Photo-a-Day  (Wednesday, 11th November, 2020)

I like this photo. (I love the before-and-after ones). A few years ago, (can't say just how long), I noticed that they had built a row houses along here, (although I don't think they are on this photo), that were on the style of terraced housing and thought what a good idea. You rarely see small rows of houses , similar to the row I live in, being built these days....it is always semis or detached houses, and I thought how nice it was to see smaller homes at ground level rather than high-rise flats. I often wish I could step into the "before" pictures and have a walk back in time.

Brilliant again Dennis - the inscription on the small photo is also worth a read

Who wants to live on the front of a main road, with no front garden.
Not for me....traffic noise horrible.

The terrace houses in the before picture survived until the late fifties/early sixties. There was also a pub called The Miners Tent and a chip shop (Webbs?) at the far end of the terraced houses. The pub
subsequently became, in turn, a cafe and then a used car showroom. At some point in the 60s the houses and pub were demolished and a filling station occupied the site. Prior to the current terraced houses being built the site was occupied as a used car lot.

Irene, the houses you mentioned are the ones opposite where the bus is stopped.

I live on the front of a main road with no front garden, Alan. Peter and I would have loved a semi with a garden when our children were growing up but we couldn't afford it. They are grown up and gone now but we have stayed where we are because we don't need anything bigger for two of us and after 46 years we are used to the traffic. No-one chooses to start married life in front of a main road with no garden but we chose to live within our means. I was brought up in a house where we stepped straight out onto the pavement and I have never had a garden so never missed it.

Wonderful to see how it used to look with the cobbled streets, maybe the cobbles are still there under the tarmac. Thanks for including the insert Dennis, and for the clear shot of how it is now.

I remember going through Aspull in the early seventies and it was just like the old photo on the main road into Scholes. Irene , 'Home is where the Heart is'. Good photo as usual - many memories of that area.

Scholes Mac, how have you managed to read the inscription on the smaller photo, please? As soon as I left-click onto it, it just goes to yesterday's p-a-d! I would love to read it. I'm sure I would find it interesting.

Nothing wrong with living on a main road.Have people never heard of double glazing.Not everybody likes gardening.ckxi0

Irene try this link to the photo on another part of this site: https://www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/photo.php?opt=5&id=17617&gallery=Whelley&page=1

I used to live on Bolton Road Aspull facing the gerrard arms pub in the 60s and 70s, there used to be a row of terraced houses, I loved it at the back there was fields and also facing Rivington pike, I can honestly always remember horwich loco the hooting noise when people starting their shifts at work.

Apart from noise, kids can't play out with no front garden.
You can still hear noise with double glazing.
Gardens with colourful plants and a lawn make the house more beautiful.

There will always be houses lining the roads, it can't be helped. Probably a lot of the houses were built before the build up of traffic. Families with 3 and 4 cars! There's many Houses with gardens at the front facing the main roads, my own included and a grass verge! You only have to see all the cars parked in front of houses on estates for that matter.

Gill, all cobbles were lifted, under council orders, and sent over to France. I don't know, but probably to the Angers area. That's just one of many sacrilegious acts against our country.

Thanks, Scholes Mac....I found it and was able to read it; very interesting. Most of the houses on the main road in Abram have small front gardens with a wall. Only two rows, mine included, step straight from the front door out onto the pavement but as Veronica says, the traffic that went past when the house was built. (1900). would have been virtually non-existent and has built up over the years. We have a large "backs" behind the house where my children, when young, played safely and happily. My son now has a garden back and front and my daughter lives on The Isle of Lewis which is one huge garden! I have never had one and never missed one. Just a few spuds and tomatoes grow in the backyard every year and I am content. Hope you can submit some more "before-and-after" pics, Dennis.

Good photo Dennis, what a difference the trees make on the left,to this road now,compared to years ago.A bit of greenery goes a long way.Does anyone remember the shop near the traffic lights being called VG.The family who owned it then, now live in Aspull.Very nice people.

Contented life, now there's a thing,
some like rain drops, others sing,
Darkened brickwork , or the green of trees,
All that matters is what each one sees.
One is present, tuther past,
still same road, with folk as cast,
Time don't stop it moves its heels,
a frozen moment of what once was feels...

James - oh that's a shame about the cobbles, but thanks for the extra information. They could have been used elsewhere to pretty up other areas in Wigan, and how dare the French take them!! I guess the council made a few quid out of them, and then hopefully put the funds to good use.