Photo-a-Day  (Wednesday, 7th December, 2022)

Bridgeman Terrace????

I seem to remember that is the road that runs alongside Mesnes Park, am I correct ?

(I'll bet Alan from Hindley doesn't know where I am)

Sorry I didn’t see the heading. I worked in Bridgeman House and then Mesnes House at the bottom of the road. Took my driving test in Bridgeman Terrace with Graham Lyon.

I remember when the tax office was on Bridgeman Terrace .Led to believe the building is now flats.

A road I remember well. It still looks much the same. As I recall it was very professional - doctor's surgeries, accountants, lawyers.
What is there now?

These tree lined Wigan streets would look so much nicer if those overgrown trees were cut down.
They not only make the street hazardous when they  drop their leaves in autumn and flowers in spring, they also lift up the footpaths making it bumpy for pram and wheelchair pushers.

My father who was Blackrod hairdresser used to repair unbrellers in his quiter moments in the shop he used to bye his covers and spare parts from a shop in Bridgeman Terrace used to go with my mother to get them 1950s can't remember the name maybe some of you oldies can.

There’s something about tree lined streets that lift the spirits. It was my thoughts even as a small child from Scholes that any area with trees must be affluent or ‘posh’ to my mind. That’s how I knew Wigan Lane people must have been rich! Great photo another familiar area instantly recognisable to me.

Hi Broady, lovely to have a reminder of my late cousin Graham Lyon. In my teens I used to work at John England and loved the walk up the road to work by the park.

One street in which the property never seems to change, just the businesses.
Does anyone remember the wooden offices located at the Northway end always referred to as “The Huts.”?

Nice photo, Dennis, I love tree-lined streets. The Registry Office used to be along there. I got married there in 1974. A lot of people used to go across to the park to have photos taken after their wedding but when we got married it was foggy. Peter says it's been foggy ever since. I'll show him the photo when he stops seeing stars after being hit with the frying pan!

I remember marrying my first wife in the regestry office in bridgeman terrace.

Alan it does run alongside Mesnes Park..I go this way at least three times a week on the bus, I bet when these buildings were houses they would look very grand, it's one of the nicest parts of Wigan.

Presumably the terrace was built before the trees were planted otherwise it might have been called Bridgeman Avenue .

I think you're stood just in front of the tree that bends out onto the road at quite an angle, just before the park entrance and zebra crossing. It's a nice walk down there.

Apparently a mature leafy tree emits, in a season, the amount of oxygen breathed by 10 people in a year. Apart from their beauty, they are so important for our very existence. Surely it's not beyond Wigan Council to make regular safety checks of pavements - a small price to pay in order to preserve beautiful streets like these.

Tree lined streets don't just lift the spirits they lift everything around them and make the footpaths dangerous.

Too right Veronica, tree lined roads do look nice and rather continental in a way, they're also beneficial for us and for birds and insects too, and these benefits far outweigh the few days in the year of petal and leaf fall, and the wind soon blows these away anyway. The council should plant trees along all roads to help stop the menace of vehicles being parked on footpaths, which are a bigger danger to pram and wheelchairs users when they have to go out onto roads to get past vehicles.

There's a good in depth article in the December edition of Local Life magazine about Sir Francis Sharpe Powell or as they've put it Yon Mon in't Park - his life and achievements, and the photo of his statue unveiling that's shown is a larger view than the one shown in the Album and which also shows these magnificent buildings along Bridgeman Terrace.
https://www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/photo.php?opt=5&id=4669&gallery=Mesnes+Park&page=2

Agreed Cyril… as usual there’s always the miserable old fogies that disagree… who don’t look where they’re goooing.

That was a laugh Irene, though I hope your frying pan isn't a heavy cast iron one, as it's difficult to get the dents out.

I can't remember the pavements along Bridgeman Terrace or adjacent roads being affected by tree roots before the mid 1980s, though they were heavy Limestone flags. To prevent these from being stolen for flag floors in kitchens down London the council lifted them and then laid Tarmac along here and the adjacent tree lined roads too, and later this Tarmac did get affected by the tree roots as Mick mentions. A few years ago contractors hired by the council were doing the same along the pavements of Whitley Crescent and surrounding roads, and to prevent the tree roots from running under the Tarmac and lifting it the contractors dug down and cut off all the roots they could see, trouble being they killed some of the mature flowering Cherry trees in the process.

It’s ok to see leafy roads if you don’t live on one.My daughter lives on one and we have filled at least twenty black bin bags with sodden dirty leaves and I mean filled.WMBC are nowhere to be seen.The leaves are slippery and do not blow away when wet.Trees are ok in their proper place like Sherwood Forest.

I love trees in streets, and avenues, also the leaves make good compost.Good photo Dennis.

Cyril I think she was joking about the frying pan incident.
I can see we have had a post from Pw who seems to know what he's talking about.

Used to go to the dentist down there but I can't remember the name.

Anne, I remember The Huts or 'thuts 'as they were more commonly referred as. I seem to remember they dealt with what is now called Social Security.

Pw - I'm up to my ankles in dead leaves this time every year, as we're surrounded by trees - brushing them up isn't a big deal - even at 75! Their beauty in Spring and Summer is well worth it.

I started work in 1972 in the Lancashire County Council offices at no. 18. Back then it was very busy with the tax office at the top and all the premises in busy uses. Wigan Rural District Council had offices at no . 1 Then there were all the ladies streaming down when work finished for the day at John Englands which was in Rylands Mill. Often on Fridays one was all regaled in ribbons etc because they were getting married at the weekend lots of chatter and laughing.

I started work in 1972 in the Lancashire County Council offices at no. 18. Back then it was very busy with the tax office at the top and all the premises in busy uses. Wigan Rural District Council had offices at no . 1 Then there were all the ladies streaming down when work finished for the day at John Englands which was in Rylands Mill. Often on Fridays one was all regaled in ribbons etc because they were getting married at the weekend lots of chatter and laughing.

Derek B….I do not wish to mention your name, however I have noticed reference to you in the past and wondered if your parents were Donald and Dorothy.

I agree Pat I would rather see the Autumn leaves scattered everywhere and blowing about. They look lovely - it’s Nature’s way of recycling - then start again in Spring. Yes they are slippery when wet I should know as I have come a cropper twice. There’s nothing nicer than shuffling through the leaves when they are dry. I sweep them up once a week and put them in the recycling bin…. I agree town councils have cut back on the job of clearing them on the roads. The trees were here long before us - and are here for a reason. What would we do without them, wood for furniture, fences , sheds all manner of uses. As Cyril says “they are beneficial for us and the birds and insects” . Plus the oxygen emitting from the leafy trees. Not forgetting the wood for burning! We couldn’t exist without them really could we….? I love looking at the trees in all weathers and seasons.

Was it Whalley’s Dentist
Peewee? That name seems familiar.

Originally, and as built, that road was called 'Park View' for obvious reasons, it was renamed Bridgeman Terrace, after a Wigan Councillor, whose surname was 'Bridgeman'

The tax office closed about 8 years ago, and after extensive alterations, the building became posh flats.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the 'posh' roads in Wigan were tarmacked with 'posh' tarmac, which was red in colour, but it was very slippery, in damp or wet weather.

The red tarmacked roads, as I remember them, were.

Parsons Walk, and Park Road as far as the railway bridge.

Bridgeman Terrace, Kenyon Road and Mesnes Road, up to the Cherry Gardens roundabout,

Wigan Lane, from the Cherry Gardens roundabout, and up to Standish, at I think it was the junction with Grove Lane.

Broady I did not know the test centre was on Bridgeman Terrace? When I took my motorbike test early 70's and my car exam late 80's both where from Mesnes Park Terrace

That’s where I took my driving test in the eighties on Mesnes Park Terrace.

Peter P,
I recall leaving Bridgeman Terrace and the examiner said turn left and I turned right ( a good start) We then went past the front of the Grammar School and at the bottom he said turn left and I turned right on to Parsons Walk.

Anne, my surname is Bond but my parents names weren't Donald and Dorothy.

The second time I went out for a lesson with a driving instructor he took me up King St and bade me turn left onto Wallgate. Now, as a child, I always had trouble putting my shoes on the right foot. as a result, whenever I went to put my left shoe on my right foot, my mother would shout "YOUR OTHER LEFT", so I suppose I got into the habit of doing the opposite of what I was told to do.
I must say the Instructor was reasonably calm as I headed UP Wallgate instead of Down but when he compared the speed I was heading towards the Policeman at the top, with the distance we were from him his voice rose a few octaves, and when he realised that I wasn't making any plans to stop his voice became positively girlish.
I passed the upraised hand of the Policeman at about twenty-five miles per hour. The look of astonishment on his face will stay with me forever.
The last I saw of him was in my rearview mirror, I can see him in my mind's eye now, in his long white mac, legs akimbo, his gloves resting on his hips, and his head moving slowly from left to right....or was it right to left?
When I went for my next lesson I was informed that my Instructor was off sick and I never saw him again.

Just reminds me of my adventures in learning to drive Dt. The first one I had didn’t turn up after three lessons, he died from a heart attack. The second one after two lessons didn’t turn up as he was playing at being Father Christmas in Hindley Co-op. The third one I reported to his employer for banging his fist down when he got irritated at my turning right into a petrol station when he told me “ first right “. There’s only so much you can stand. The fourth instructor turned out ok we got on very well but it was a long partnership… not romantic mind. I think he was heartily relieved when I did pass the test.

Thanks Derek, you aren’t the person I was thinking of.

I remember my second driving test from here.My instructor told me about an examiner called Robinson who he said strict.He was the chief examiner and I got him when they came into the room and I felt more nervous.We drove off did a few cursory manoeuvres and he told me to pull over and we parked in the spot I had driven off from,asked me a few questions passed me and he dashed back into the test centre,I wasn’t out ten minutes and had to wait till my instructor came back who said that was the shortest test he had ever seen.I can only think he needed the toilet.

Took my driving test in 1965 it was in Menses Park Terrace then.