Fred Sharples house and the bungalows, that was before The houses on Victoria rd were built I also remember the pump house or water house as we called it situated at right hand side of the large field, Victoria rd back then was a dirt track from Downallgreen to garswood which we had to walk to visit Doctors surgery.

Some folk are just born picky !

Oz
I lived with them on the farm when first married. .Tom was my drinking buddy Jims wife passed away last week
My wife wife Anne who also died last Sept delivered milk when first left school wit a pony called Teddy.

remember the red shale road going down to garswood dav . i remember those cows in that right hand field with an electric fence to keep them from going onto billinge rd .alan topping lived in that house at the other end of vicky rd .

Sorry to hear of Jimmy’s loss Neil .
It isn’t that many Sundays ago since I was up at Charnock Richard having a brew with both of them , along with Jimmy’s mate Ernie .

I’ve got a few photos taken in the barn with Jimmy , Ernie , Alan and
“ Magnus “….as well as an array of other interesting equipment…
…….
You’ll know what I’m talking about .

I can’t post them on this site unfortunately , as they were taken a mile or so beyond the Wigan boundary and any action such as this would most certainly be regarded as a capital offence by many of the pedants on here.

Ozy .Know what you mean .Very sad looking for the anything to look smart about .Ernie and the gang once came to cut a tree down for us Ernie was the chain saw ma.Waiting for someone to ask if we had a permit