Photo-a-Day  (Friday, 1st July, 2022)

Across which the river once ran.hgjha

A street we don't often see photographed. I can remember when there was a garage there in the 1960s and I bought a little "Esso Man" keyring, as they were a bit of a craze at school. I have passed. or been down, Crompton Street many, many time since then but I had completely forgotten the garage and the Esso Man until I saw today's p-a-d. ; The power of a photo!

I was walking up crompton st with my sister one night and noticed a commotion near one of the back doors to the ritz, it was a band group found out later that it was the beetles

Irene. I walked past that garage every day for years on the way to school and back. I can't remember the name but do recall it was a Rooted dealership Hillmans, Humber, Singer etc and sold second hand cars as well.

What a coincidence, Carolean, as we now own a 1959 "Rootes Group" Hillman Minx, (We call it Dorothy). Of course it wouldn't have looked out of place back then but it turns a few heads today. And it has no seat-belts so hold onto your hat!

Might the garage have been S & S Motors? I recall that they were the Rootes Group dealers in the 1950s.

Yes, ArthurP, I think you're right....well remembered!

Arthur P. Yes S&S was then name.

Wasn't the Bingo Hall on the right owned by Dave Whelan at one time? and wasn't it built for the Co-op originally?

I found a box in my attic room ,
Dusted brown , but cardboard true ,
I looked inside upon these bits ,
then next glance, I noticed it ,
From plastic gun from when a child ,
I broke its trigger , and cried and cried , ,
Within my hand my memories spoke ,
And once again my tears did choke ..
Though years have flown , from that front door ,
I went through back , to a child once more ..
True ..

For the Esso Man ..

Yes, DTease, the Bingo place used to be The Co-op. Veronica and I used to get our Divi, there didn't we, Dolly dear? By the way, where is she today? Nice nostalgic poem, "e".

I have passed the little spiritualist church many times and always wonder what is about.

I find it so wrong when you can travel to so many places in the Uk , and find streets , lanes and villages , that have been kept in an order close to like they where . Indeed , if you attempted to change them ,they would eat you alive . This may seem inward or backward to progressives , but by fighting for their place , they have maintained a wonderful place to live .
This picture reflects to me a street appearance that can change at any moment . Like it or not , I believe we humans need stability . So many places across the Uk have , tiny little kingdoms of exclusivity and peace , areas of countryside that are protected by them . When you have this order your soul can relax , you can take a seat , knowing a bulldozer is not going to turn up . Wigan should turn inward not outward , that is my hope , become one of the so many tiny wonderful places , within the Uk , who live happily ever after , protecting the own ..
This is only my opinion but as someone who was born and bred in Wigan , I see a town with no direction at all . We need to regroup and start again , inward !

I do believe you’re perfectly correct on both counts there DTease.

I actually still have in my possession , a bike saddle that I purchased from there when Whelan had it as an outlet for his Ill - fated sports equipment enterprise.

It’s a humongous great fat one that I paid 20 quid for…….

Well ..
it had to be you see as I bought it specifically for the ex - missus…..the saddle was fine, but the bike frame couldn’t cope unfortunately.

By the way , whilst we’re on the topic of bingo , I’m of the understanding that George Formby was something of an accomplished Bingo player in his day was he not ?…..

…..Oh wait ! …..silly me , I think I may be getting confused with “ banjo player “.

Gor lumme ! ….what am I blimmin’ well like eh ?

And those Esso oil drop yed keyrings……I recall when the U.S. based Standard Oil company first began to impliment its takeover of filling stations in the U.K…..sometime in the mid-50s if I’m not mistaken,…they were giving them things away as promotional gimmicks.

And remember those striped imitation tiger tails that you stuck on your filler cap ?…or the fake bullet hole transfers that you plastered onto your car windows ?

These are just a couple of the fuel company advertising ploys that I still can recall.

Ahhh well ! …life seemed to be so much less complicated back then didn’t it ?….in an age when one was more than satisfied just to have a couple of rows of bullet holes in ones windscreen…..before the country began its downward spiral into terminal decline.

Regards . Daniel Craig.

If you drive around London’s drug quarter you can get a windscreen full of bullet holes fer nowt Ozy.

Has fer yer missus, it seems like you fell into the common trap of over feeding her. Had you got rid of the washing machine earlier, instead of relegating the dolly tub into a bath tub, you could have had her accompanying George Forby on the scrubbing board, thereby giving her some much needed exercise whilst providing your good self with musical entertainment.
You could have helped her Ozy by making as much washing as you could. Has you know, Ozy washing needs ironing and most women love ironing, they love it so much that they pile it up for weeks all over the house so that they can devote a full day to the job, usually when the football is on the telly.
I don’t bother with ironing myself of course. I don’t think men were designed for ironing and anyway I have found over the years that if you wear a shirt for a week or two they tend to iron themselves out.
Just a thought Ozy, but did you save that seat when you binned the frame? Only I have an old bike in the shed with a seat like a razor blade and I can’t tell you what that thing did to my derrière.

And I’ve just read a comment posted by marky with which I feel totally inclined to agree.

Perhaps “ look inward “ should be the motto of Wigan council , as opposed to bloody
“ Believe ‘’

Believe in what precisely …?…..believe in my backside sounds the most likely.

Wigan has an industrial heritage , this much is irrefutable, but then so do many other English towns .

Yet I personally find it impossible to believe in any community of halfwits that would spend 40 years ripping the guts out any place , that with the merest modicum of imagination could potentially be transformed into a tourist Mecca.

No…seriously…
They could quite easily have flattened Shildon, or Beamish , and built a couple of gigantic retail parks,….but they didn’t.

The Cumbrian slate quarries could have been bulldozed over and levelled , with Lidls and Aldis constructed on the sites. But it never happened.

It happened in Wigan though , and it doesn’t seem likely to stop happening any time soon either .

And of course, it’s far too late now anyway, the damage has already been done.

Perhaps it’s fortunate that Hadrian didn’t build his wall through Wigan, as we’d no doubt
end up with an endless string of Turkish barber shops , boozers , Indian restaurants and fast food outlets dotted along the ridge of the whin sill by now .

Pretty much similar to the situation they have in Swinley at this very moment in fact….but without the whin sill of course.

Ozy - from a website about the Eastern end of Hadrian's Wall: "If you like noise and tarmac, you will love Day 1, 17 Miles to Heddon On The Wall almost all on tarmac and not very exciting. You start the walk at Wallsend, although you won't see any actual wall for about 30 miles so if you're doing this walk expecting to see wall along nearly all of the walk, think again."
In other words, the first 30 miles of the wall have disappeared under subsequent development.
They were well ahead of Wigan....

As for your other illustrations - they're talking about turning the last working quarry at Elterwater into a theme park.... Astley Colliery could have been turned into our equivalent of Beamish - but not enough locals cared enough....

Yes, you'll find unspoilt corners here and there in our country, but most towns have changed as the years have passed (look at the pic posted this week of the buildings replaced by the Queens Hall on Market Street... we're bemoaning the loss of some of Queens Hall, but not what was there before?).

Most changes are made by the commercial interests involved (viz the row over the M&S store on Oxford Street, London) - and neither local nor national government can, in the end, prevail against companies who will choose where and how they spend their money.

If folk had really valued Wigan Market in its present form, and the shops which have closed in the past few years, they would still be there.

At least the Council is trying to do something....

Ozy , you sound like Sonny Barger

I’m with you with regards to ironing DTease . I tried it once, but gave it up as a bad job when everyone began complimenting me on my rhinoceros skin shirt.

In fact I rarely even bother to wash my gear these days to be honest. I just wear the stuff till the hanging remnants begin wrapping themselves around the chainwheel of my pushbike, then I chuck them into my AGA and get some fresh stuff from the car boot sale for 50p.

I genuinely believe this is the most eco friendly way of going about things .

I also read an article in a Mail on Sunday which I found on a bus ,that said the thermal output of burning cloth far exceeded that of Welsh steam coal.

So if your considering donating your old undercrackers to Oxfam I’ll gladly nip round to collect them , as what with all this palaver with Ukraine an’ all, it’s beginning to look as though my wardrobe will be empty before we’re even halfway through December.

Ozy, I'm so glad you found your Mail on Sunday on a bus, because I was just going to say you must be well off to afford £1.80 for a paper. It's bad enough paying 80 pence during the week, for the Mail. Nice photo Dennis.

I’m of the opinion that the majority of the damage that befell Hadrain’s wall was perpetrated not by elected councils, but by private individuals such as isolated farming communities, or various religious bodies , in order to use the readily available dressed stone to construct their abbeys and their ubiquitous farm buildings.

I agree , there isn’t much of the wall in evidence on the eastern side, and there’s even less of it to be seen on the western side as it never extended as far as the Solway firth except as an earth embankment.

But perhaps I chose a bad example.

I don’t consider myself to be a particularly clever bloke , but although I’m incapable of repairing watches , I find I have little difficulty when it comes to telling the time , and in my opinion , the various councils in Wigan over the past 40 years at least , have wasted millions on barmpot projects and yet still don’t appear to have the ability to learn from their mistakes.

I hesitate to mention the galleries , or the unfathonable cycle gyratories

Let me just say that I believe many of the so called slum properties that have been demolished, could more than likely have been made good and brought up to an acceptable standard at a fraction of the cost of clearance and their subsequent rebuilding , resulting in the long established communities therein remaining intact.

With regard to most towns having changed , I can’t argue with that ,
as I’ve seen my fair share of them and as far as I can tell , the majority have morphed into homogeneous wastelands.

Take a ride into Warrington if proof were needed.

Wigan had the opportunity to avoid a similar fate but dropped the ball unfortunately .

Regards. Ozy

Goodness me ! P aD has turned into Wigan World Weekly Whinge on Wigan’s Wastelands, by the resident Editor in Chief, Ozy and Co,
( Hells Angel?)no less, with their very own column. Will it make much difference - Not really but it gets it off the chest….
See what the photo has started Dennis, your better off sticking to the bridges.

Edna the Mail on Saturday is good value for £1 20 the tv supplement is second to none plus I love a bit of gossip. It’s the only paper I buy once a week mind you!

Veronica, if the Wail on Saturday gives a true account of the t.v, then it’s about the only thing it does tell the truth about. Along with it’s daily companion, The Daily Wail, they tell more lies than Liar Johnson!
It’s sad really, I’m old enough to remember when the Daily Mail was a well respected, popular newspaper, it’s gone a long way downhill since then.

I’m just reading “ Detail by excruciating detail, the full inside story behind Andrew's car crash TV interview” with Emily Maitlis, what a plonker as Del Boy would say. I saw that with my own eyes ….but as you say you can’t believe everything you read these days, it’s all about selling papers using fantasy. I stick to the BBC News and hope for best! I’m not paying £4 for the Guardian and it’s ilk.

Our best lady led him to believe he was untouchable . Even now he is using her to get back to that sense of being . Mothers protect no matter what they do .,

I don’t think she led him to believe he was untouchable, he thought that himself. A very arrogant man who has deeply disappointed HRH. She probably ‘advised’ him to take a backseat. As you say Marky she is his mother, she probably paid the millions to get the plaintiffs off his back. She knows he won’t be popular, if he ever was.

Try reading the MailOnline,it’s better than the Beano

As far as I can see , it doesn’t really matter which paper you choose to read , precious little ever changes .

You could clamber into your home made space ship , strap the goldfish’s bowl over your yed and bugger off to Mars for six months, but when you got back , everything would inevitably be the same.

It’s a bit like Coronation street actually , nowt much changes on there either…..Although I haven’t seen much of Len Fairclough since he got himself into that spot of bother .

Oh!, and I believe Minnie Caldwell’s cat , Bobbie , has passed away.

And if you hadn’t already heard, Rita Fairclough’s husband has been and got himself run over by a Blackpool tram.

R.I.P. Bobbie.

Plus Ena Sharples and Elsie Tanner had a cat fight in the street and she broke the Rover’s Snug window. It’s very strange that wasn’t in the Mail….. I think that’s the very last episode I watched..