Photo-a-Day  (Wednesday, 3rd February, 2021)

Used to be so simple ,
Now it’s like a race ,
You turn your back a second ,
It’s knocked down and replaced .
One sign it points you one way ,
Ten more tell what to buy ,
Eat your way to heaven , a sign will tell you why .
It’s easy just to give
up ,
With all that’s going on,
They flatten all your memories ,
And throw up bubble gum ...
We may not have had the riches ,
Or a watch that spoke from space ,
But at least I felt a part of ,
Not a mark on a blackboard’s face ...

Yet more out of town shops but less parking than a few years ago

May I ask Mick were abouts is this in Wigan please!

Julie it is behind Asda at the saddle junction at the front of the DW stagium

Soul-less, and you're stumped if you don't have a car. That's not a criticism of the photo but of the place. It has about as much character as a bin-bag. And to think they took our Marks and Spencers from the centre of Wigan, where it had been for countless year, to dump it here, whilst the town centre, easily reached by bus from all areas of Wigan, is a ghost town.

Julie its on Loire drive

I couldn't agree more Irene,it's awful and just not practical to get to if you're not a driver.

It's totally senseless what happened with M&S. I don't believe it is doing any better there. The traffic going there is enough to put anybody off. I go to Middlebrook these days relying on my daughter to take me. I think it's better than the above out of town to shop, but I hate going up there. Soulless places indeed, Irene. It's been planned all along what has happened.

Where is Loire Drive Mick, sorry Mick I don't know were it is.

Julie, it's down at the bottom of Wallgate, past Wallgate Bridge, then you turn right into Scot Lane and it leads to the retail park. Because Wigan is now twinned with Angers in France we now have some french-sounding names such as the above Loire Drive., but however "frenchified" it is, it's still Wallgate!

Julie if you did know what difference would it make to your daily life

It's down Wallgate as if going to PEmberton Julie. Well that's how I remember it, but the traffic is insane. I have walked to B&Q that way - it's quicker! It's on the right side of the road a little further on than B&Q though. If you went on the bus down that way - it's terrifying crossing the road. It's not worth it for me anyway to go on the bus!

Looks like a mini version of a shopping mall borrowed from the USA, brash but souless.

Thankyou Irene and Veronica with a straight answer.

What a sad state of affairs, as an ex-pat I had to look at Google maps to see were it was...any resemblance of this area to the Loire Valley may be lost in the Wigan Council interpretation.

The DW is at the rear of the photo.

Irene , I watched an old film the other day called ' This Happy Breed' , during which , a letter was received by the family of an eloped young girl .
"Where's it from ? " came the question . " It's got a French stamp on it ", came the reply . " Disgusting " , said the woman in a very sharp dismissive tone . Made in 1944 . An indomitable refutation of all things 'frenchified ', I think .

It's not Wallgate at all. It's Newtown, Pemberton.

Call yourselves 'Wiganers'? You haven't a clue.

What a load of tripe, the traffic is not insane it proceeds around the saddle roundabout in an orderly manor, controlled by red, green and amber coloured lights
They even have the same colour of lights for pedestrians and cyclist to use to safely cross the roads.

No one said it was in Wallgate, they said its down Wallgate, which it is.Robin Park I think they call it, and its awful to shop there.Dont be so negative Mr Hanson.

Just to let Wigan know today, I went for my Covid jab and the doctor said that the UK injection count is now up to nine million, nine hundred, ninety nine thousand, nine hundred ninety nine, so if we hurry up with you, you can be the 10th million person in all of the UK to be giver this amazing vaccine.
Well the good news is I made it in time and had the10th million jab, BBC could get there to record it, so I did it my self one handed
I was later presented with a card entitling me to a free chippy dinner.

My meaning was to walk down Wallgate / Poolstock way towards Pemberton (figuratively speaking !) it's 50 years since I lived in Wigan. It's a simpler way of describing where it is for someone else. Anyway you can't miss those shops when you see all the traffic lights and the cross roads.
I shouldn't like to drop on you James if I was asking the way!

If I no longer lived in the Wigan area, as Julie no longer does, and saw a photo of somewhere that had been built since I DID live there, I would, like Julie, have asked politely whereabouts it was, and I would have expected a polite answer to my question. It wouldn't make any difference to my daily life at all, Mick, except sadness that the manners of people in the town of my birth had sadly deteriorated.

Irene, Mick is all mouth and bike wheels. He needs to learn some manners. I bet there's many old folk who are quite nervous about crossing the busy roads around the Saddle despite the traffic lights. I know I would be as I am not used to the area nowadays.

I've driven along "Rue de Wigan" in the leafy suburbs of Angers. I think they marked the twinning of the towns through the naming of roads a bit better than Wigan did - with this one and the equally unprepossessing 'Anjou Boulevard' further down the road by the Red Robin.

To be fair, Irene did say "it's down at the bottom of Wallgate", and "we now have some french-sounding names such as the above Loire Drive., but however "frenchified" it is, it's still Wallgate"!
I can imagine James would be a good choice if you wanted directing to somewhere. He would tell you exactly where it was and exactly how o get there. There's nothing wrong with being right about something.

James would probably say how many steps you would have to walk and name the exact places which would be no use to anyone who doesn't know the place names. If Wallgate was mentioned and to carry on walking down there until they came to the Saddle is far simpler and straightforward than any exact descriptions he gives as to whether or not it's Wallgate or Newtown or Pemberton. As Julie said " Where is Loire Drive please?" Anybody can see it says Loire Drive on the photo!

If you look on Google maps. Seven Stars is in Wallgate Wigan.Robin Park, is just round the corner.So they were right in the first place.

I walk straight down there on my way to the Latics,or at least I used to! When next,Iwonder.

Whatever Mick tries to say,there's no denying it,the traffic down there is insane.Perhaps he can't recognise that as he sounds the same.An awful place.

Irene, Mick is all mouth and bike wheels. He needs to learn some manners. I bet there's many old folk who are quite nervous about crossing the busy roads around the Saddle despite the traffic lights. I know I would be as I am not used to the area nowadays.

Ive seen a blind woman using the saddle crossing with out any problems.
And Ive see folk in wheelchairs using them as well,

Thank you Janette for your opinion, nice to know someone agrees...
Anybody on foot with a nervous disposition and who doesn't know that area would be anxious crossing that road, the elderly especially. I can count on one hand the times I have been there in 50 years. Wigan is notorious for its traffic system and yes I passed my driving test there as well.

Far, far easier for me to get to this area for any shopping, mainly groceries. Getting into the town a disaster, no bus service, then again not been for several years, there are very few shops that interest me therefore I am not willing to pay car parking fees.

Mr. Byrne//Where in Wigan is Orderly Manor?

With you all the way there, Neil! Well said! I don't know where it is either. It "must of" been there before our time! Made my day, that!

Im not exactly sure Neil but if I was having a guess I would guess at it being up around Bryn area, maybe on Landgate lane.

Neil Ive looked on Google and cant find it, and Ive also looked at one old map that I have and theres no mention of orderly manor on there.
Have you asked Tom the Scholes history man.