Photo-a-Day (Friday, 6th January, 2023)
Makinson Arcade

Photo: Dennis Seddon (Sony DSC-WX500)
Well caught Dennis, believe it or not the two guys with hands in pockets are actually the main guys in charge of the construction site, nice one can't wait see them.
The men looked far more interesting on building sites in their flat caps and old sports jacket!
I once worked at a school during building work . You had to keep a hard hat in the car in order to cross the car park and enter the building .
Leaving in the afternoon , a security officer said , " Where's your goggles mate ? You can't go out without eye protection " .
I said I had none .
" Have you got any glasses ? "
" Only reading glasses " , I replied .
And there's the madness of the heath and safety lobby . I had to walk 20 yards wearing specs designed for close reading . It's a wonder I found the car .
This is a rare sighting of a small flock of the Yellow Breasted Builder Bird, seen here without it’s usual equipment of a large tea mug attached to its hand.
The leader of the group seems to be the one with brown feet and red ear protectors.
It’s normal for the leaders of these groups to walk around with their hands tucked into very deep pockets so that the lesser birds recognize who is in charge.
They are sometimes known as ‘Constructor birds’, but on this site (The Galleries) they would be more correctly known as ‘Unconstructor birds’.
It’s just a pain coming to Wigan at the moment.. it’s not worth the bother.
Never thought I would get to that stage…. the trains are missing too much hanging about waiting for buses and hardly any shops worth going for.. there’s more shops where I live and more convenient. Same scenario with Bolton. I give up….like many others..
The two people entering the Makinson Arcade are going where the rest of our sad and sorry town is going.....out of the light and into the shadows. I'm thankful I remember Wigan when it was full of shops and people.
Going to the town centre now requires more walking than crossing the Sahara desert..I just hope it's all going to be worth it.
I think you will find that the three bosses in this photo will have studied very hard to get where they have got.
Irene you're are a thing of the passed, the new generation of Wiganers will love our town centre when its built
Mick it's not about the new generation, it's about everyone who lives here and uses the town.
Poet, did you not seek an explanation from the site manager rather than the security officer?
Mick, I am more than happy to be a thing of the "passed", and what's more, I can spell it!
Pru, Wigans older generation stopped using the town centre many years ago, so now they are trying to develop it into a modern vibrant town that is fit for the Young Ones.
I agree Pru.
The world doesn’t just revolve around the young generation. In fact it’s the newcomers as well who will be taking advantage of the Charity shops and cafes where they spend time on their phones. Probably telling their relatives everything is free and the hotels are great. They are building new apartments in the town centre, we might get one because there’s nowhere else to put us….they can’t give us a job yet until we have been assessed, by the time they do it will be time for us to to retire!
WM Wigan town centre should be for all generations not the new generation who ever they may be? If the new generation is to be with us in the next 3-5 years how will you go on Mick you are of my generation so there will be no reason for you to go to Wigan and will have to live in the back waters of Shevvy
Ticsmon , I gather someone else did for he only collared me once . It was nothing unpleasant . We had a laugh about it really .
Unusual photo Dennis, reminds me of like when you emerge from the the darkness and into the light when on a fairground Ghost Train.
I very much doubt it Mick, the 'new generation' as you're saying will still carry on going to Tesco, Sainsbury's or Asda and also to Middlebrook or Manchester/Liverpool, they'll only be going into Wigan to hit the bars and clubs on King Street.
Veronica, you know the saying 'Many a true word is spoken in jest.' Well those apartments that are said be built in the town centre may well as you say, end up housing migrants, the government can't keep paying billions on keeping them in hotels - so they'll end up being housed somewhere. Build an big estate up Shevvy I say, and call it Rwanda - then no one will object to them going there.
Now tread carefully Veebs .
You do realise that your previous comment may well be interpreted as being racist in certain quarters don’t you ?
I’m convinced that , not unlike myself , on a one to one basis at least , you are not racist … It’s just that having spent more than half a lifetime paying contributions into a social system , it would appear that the rug has been pulled from under us , and the likes of thee and me find ourselves at the bottom of the pile when it comes to the distribution of dividends..
So maybe I am a racist after all .
Although I feel sure I wasn’t born a racist .
In fact , all my life I’ve treated people as being my equal . Even those individuals who at times appeared to consider themselves superior to myself ( which often doesn’t go down too well with them , believe me ) .
So to quote Lennie Bruce ( sort of ) . “ If I was created by God and I am imperfect , then surely the fault must lie with my creator “ . Or words to that effect .
Similarly , if I am racist , then the fault must surely lie with those gob**ites in Westminster who appear to have decreed that interlopers automatically take precedence over nationals whose forebears bled and died for a society that they would scarcely recognise nowadays .
In short ; if I am racist , then it’s because I’ve been made racist .
I find it difficult to fathom how some of these brass necked hypocrites can summon the nerve to turn up to lay wreaths at the cenotaph on armistice day . I really do .
Anyway .
Apologies for going off topic , but at least everyone now has an insight into the way my
process of logic functions.
The older generation did not stop going in the town centre many years ago at all.They were forced out with all the shops closing.
No not racist Ozy just facing facts. This country is in a dreadful mess and cannot cope with the influx. It’s like staring into an abyss and not just with the illegals it’s all the other problems conjoined which you certainly don’t need me to spell out.
Mick is the biggest hypocrite walking. Nasty little man with an over inflated ego.
Edna, it's a vicious circle. Nobody goes there anymore, so the shops shut. Then nobody goes there anymore because the shops have shut.
The chicken or the egg?
Thanks Pru I have to keep it blown up with my top of the range tyre pump.
Cyril you just don't get it do you, Wigan town wont be for shopping it will be for younger people to live, and most of their shopping will be delivered to the door.
Ozy did you get any of that wooden roadside barriers I told you about.
I went up there with the trailer Mick , but there was no wood to be seen anywhere . They must have ten it we um eh ?
They only appear to have replaced a short section at the bottom of Arbour lane .
Just looking back at my previous post when it occurred to me that
“ Havetenitweum “
could well have been the name of a Native American Indian princess … a bit like
“ Pocahontas “
if you will , who I’ve only just this minute discovered died at the age of about 20/21 in Gravesend in Kent . Who’d a thowt it eh ?
“ Oodathowtiteh “
There’s another name for a Native American princess .
Wiggin dialect would appear to be a veritable treasure trove when it comes to naming Amerindian princesses .
So , witness the power of Wikipedia Mick and despair .
Oh OK Ozy I'll let you know if I see them doing any more
Ozy , there is a tribe down Bradley called the Yonmotawom . A mate pointing at a camper van first discovered them .
It must be hard work these days Ozy finding wood with every other bugger burning it. I bet you have a good store though to be going on with. No need to burn
t’ bed yet.
There’s still plenty of pallets about Veebs , although getting them to fit into the AGA can be a bit problematic .
But mark my words , if those greedy sods at the utility companies keep on shovin’ their prices skywards , it will only be a matter of time before it will become easier to find a tree on Orkney than to find one in the plantations .
The dawn chorus will be drowned out by chainsaw concerto .
What did Cyril say recently ? … many a true word spoken in jest ?
I’ll pass on from this world ultimately , but when I do , I remain determined that it won’t be from Hypothermia .
There’s an old tree at the back of my house you can willingly have it, but don’t let Tarzan from five doors up see you sawing it… I’m thinking of sawing it bit by bit myself.
Ps you could even have a free cremation with your Aga … there’s no end to bargains at your ‘bothy’ Ozy.
Cyril a good name would be as you say
LaLa Rwanda… plus there’s lots of countryside from what I have heard around that top notch village.
True Veronica, and they'll have the local, you know Tom Spelwell, Tom Naycando, Syd, Joan, Bruce and Pam complaining when incomers from the estate go out hunting the local deer and other wildlife from off the golfcourse. (like how the Bulgarians were hunting swans and carp from ponds in London.) Those incomers will then be on their smartphones putting in their orders and have their haunches of deer and other purloined or foraged shopping delivered to their doors.
Yes they love anything as long as it’s free Cyril.