Photo-a-Day  (Tuesday, 2nd January, 2024)

Pigeons are waiting on the roof for food. Homeless people scavenging for food next to Greggs and all over Wigan, Pigeon droppings everywhere. Very untidy place and not getting any better.
A nice start to 2024.

Thanks Brian. An unsightly image of pigeon droppings the homeless wet and hungry, not much going on for what was once a thriving town.
Welcome to the new year.

A fantastic building I didn’t know about the figures being referred to as the 7/Sisters which must be the builder’s personal stamp. Interesting to know that.

I wonder who makes the best pies in Wigan. In my opinion galloways are one of the best, but a little expensive. what's yours?

A friend who lived in London at the time pointed out the seven sisters' heads to me when he was visiting once....for all my living in Wigan I had never noticed them! I think we tend not to look up and we miss so much....there are some beautiful upper-storey windows on Wigan buildings but we tend only look at the goods in the ground-floor windows. I agree with Garry that Galloways make the best pies and pasties...I love their little meat pies, washed down with a glass of sherry, eh, Garry?! Greenhalgh's do a good meat pie too but you need a mortgage to buy one!

I remember a little pie shop on Belle green lane, hr Ince. I think the name was Cains or Ashurst.
Beautiful pies and cakes made on the premises, family owned.
That was 1970s.

Good picture Brian, not the nicest of buildings but very much part of Wigan's architectural heritage, not sure when it was built but I bet its original and former occupants could tell a tale or two.
It must have seen a variety of uses over the years. I have feeling that part of the building on the right with the triple windows at the corner of Coopers Row might have one time been a pub or hotel?
I had heard the term 'Seven Sisters' before but didn't realise the heads above the windows were there, might be just ornamentation but the story might be true, very interesting none the less.

As far as pies are concerned Pool’s used to the best and as Irene says they are now so expensive. Never thought I would see the day when a good meat pie or fish and chips for that matter would become almost a luxury item!

Alan, what a coincidence!! The pie shop which you remember in Belle Green Lane, Ince, was Cain's up to the late 1950s/1960s when it became Ashurst's, but everyone still called it Cain's, and the friend from London who pointed out the seven sisters' heads to me is Mr. Cain's grandson!

The whitish blobs on the pavement aren't pigeon droppings but chewing gum full of bacteria through having been spat out of the mouths of people who don't care where it ends up. This gum doesn't wash away in a shower of rain as pigeon droppings would, but sets stuck solid onto the pavement, it then has to be removed by using solvent or a jet of hot water from a power wash, an unnecessary expense for the council to have to spend on cleaning it up when there are bins provided for it.
The thirty five pigeons aren't doing anyone any harm sat there roosting in the sun, nor is the person sat outside of Greggs with their begging cup. (is that the grim reaper stood behind them, or a shadow?) It's entirely up to the individual as to whether or not they give them any money, it isn't their fault they're in that position, (the genuine homeless I mean) and they aren't scavenging they are quietly making a request, and we should all be thankful, for it's by the grace of God that we are not there sat alongside them.
Great photo of everyday life in the town centre Brian, and you've even captured a paper bag being carried on the breeze. I don't eat pies Garry, so no idea who make then now, though I remember Greenhalgh's were quite good as were Waterfield's.
I've no idea as to why the building was called the 'Seven Sisters', it would be interesting to read any research into how the name was derived.

In the link below is a photo by Dennis Miller of Market Place from the 1930s taken from All Saint's tower, and Brian has put on a link in his comment to a modern photo of the same area from the tower, the same building above can be seen and a vast difference of then and now.
https://www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/photo.php?
opt=5&id=13602&gallery=Market+Place%252C+Wigan&offset=60

Another building full of history and will research myself about the sisters.
Did the Arcade Chambers survive?

Do you know Irene, I had you in mind when I typed the post.
Your right the pies were really delicious, as were the cakes.

Cyril the Pigeons might be roosting at the moment when Brian took the photo, but they do fly and poo all over the place. Pigeons do harm they are pooing machines to put it mildly. Roberts pies at Golborne were the best around, sadly no more.

Dress circle of course!
The window of my house looks down into a square and my neighbours .
Two ladies who live there think, without , doubt that they are of the finer kind , all right and proper.
They hate with a passion , I can tell , me , high above , looking down on them .
Some people would never even dream of sitting in the stalls .
These humble pigeons in the dress circle snoot their noses at nobody . They come from dinosaurs , how much breeding do you need?

It’s horrible to think of the genuine homeless sat outside in all weathers. It shouldn’t be like that in this day and age. I don’t remember seeing beggars anywhere in this country years ago. We certainly don’t see them where I live apart from once - a man was sat outside the Co-Op. but he was taken away. I like to think he was helped. He’s not been seen since and he was a local.

Heaton, Ralph and Heaton were architects for many Wigan buildings and specified Red Ruabon Brick and Terracotta. Thought it may be of interest.

My Dad Jack Hollis got me a temp job at that pie shop during the school holidays in the summer of '76. The pies were amazing and the ladies who made them at the back of the shop were really lovely. It was a bit hot though!

Peter, the history of the distinctive red bricks and terracotta made from the clay found in Ruabon is quite interesting to read, especially with Accrington being the most common name of brick around here.
Also how Ruabon became to be nicknamed Terracottapolis.

https://www.brocross.com/Bricks/Penmorfa/Pages/ruabon1.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_east/7245028.stm

Who knows some of those Ruabon stamped bricks could well be lain undiscovered under Wigan town centre from demolished buildings, and one day found just like those being found washed up on Crosby beach, from the remains of bombed areas in Liverpool which were dumped there.

Dtease 0 .19 , Ist Jan

There’s a Ruabon brick on the album Cyril .
Item # 27585

I missed that one Ozy, thanks for the link, and quite an interesting find with those two bricks.
To me a brick is a brick, but those numbers and the series of dot markings on the bricks must have made some technical sense to someone at the brickworks. The Ruabon brick looks to be heavy too, pity the poor horses that had to drag a cartload of them up Red Rock broo, even if only across the road from the station, and neither would I like to have been hit on the bonce with that brick falling from roof height.

I personally think the meat pies from Provenance Westhoughton will take some beating,normally gone before 1pm.

Everything is good from there John but very expensive. I love the sausages especially which I cook for me and my grandson with mash when he comes for his tea.

I like sausage and mash done cartoon style ala Desperate Dan . A mound of mash with the sausages sticking out . I've never seen them served that way but in the Dandy .
Best pies , Gents , Pepper Lane. .

In the same row above Greenhalghs there is a plaque with the date 1759 just near the roof.Speaking if Greenhalghs I think they are relatives of fine old bakers in Wigan.George Baillie.Great pies.On the site before Smiths/Heart foundation Mesnes St.