Photo-a-Day  (Wednesday, 18th August, 2021)

Good one again Dennis. Tell me, is the chippie still down there on the left. It's a good one.

Nice colourful pic Dennis of a very clean street, and the old buildings on left hand side, the first building is a large spacious one looks like it could of been a hotel at one time, but as far as I know it was always called crofters arms.

Not very busy!! I remember the Crofters.

The chippies is still there but it all depend who is on the fryer on the day you visit.
In my experience a good chippie always has a little fat middle aged woman behind the counter.

Derek Platt, the chippy caught fir a couple of years ago and was closed for repairs and refurbishment for a while but is now up and running. It was much-missed! Good photo, Dennis.

Not a very busy street these days, I doubt it will ever be again. The Crofters and the Queens Hall still stand out in the last remaining row. Is that the 'top end' of Hallgate on the left?

Veronica yes that is the top end of Hallgate .

Yes Veronica..it is.

Looks very pleasant and how older Wiganers fondly remember it, apart from now being pedestrianised. In reality, along with the Market Place it can be a very uncomfortable area to be in, even in the daytime. The last time I walked from Hallgate across to the Grand Arcade I was confronted with several aggressive beggars and drunks in the early afternoon. Needless to say, there was no sign of Greater Manchester's Finest to be seen. Appreciate that these circumstances are in no way peculiar to Wigan but., like so many other things, saddening when you recall how the Town Centre used to be not that very long ago.

Yes Derek it does looks very pleasant, maybe the aggressive beggars and drunks are all still fast a sleep.
What also can be scary if your old and frail is all them pasty eating school kids who walk up and down in big groups, and who will knock you over if your not careful.

A couple of weeks ago we went to the first chippy on the left after Hallgate, is that the one you mean? First time we have been and will certainly go again.

Went to Wigan today and it looked just like this except for the rain.On the nearest corner of the Crofters there are big cracks on both sides of the old red tiles,it could be subsidence.

I bought my wedding dress material from Harts at the lower end of Market Street. Hilton and Layland, Estate Agents and Coleclough & Massey (milliners), were next door.

Chippies and pubs should be everywhere in Wigan . They are , or used to be , part the fabric of every community and brought people together . Neither did me any harm health wise . I know the politically correct will disagree .

One day last week I had about 20 minutes to spare before catching the train. I sat on a bench at the top of this street where an argument broke out between a woman and two men. They were spilling out of the Moon under Water. It seemed to be doing a roaring trade and it was only 10 30 the Bouncer was just stood looking on. They were doing all the actions of starting a fight but no punches were exchanged there was a lot of shouting....There was more customers around there than on the above street! There's no shame these days, anything goes...it provided a bit of entertainment, but I noticed people walking by without seemingly noticing what was going on. It's become a way of life I suppose. It made me think - if the Bobby who used to stand there directing traffic - would he have left his post to go and sort them out?....

My friend works in the town cctv office and she told me a few tales that she seen that will make you want to vomit
She said a lot of people come in from other areas by train to purchase drugs and ale in Wigan

I say, steady on Mick. If you'd have said that about our local chip shop fish fryer back in the day, it would have been deep fried Michael all round. You'd probably have gone over the counter and not have qualified for your fish-bits :)

When we were in Wigan today we saw four lots of potential trouble in the town centre,bad language and intimidation.I have always liked Wigan but it getting not a nice place to go and now offers very little to me.

We went to Bolton today, (there is a bus we can catch in Platt Bridge straight to Bolton so we don't have to go into Wigan.....it goes very near your house, Veronica!), and it was as depressing as Wigan has now become. Mostly empty shops, vape shops, beauty salons and tattoo shops. The only bright spark is The Market Hall and it was shut as it doesn't open on Wednesdays! Like Wigan, they have built a smashing new bus-station but there are no shops! It seems to be the pattern these days. We got off one bus, went where we needed to, and caught the next bus back. The bus-ride was the best part of the whole visit.

I never go to Bolton these days Irene I find it worse than Wigan and that's bad enough now. I loved Bolton for the shops and the town at one time but the last couple of decades have seen so much change from its upmarket image.
I don't feel I belong there in the same way I 'belong' to Wigan, but even that is fading from my mind. Every town centre is depressing, unless it's a bit 'touristy' when you go out for a day or a weekend, even then some of the shops are closed. 'The nation of shopkeepers' have almost disappeared - in this country anyway.

Hi Joan, As we have seen on the news reports, drug users need not go anywhere for drugs, they are delivered to them by young county runners. These heavy duty drug dealers, who you never see, seek out these young kids with nowt in their pockets to become their mules. Imagine a young lad who has a few quid in his pocket to then have hundreds of pounds in his pocket. Sadly, for many, the temptation is too great. There is a huge market for drugs. I saw this lady on a programme who was delivering drugs to clubbers by taxi before they
went out. They were taking drugs even before they went out. She said she had to return to the same houses many times as they wanted more. In just a few hours she had a huge wad of cash. You can imagine young kids watching this programme.

It doesn't bear thinking about Irene, how these towns are going to end up.I was in Wigan last Saturday morning about 10am, and it was like a ghost town,and no one was in the Market Hall.I asked the girl on the fruit stall," were was everyone and she said it was like that Fri as well.There is nothing to go in town for now.We don't even have a supermarket anymore.

Irene we went yesterday when everything was open.

We went to Bolton last Friday,the first time about eighteen months due to covid and found it has really gone to the dogs,even the market was dead.There seemed to be very few people about,I wonder if it was a Muslim holiday.