Wigan Album

A love for ones town and recognition of its history right down to how we speyk.

Civic pride all gone.

Well said, Alderman Ramsden, Mayor of Wigan! I know I have told this tale before, but it reminds me so much of my beloved Auntie Mary who did "shout" and "mee-maw" because she was used to having to make herself heard over the clatter of looms from being a young girl, as so many did who were little more than children when they went in the Cotton Mill. But, for reasons known to herself, she always put a "posh" voice on at Walking Day, but could never get her aitches in the right place. As the Vicar's contingent passed by in the walking-day procession, she would say, "Oh, 'ello Vicar....hisn't it 'ot?", then she would spot some high-up Church lady's little lad "leading out" under the banner, wearing a satin shirt and carrying a ribbon-bedecked crook, and she would revert to her native Wigan accent and remark archly, "Ey-up, ah thowt yon mon ud a't be a shepherd!".

That was so typical Irene of some women trying to impress men of the cloth or anybody of ‘importance’ .. it could never work could it but so funny. I personally can’t stand the cockney accent! So they had room to talk ‘dawn sarf’ . Another accent that I think is far more difficult to understand than Wigan’s is the Newcastle one but I do like to hear it also the Brummie one. I don’t think the professor had travelled around much… ( tongue in cheek). But we’ll don Alderman Ramsden we need more people like him on the councils of today.

‘Well done!’
(Daft spell check!)

Some years ago I was working in Southport with a lady who had a beautiful speaking voice,one morning in particular when I turned up she said " Good morning luv" in a Wigan type of accent..so I said "Olga,I hope you're not being unkind copying my accent" she said " Maureen if only you knew how much I like hearing yours..I keep watching Coronation Street to try and copy how they speak..I had to tell her that their accent was Mancunian.lol.

Maureen whenever I’m on holiday and people notice I’m from Lancashire I always feel embarrassed and I shouldn’t because there’s far worse accents up and down the country. Like Irene’s Auntie Mary I couldn’t even try ‘talking posh’ but I have to say I love the old black and white films such as Brief Encounter because the
actor’s speech is wonderful its so ‘cut glass’. At the same time it’s comical nowadays to our ears. We certainly never heard English spoken that way in Scholes ( apart from on the films at Scholes Pictures) it was more a mix of Irish brogue and Wiganese.

Veronica,my son lived in Gateshead for awhile,( I love their accent) anyway we went to pay a visit and went to a cafe for a meal,I've forgotten where it was but it was on the coastline and involved using a lift to get down to the 'beach'..as we got into the lift it was jam packed and everyone was talking,but as soon as our Lee said something everybody went quiet,you could have heard a pin drop..I suppose they were fascinated with our accent..I myself used to enjoy the programme 'Vera' I thought she did a good job of the Newcastle accent.

Veronica and Maureen, my daughter-in-law is from London, and, as babies, my grandchildren Edie and Oliver spoke with a mix of their Mum's London accent and their Dad's Wigan accent, and used to pronounce grass as "graas" and bath as "baarth" with a long "A". I remember when Edie first experienced Hallowe'en night and I asked her if she had enjoyed it; now imagine how we in Wigan pronounce "scary"....the best I can produce in writing it is "scurry", but you get the gist.....and she said she didn't like it as a boy came to their door wearing a "scurry marsk". (A very Lancashire "scurry" and a very posh "marsk"!). Her lovely London Grandparents used to deliberately ask her to say the word "buggy", as they loved her Lancashire pronunciation of it, (their other grandchildren being Londoners). I am proud of my Lancashire accent and refuse to change it so who I am with, and the funniest thing is that I was once in a play at WLT playing a Cook, and was congratulated by a member of the audience on my "Lancashire Accent".....I'm from Ince! xx

I was visiting a relative and another relative from Ince was there,he was in the front room..I happened to be telling the relative about a particular perfume that I'd smelled..smelt..( is it a proper word) anyway the relative overheard me ..and said to me " dust like Chanel no 5 thee, of course" I said,he then said " I'll get thee some ..lo and behold the week after he was there with the perfume..I was over the moon..he just said " don't ask me where I geet it from 'cos I won't tell thee".

I am totally and utterly proud of my WIGAN roots and Speech and all.
When i was employed by the ORDNANCE SURVEY in Southampton i was engaged on a huge levelling project all along the South Coast of England ,and i have to admit at times i got annoyed with the people down there . For no matter were i went ie into a cafe , a drink in a local Inn at night when they heard me talk they would often try and ridicule me and in a lot of instances would ask me " What are you doing down here all the way from YORKSHIRE "!!!!!Whenever i corrected them it was almost said every time Where's WIGAN????? In the end i would just let it all go over my head ,as far as i was concerned my town was their loss .

Has this newspaper article been doctored? By that I mean has the word Wigan cut from another publication and stuck to cover up the original name of an obviously Lancashire town, it certainly looks to have been, so as to make it look amusing for Wiganers. A good find Keith.

Cyril, It would appear that this clip was taken from a SEARCH ENGINE maybe "FIND MY PAST"? If you SEARCH for a particular name. That name is Highlighted in the search results. Hence WIGAN appears to be different from the rest of the text.

When I was in my twenties I had a club man ( remember those).. honestly, he asked me if I was German...after all these years I'm still baffled.???

Hahaha that made me laugh Maureen….

Irene I love reading your stories, they are so true to life. It’s so long since I’ve heard the expression, ,mee-maw, it’s one my mum used to use - took me back in time. Thanks for the memory.

Cyril and Ron, yes, I found this article from searches on ‘Find My Past’, a subscription website, hence the “highlighted” words. I recall that quite a sizeable group of students from my old school, Wigan Grammar, all went to Chester Training College. They made a point of conversing with one another, at times, in the broadest possible Wigan accent. It made them unique since others could not understand their conversation, almost making them bi-lingual.

When I was in my twenties I had a club man ( remember those).. honestly, he asked me if I was German...after all these years I'm still baffled.???

Silly iPad.

Some 50+ years ago I worked with a man who claimed he could tell which district of Wigan someone came from by their accent. He was usually correct.

Accents are magical . I like Noddy Holder in the lift at Birmingham Art Gallery . The little lad Charles in ' Whistle Down the Wind ' . The sing song Welsh in 'Under Milk Wood ' .
Accents make our country rich and interesting .
On a walking holiday I met some Australians who thought the Wigan accent sounded 'Shakespearian ' . I told them I like the Aussie twang but they said everybody in Oz sounded exactly the same .

Maureen, it might be because you answered the door dressed like Helga from "Allo Allo"! (Only joking!). And yes, I DO remember club-men. We had one from Sutton's Gents Outfitters in Scholes as my brothers always got their clothes from there and paid weekly. The clubman from there came to our house every Saturday for years and was a lovely man. My Mam used to get "Provident Cheques" for which you could pay for clothes weekly but they could only be spent in certain shops and you ended up paying over the odds as they knew how to charge in those shops and our Mams had no choice. You actually paid to be poor, when you look back on those days.

Some 50+ years ago I worked with a man who claimed he could tell which district of Wigan someone came from by their accent. He was usually correct.

Years ago I had a part time job in Greenhalgh’s. There was a Blackburn lady who always came in for the same order of
“ six borrrmmm cakes please”. The accent was always on the ‘r’. Before marriage I had worked at the ROF I recognised many accents/ dialects after that period as the workers came from all over the districts around Chorley. David H you’re correct every town/area has its own ‘dialect’. Leaving Scholes for Westhoughton there was a difference. Then again after a few years you start to lose the original dialect and take on (unconsciously) the slightly different one! I do think very ‘broad ‘ accents are dying out though.

Veronica,I think it was when I said "Goten Morgen" that did it.lol

As I said on the other post Maureen the Northern accent was/is very guttural similar to the German language .. so I believe.

Irene,I remember my Mam paying a club man every week..I think his name was Mr Rudd and then his son took over,whenever he came to our house I always seemed to have been playing outside and when I came dashing in the house he would say "Ey up she's here" ..don't know why but I always seemed to be running instead of walking.
You wouldn't think this photo would get us around to 'club men' would you.

'Ich gehen wohn ' is not too far from ' I'm goin' wom ' .

Maureen, it is no use anyone on Wigan World Photo-a-Day or Album complaining that someone has gone "off the subject" of the photo....one memory leads to another, and most of the people who put the photos on don't seem to mind....after all, we're not stopping people who DO want to comment on the photo from doing so. I love to put my own memories on here and to read other people's. It's just human nature. We all love a story and a memory, and the photos trigger off so much more than just a passing comment.

I believe Hitler thought we were too much alike to be going to war with!!! He gave up when he was getting nowhere… Thanks to Dad’s Army.. ! Joking apart…. It was lucky for us. He settled for Jersey and the other Channel Islands instead…. Some of those evacuated to Westhoughton never went back and used to come in Greenhalgh’s for their bread and pies! ;o))

Very interesting article and lets face it, that southern view of northern accents still persist.
Until recent times a familiar Wigan Greeting would be ow doo or yoright love, sat on a bench in Wigan on Saturday the familiar greeting around was Salam Alaykum, I suppose it might sound a bit posher!!!!!!