Photo-a-Day  (Sunday, 15th November, 2020)

Nice photo Mick, is that the bowling green pub I can see. Frequented it for years back in the day.

Wow ! , do you still have pillar boxes over there ?

Nice pic Mick.

What a mess all the post offices today, with all the writing outside saying what they sell, its disgusting what all the post offices have been turned into these days. they are not traditional anymore they are runned by certain people these days and they are tatty and scruffy.

Run by "Certain People" Julie? Please expand.

I like your photo of Wigan Lane, Mick, but I agree with Julie on Post Offices. I used to love the post offices and banks of old with dark wooden fittings and stationery in little pigeon-holes.....paying-in slips and drawing-out slips etc. You could buy just a single stamp which the assistant took off a perforated sheet kept flat inside a heavy book. I don't know if you can still buy Postal Orders but you never hear them being asked for these days. Of course it's all computers now instead of heavy ledgers but I think Post Offices and banks have lost something of their dignity in the name of progress. They are what I think of as "plastic" these days. My local one sells toys and purses, handbags and SHOES! We went in the bank at Beamish Open Air Museum at a 1940s event last year and it was like stepping back in time....wooden counters, ink-wells, blotting-paper, huge ledgers and brass scales and we actually found ourselves talking in whispers! Thank heaven we still, (yes, Alan on Vancouver Island!), have bright red pillar-boxes, and long may they stay!

And most of them are inside supermarkets.

Phil like people who don't take pride anymore and only after making money.

Most post offices are now in supermarkets because the post office wanted shops which had their services to keep the post office section open for longer hours. Also stand alone post offices like in the middle of Wigan cost a lot to keep open so close and move within some other premises and share the bills with that shop.

Yes Alan we still have them, this one would have been put there when George VI was our king.
George was also Emperor of India from 1936 until 1947, when the British Raj was dissolved, this would lead to all kinds of disruption in India and Kashmir,.
Some of the locals came over here to settle and have now taken over most of our very old fashioned Post Offices, (the chinese did the same with our chippies) and turned them into modern mini supermarkets that sell everything you could want.
These Certain People as Julie says, did the same with our NHS

That's true, Alan. However, we have two local ones....the one in Abram is incorporated into the papershop now but I use the Platt Bridge one as it's handier for me, and I have to say, despite selling shoes and bags etc, , the ladies behind the counter couldn't be pleasanter or more helpful. Long may it continue.

Yes the Post Office looks more like a small supermarket. It's the same now in every town! It seems the only thing that hasn't changed is the Queen's head on the stamps, apart from when she was young up to now.

Sadly Julie and Irene they have to go with the times, nowadays they are in competition with corner and other shops which now not only sells pens and stationery, but stamps and you can also make payments of your gas, electricity and other bills.

Alan H, why not move into a supermarket if it keeps their overheads down and keeps the Post Office open along with the mail and other services it provides.

Phil Taylor, I presume Julie is referring to the certain people who were employed at this post office and who were convicted and even jailed for the theft of stamps, money, mail and parcels, they wasn't local either as they all resided in Bolton.

Oh I see Julie by "certain people" you mean people who want to make a profit.
We call these people capitalists and the whole Western economy is based on their outlook.

Its Wigan Lane Mini Market. The Post Office has just been pushed into a corner at the back of the shop.We have been taken over!!!

I think the Wigan Lane PO is what I would call a sub post office located in small shops/supermarkets. When Wigan main PO closed down, where did the facilities move to -WH Smith?
In Liverpool the main PO is located on the 1st floor of WH Smith by Liverpool One. In Birkenhead near where I live, the main Post Office is in -you have guessed it - WH Smith but at the back of the store. Within a 2 mile radius of it are smaller Sub Post offices with just 2 servers. It can be a pain at busy periods when the supermarket/mini markets etc are busy with their own customers. Remember Royal Mail is a business and needs to survive in this competitive world so overheads need to be kept to a minimum. I guess this one is close to Swinley Road.

I have always 'prophesised' to myself that the pendulum would swing and corner shops would sprout up again. The Post Office integrating with newspaper shops and the like is only the beginning!

"The Post Office integrating with newspaper shops and the like is only the beginning"

Most post offices have been franchised for many years. A family member had a post office franchise in the 1940's.

Thankfully, we still have a stand alone Post Office in the village, it does sell stationary and cards but mainly is deals with P O stuff. I can say it is spotlessly clean and the two ladies that look after it are polite, helpful and offer only the best advice, sounds like we are very lucky.

The racism is overpowering in some of those comments, Some things should be left in the past.....and the people with them :(

In reply to Alan (on Vancouver Island) Not just pillar boxes - everything else too! The UK is now a very vibrant place and Wigan is a very different place compared to what it was a few decades ago. Modern and a great place to live.

A lot of people who cry "racist" don't tend to think before they "speak" Freedom of speech is more important than anything, even the feelings of people. Millions died in two World Wars to ensure we have that freedom. What is often quoted as "racism" is generally a cultural thing and is in no way connected to racism. Unfortunately there are certain factions in our modern society who use the term racism in order to reduce freedom of thought and speech.

In response to the comments made by John B. Could you please point out which comment you accuse of being racist? Not one comment by any of the posters includes racist terminology.