Photo-a-Day (Wednesday, 29th January, 2020)
We Have Moved
Photo: Brian (iPhone)
Excellent photo. Says so much, could have a place in the history books of the future - if that makes sense !
Another bit of our heritage gone for ever
They should take the two mucky phone boxes with them.
end of an era.
I miss the Post Office but it's loss is W H Smith's gain as that rather dark shop seems brighter and busier since it housed the Post Office. I miss the days when Post Offices and banks were hushed places with wood and brass fittings, with Postal Orders and other forms in little pigeon-holes, huge ledgers and Post Office Savings Books. It's all computers and paying by card now and everything looks plastic.
I don't think the phone boxes will stay there, they'll probably be sold off. I don't know about. the post box or what will happen to the building. It's vey sad, I suppose the way things are it's been building up to this, when you think of all the Post Offices that have closed over the years. We always called it 'The General' .
Let's hope it's not to become yet another bar etc. Date stone says 1884 surely this building has a preservation order on it?
What do people use post offices for these days? Most services post offices were used for can easily be sourced else where.
A superb looking building, let's hope it doesn't become a bar as Wiganer mentions.
Another era closes. Not many towns & cities in the UK have maim post offices these days. Liverpool, Birkenhead to name 2 are now in Smiths. Sub-post offices have been relocated in convenience stores or have been closed.
this is the end of wigan very sad
The PO near me does a good trade in parcels and packages.Ebay I presume
A handsome building - a lot of skilled workmanship went into the detail over doorways and windows when these buildings were built. The telephone boxes should be cleaned up and preserved, they too are an important part of the past, when not many people has telephones. There's an air of sadness about the building.
In the late 1960s I worked for Ackerley Heaton & Pigot - next door to the Post Office. Wallgate always seemed to be bustling with people using the Post Office and queuing for the phone kiosks then.
Most people of a certain age, myself included , have moaned about the moving of post offices from sites where they have been as long as they can remember. Then I asked myself - when was the last time I needed to use a post office? The answer - I can't remember.
Soon Wigan will be like a town at the end of the gold rush . Balls of Tumbleweed, caught by a hot dusty wind , will blow by an empty creaking , long abandoned rocking chair where the sheriffs office used to be . In the distance , Billy Boston , the sheriff and last survivor, rides off into the sunset ....
They do a roaring trade with digital passports! I have just renewed my passport - it took all of 5 minutes. Instead of going to the trouble of filling the headache of a form in yourself and getting it countersigned, the photo is taken at the same time job done, new one delivered in 4 days! Must be a record...
XPat is spot on, No main post office No shops No decent market,and now they have taken the 715 Bolton to Wigan bus off.So in a while there will be no buses.Whats the point in coming to Wigan anyway.There is nothing left.
As George Harrison wisely quoted: "All things must pass"