Anyone remember me?

Hi all!
I was born and bred in Wigan but moved to Cornwall in 1986.
I used to be Betty Hurst and went to Warrington Lane Junior School from 1945 to 1950 then passed the 11 plus and went to the Girls High School on Wigan Lane.
I lived in a grocery shop on Darlington St, end shop next to the River Douglas opposite the gasworks! I have a sister, Dorothy and a brother Lawrence who also moved to Cornwall before me.
My Mother's name was Evelyn, my Dad's was Lawrence {both now dead}

Was your sister married to Brian Murphy? I went to Warrington lane School but I was only born in 1945. so it would have been about 1950 when I started the Junior school but I did got to the Nursery school. I lived in Spring Street. If it is your sister? I think she was in the same class as me. I used to have a class photograph but unfortunately it must have got thrown out years ago. Mores the pity.

No, sorry...not her! She is older than me...she is 71. My brother is 63 and he also went to the junior school then to Wigan Boys Grammar School.

Hello Betty. I'm 10 years older than you but I too went to Warrington Lane School in the 50s and I also lived at number 30 Darlington Street, next door to the post office. There was Roy Simpson's on the other side of us and we lived in the telly shop. Do you remember that? It was called Matthews' and we sold tellies and radios - my dad also did repairs. There was Humphrey's butchers on the end of our row, Taylor's who sold paintings, the Jolly Mill, Whitworth's who sold furniture. I can pretty much remember them all. I must have gone into your shop many a time with my mum! As a very small child I'd go and visit every shop on our side of the road, bounced on the beds at Whitworth, had tea with Mr & Mrs Taylor, cakes with Mrs Occleshaw in Simpson's etc. Wasn't there a toy shop next door/but one to you?

Quote:-
I'm 10 years older than you but I too went to Warrington Lane School in the 50s.

Can't work this out??? Fishlizzie left in 1950 aged 11. Mollie M is 10 years older So she must have been 21 in 1950?. How come she still went to Warrington Lane Junior school in the 1950's????

Wasn't there a Surgical Appliance shop in that row?

Hi Fishlizzie does all your family now live in Cornwall?

Hi again! Happy Christmas!

wiganyankeeron.....Only my elder son and my daughter still in Wigan...my sister has a daughter in Southport...otherwise...all down here!

The surgical shop was Slaters, they had a chemist next door to it too.
We moved there in 1945 when I was 6 to number 63 and Dad opened it as a second hand furniture shop....we ended up renting the two next door shops too making 3 altogether!
Our most famous customer was Mrs Louisa Merrifield who was hanged for murder! She lived on Park Road then and had a guest house there.
After the war ended, second hand stuff wasn't wanted as HP came out so Dad let 2 of the shops go and opened the one we lived behind as a fruit/veg/fish shop gradually building it up to a full grocery shop. I was married from there in 1960.
We 3 kids had great fun in those early days....always playing outside...cricket in the gasworks yard, top and whips, ghosts/statues when it was just going dark....
I remember the huge Catholic Whit Monday walking days when we used to put all our chairs on the pavement for relatives to sit on! It used to take about 2 hours to go past our shop!
I could write a book! So many memories of things that todays children would be amazed at, cocooned as they are with their central heating and all todays gadgets! Not for them the ice on the INSIDE of windows in Winter or Monday washdays with the huge iron mangle with a tin bath underneath and a dolly tub!
The oven shelf to warm the bed and us dressed in Dad's shirt, socks and a cardigan!

fishlizzie,
Good or Bad old days?

I think good on the whole!
I don't really envy todays children/teenagers.
We had so much more freedom - in a safe kind of way.....
We were rarely bored...made up all our own games/activities.

As kids we would get a few jam butties and a bottle of water and go somewhere,we would be out for hours and be safe. I always remember everyone wanted the first drink out of the bottle so you wouldn't get the crumbs that somehow always got into the bottle.And if you needed the toilet while we were on our jaunts it was first find a big dock leaf and then behind a tree, oh happy days.

Oh mind the nettles coccium!

and the frogs.

Hi fishlizzie
Iam the same age as you and remember all the things you mention I left Wigan in 1963 and I am so pleased to have found this site it brings back a lot of memories and I will always be a Wiganer at heart As you say I think we were better off when we were young and I think our freedom made us more independant because we were allowed to do things and go to places without adults all the time I feel very uneasy about letting my grandchildren out of my sight for any length of time these days I went to Whelley School and left in 1956

Sorry, sorry, sorry Ron. You're right of course. Betty is 10 years older than me. I don't know what I was thinking about when I wrote that post. Mayhap me yed was screwed on the wrong way round that day.