Photo-a-Day  (Sunday, 8th January, 2023)

Grand Arcade, Hardybutts, Wigan Lane, Beech Hill Avenue, plus several others within a mile of Wigan town centre. How many Post Offices do you want?

The new post office is along Market Street and was officially opened in November. The post office building above is to become a fancy bar function room and offices owned by Tony Callaghan(little 15 owner)

I really miss the old Post Office. It moved into WH Smith and then we lost THAT! The last I heard there was one opening on Market Street, just lower down than Barclay's Bank. I used to love the Post Offices of the past, with pension books and family allowance books being stamped with a resounding "thud" by the assistant, postage stamps being sold singly if required off a big perforated sheet which was kept flat inside a heavy book, and pigeon-holes holding paying-in and withdrawal forms for Post Office Savings Books, before everything was done by plastic cards, but then, as a certain someone on photo-a-day will be very quick to point out, I tend to live in the past.

I don’t know how the ‘hole-in-the-corner’ in the ‘Grand’ Arcade should be called a Post Office It’s more a drop off for returns! No room to swing a cat. But I am pleased to know there is a Post Office on Market St Peter P? At least the building is not going to be left to rot thank goodness for that. I would say you don’t live in the ‘passed’ Irene but you have a good memory and a love of history. Take no notice of LaLa Lad.

Come and live with us on planet Senility Irene. Here the sun shines every day just like it did in the past and the Postmen still wear trousers and not hairy legs. They all ride round on bicycles and live with black and white cats and they knock on your door every morning to make sure you are still on the same planet.
Come to Senility, Irene and live in the past ‘cos it’s all warm and cosy and cuddly. We all sit on our plastic seats and somebody comes round every two hours to make sure nobody has passed on between brews.
Come and join us Irene, just let me know when and I will save a plastic seat for you.

The old Co-op Bank Market Street is the site of the 'new' PO.

James Hanson there is NO post office in the Grand Arcade. Time you stopped looking at Google

DTease, your answer surprised me. I assure you I am not yet ready for my plastic seat on Planet Senility. I go on my computer and use my plastic money and plastic library card along with everyone else. I just like to think back sometimes to when things were different., as many people do, and I find many people like to join me in having a little reminisce. There is no harm in that, surely?

The new Post Office can be seen on this excellent slide show of Wigan @ 0:51
https://youtu.be/1qPCm1RQjDg

I’ll wager that’s a truly excellent slide show Mick … I might even have a look at it later on when that bloody daft Masked Dancer garbage comes on t’ telly . It’ll most likely be more entertaining than that .

Although watching two flies crawling up the woodchip wallpaper holds more entertainment value than most of the tripe they broadcast these days .

[ note to self ] … must get out more …

Only joking Irene, no offence intended.

That's okay, DTease.... I love reading your comments and you always make Veronica and me laugh. It's just that the comment didn't sound like you somehow. And I do see why it just wouldn't be safe these days for pensioners and young mums to be seen receiving their allowances in cash across the counter. But my apologies if I mis-read what you meant.

I thought the postmen with hairy legs was very good Dtease, wearing shorts in all weathers. Mind you some look as if they’re not old enough to deliver the post. I think I’ll come and join the happy band at Sunny Senile Planet it sounds great. I’m getting to the stage wondering what day it is! Especially over Christmas. I went to buy a newspaper which I usually buy on Saturday and wondering why there was no supplement in it. I thought it must be because of the holidays.
Nay - It was Friday ! - I thought it was Saturday until Tea time when it dawned on me! Grr…

Well,
here on the East Coast we wanted just 1 PO. The 'Real' PO closed Mr Hanson & a makeshift one has wandered around the town looking for lodgings here & there. We now have a mini PO in the Community Centre half way out of town & as glad as we are about this, a micro PO doesnt do all the things PO's are supposed to do....and dont get me talking about non existent banks....looking after your money & needs ? Pull the other one, its got bells on it.

Ozy the slide show is nothing special, but it will be in the future when the Wigan historians are wondering what Wigan was like in days gone by.
Irene so you think your good at spelling, and love to point it out to a certain someone, every time you see what you think is a spilling misteak,  but what other qualifications do you have,beside pulling a pint or pooring a glass of milk stoot

Mick, I AM good at spelling. I can't ride a bike, change a plug, drive a car or do a million other things that I am well aware that others can do with one hand tied behind their back. But my comment on your spelling of the word "past", which you spelt as "passed" the other day was because you used it against me in totally unnecessary criticism, as you so often do for no good reason. I DON'T normally point out peoples' spelling mistakes ....I have more manners than that, but YOU are a past master at dishing out criticism to people on photo-a-day, Mick, but you can't take it back, and that's your trouble. Please feel free to dish out criticism and nasty remarks to me or to other people on Wigan World, so long as you have the guts to take it when they retaliate. And I am not so blind that I DO realise that " spilling misteak" "pooring" and "stoot" were done deliberately. I may need my glasses changing but there are some who need their nappies changing. Just saying.

Behave yourself Mick , you’re only supplying ammunition to the mob .

I take your point about the video though . I’ve had a look , and as you say , it’s nowt special , but give it another 20 years or so … when we’re all under the sod .
Then who knows ? … they may even erect a bronze edifice in your likeness on Tesco’s car park .

How ironic would that be eh ?

Ozy, I know exactly what you mean about things taking a while before we realise their value. Just after The Market Hall had been demolished, I bought a video of its last trading days and couldn't wait to watch it. I have to say it didn't make much of an impression . but I realise now that it was because I had been in the Market Hall and seen the various stallholders only a few weeks before. It was only after about ten years when I watched it again that it worked its magic ....there was Harold Bradshaw from the menswear stall, Alice Hitchen on her electrical stall....all those lovely, familiar stalls and the lovely customers sharing their memories. I have it on dvd now and you can watch it on Youtube, (the final days of Wigan Market Hall), but it needed Time to come to fruition.

It’s time LaLa Lad had his ears boxed! Truss him up and put him in the stocks at Standish. I believe they’re still there… if not get them out of hibernation.

I was under the impression that James Hanson was Tonker with them both previously posting similar comments about where actual Wigan was, but with his Post Offices comment and the naming of all those in other areas and saying they are in Wigan - I'm now having doubts. I never knew that there was a Post Office on Hardybutts - but having had a look on Google maps I can see that it is what was The Black Bull, someone was saying the other week it had become a shop.

The last time I went to the Post Office in Wigan town centre it was this one in the photo, though I can't remember when that was or the last time I was in the town centre for that matter.

Irene, I know what you mean, it had been a Post Office for 134 years so it did have a lot of character.

This wouldn’t be the first time that I’ve said this Irene as I’ve stated the same thing on several previous occasions , but in my view , photographs only become interesting twenty years or so following the event .

Also , although I have no desire to appear unappreciative to the contributors to p.a.d , I could view 90% of most of the scenes that appear on this site on Google street view anyway .

The only difference being that in 2040 , Google street view ,
( assuming it still exists ) will portray a different image of the Wigan that the likes of Dennis , Mick , etc . are showing us today . ( always assuming that this site still exists in 2040 of course ) .

I won’t be here to make any kind of comparison anyway , but they may be of some interest to your grandchildren .

So , like him or loathe him , ( I’m speaking of Mick here by the way ) the guy’s making a contribution to your grandkids ‘ understanding of their roots , and as such should be afforded due credit .

Just speaking as I find .

Regards . Your friend .
Ozy .

Ozy, I see the entire wiganworld project as a chronicle of Wigan as it is now. Hopefully people in the future will look at these photos in the same way that we look at Ron Hunts great photos on the album now.
I just hope that the efforts of ALL the people who have worked on and contributed to this great enterprise survive into the future in some form or another for as long as some of the photos on the album have.

Well I like him Ozy, and I've just looked back on 3 months of the daily photos and I can't see any comments from Mick that you could say are nasty, but I can see many nasty comments from others about him and where he lives.

Irene, you do make me laugh. Can you tell me and anybody else who may be interested in one post where Mick dished out any criticism on anybody's Photos.

Sounds like you haven’t taken into account a lot of Mick’s comments that have upset people Syd… in fact I would go so far as to say you are very biased. 3 months isn’t very long to look back on. Try going back even further! He has upset quite a few people on here with his insinuations. As for comical comments about where he lives which is nothing but banter what about his snobbish comments about where others live especially those who happen to live in Council property and areas where people still live??? . No wonder people retaliate…not very nice with what he insinuates about Irene recently - a person who never puts a foot wrong. Also calling me a liar isn’t going to earn any respect from me either.

I know Mick from when he spent his days and nights down Appley Bridge and can say he's nothing like some people are trying to make out.
Thank you Ozy for sticking up for him.

Thankyou for your comment, Mick. Of course you haven't criticised anyone.....it was Icky the Firebobby who called me "Miss Grammar School Knickers", wasn't it ? Whatever made me think it was you? Don't worry, I won't be speaking to you or "making you laugh" again, or disturbing your peaceful life in Shangri-La from my humble village on the "poor" side of Wigan. Now if you'll excuse me I 'll just go and get some coal out of the bath. Goodbye Mick...have a good life.

It’s ‘Photo of Today’ not ‘Photo of Twenty Years From Today’.
There is a fine line between banter and Harassment and Mick sometimes doesn’t know when he’s passed that line. His comments about the van in Haigh Plantations were well past the line.
At the same time I don’t doubt for a minute Mick’s commitment to this site nor the effort he puts into it.

You been making me LOL at lot Irene over the years please keep it up, Miss Grammar School Knickers reminds me of Bradley Walsh on The Chaser when he calls Miss Frosty Knickers

Teasy do you think it would help if the lines were thicker.

They could never be thicker than you Mick.

Thats not a very nice thing to say Teasy