Photo-a-Day  (Wednesday, 3rd January, 2024)

It’s a lot posher than the White Lion in Westhoughton which used to be the Post Office a century ago.
Also made famous by Michael Portillo no less.

The bus to Standish used to depart from there . It was usually parked up for half a hour for a break. . I recall the drivers and conductors ,
capped and badged , coming out of one of those doorways holding white canteens of tea .
The first thing the driver did after climbing into the cab was turn a handle that altered the destination sign on the front of the bus .
I remember my mum paying the fare to the conductor saying " One and two halves " , for my brother and me . The ticket machine was like a telephone dial . She gave me the scroll to look after in case the Inspector got on at Boars Head .

A very familiar photo on PaD.
Little gas changed thankfully, apart from the toilets.

I remember catching the bus there too, Poet, when I worked in Standish. I remember the boutique owner, Miss Winkleman, walking past one morning and the women in the bus queue discussing her long black hair and mini-dress! I have never forgotten one TERRIBLE morning when the rain was lashing down and it was blowing a gale; the driver came out of the bus-offices and opened the bus doors and let us all get on as we were soaked to the skin and everyone was silent and glum. When the conductor got on he shouted "Good Morning Everybody!" and the whole bus-load of people smiled and started chatting.....isn't it odd what sticks in your mind through the years?!

We should have had a Bulls Head to the left of the White Lion and a Black Horse on the end building, off the photo. I think so many of us are interested in the towns history, we should record these places.

Same picture of december 6 last year but without the pidgeons!

Should have said little has changed.
Sorry (too much sherry)

Poet I have the same memories of bus travel from that spot on my way up to Whitley...though in days gone by it was just a part of Wigan not a particular area. I can remember before the metal ticket dispenser the tickets were all packed into a sort of wooden affair, held in with springs....they were different colours & the conductor would punch a hole in them so the ticket was known to have be used.
I expect readers of this will think 'there they go again ' the nostalgia freaks. Not knowing they too will be nostalgia freaks one day !
Am I bothered ?......

Too right Peter, on photos of Market Street the Bulls Head (*see link below*) had a superb casting of a bulls head which would also have looked superb incorporated in the wall of the next roof pediment to the Lion, if it had been saved. I can only recall there being a pub sign hanging from the wall and depicting the Black Horse, though I'm sure someone would enjoy sculpting a black horse for the wall.
**You can see the cast of the Bulls Head in the top central window above the bow window of the pub on this photo on the Album by Keith. https://www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/photo.php?opt=4&id=34622&gallery=Market+Street&page=1

When volunteering at the RSPCA some years ago, I would send legacy forms to a firm of solicitors offices above Nationwide and I'm sure part of the address was Fleece Chambers, I do remember an alley, it's between Nationwide and Pound Bakery which has a door now, and this had a mosaic tile floor with The Fleece Hotel in the tiles, an entrance to the pub was down the alley with the main entrance being on Market Street. Thinking back the town centre once had a lot of these little alleyways and nooks with shops and businesses down them.

It might be a familiar much photographed image but still pleasing to see, thanks Brian.
Every scene you take I scrutinise as I am sure one day I'll pick out myself somewhere in the crowed merrily snapping away!
At the far end of the building on the left just out of shot is another plaque which reads:
Victoria House 1986: This building stands on the site of Lowes Department Store which closed in 1985 after 98 years of trading.
Opened in the 50th Year of Queen Victoria's reign the original store was named Victoria House and over the years was extended to replace the adjoining White Lion and Bull's Head Public Houses.
Garry, I think your comment at 08:49 was a Freudian Slip but spot on,
Gas and Toilets is just what it was. The smell was terrible!!!!!!

Irene, Miss Winkelman, black hair and mini dress. Could she now be on Strictly??????

On this superb photo on the Album posted by Ozy you can see both entrances of the Fleece Hotel and also the Black Horse pub, also the Transport Office that Poet mentions. https://www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/photo.php?opt=5&id=31262&gallery=Market+Street%252C+Wigan&offset=0

Interestingly on another photo Ron comments that from the Market Place down to where The Crofters pub is and now the top end of Market Street, was at one time a continuation of Hallgate.

A lot of good comments on the photo Cyril. It’s nice looking back to read them. 2019 discussing the future of the town - if we knew then just how much more bad it would get! Not that anything could be done….

Veronica what was the connection with the White Lion pub and Michael Partillo.

He stopped off in W/H with his Bradshaw Guide before going to the Hall ‘i’ Wood where Samuel Crompton invented the Spinning Mule. The President of the Local History Society met him to talk about the Luddites who burned the Mill down, which happened to be quite near the White Lion.. Apparently he didn’t have a drink in there they just walked through the door for the benefit of the camera filming him.
You see Alan it’s not the poshest pub in W/H..they should have gone to Wetherspoons where Robert Shaw is
‘ venerated’ as he was born in Westhoughton next door to where I used to live actually! There is a Blue Plaque though at the Town Hall….( I think!)

Veronica did Robert Shaw ever live facing the Rose and Crown on Bolton Road ? I’ve been led to believe he did but maybe wrong.

Yes he did live there John. In the house that has a stone wall surrounding
The house next door to mine in King St where he was born was a Doctor’s Surgery. My next door neighbour wouldn’t have a plaque put up commemorating him because she didn’t want folk knocking on her door wanting to look inside. She was a character! .

Helen of Troy, I remember when the bus conductor had a rack of different coloured tickets, each colour being for the bus fare being paid. Wigan Corporation never had advertising on their buses, but the tickets had advertising on the back of them - most frequently for Uncle Joe's Mint Balls!. I remember when the tickets were replaced with a machine with a feature similar to a telephone dial, where the conductor dialled up the appropriate fare and it then printed up a ticket from a roll of paper. At the time this seemed very futuristic.

Veronica thanks for the confirmation as I used to get my haircut at that big house facing Rose and Crown from a very early age by Simon Hilton 50ties .Derek B I remember bus conductors with the Dial for tickets well ha ha

John (Westhoughton) The kids used to hang around Beech Hill bus terminus asking the conductors "have you got any ticket roll ends, mister?" Anybody's guess what they intended to do with them! Those were when I used to pay 1/2d each way to go to and return from school in Wigan.

Oops! Meant to say those were the days when I used to pay a halfpenny each way (on a green paper bus ticket)

Good old days DerekB I can remember hanging of the bus just before it stopped and hanging with a foot sliding along pavement and loads of sparks coming of my clogs.

Good old days DerekB I can remember hanging of the bus just before it stopped and hanging with a foot sliding along pavement and loads of sparks coming of my clogs.

There's one there now, Veronica.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FdcpqNJWQAQJ7p4.jpg

DerekB tell us what the kids did with the ticket roll?

Yes I noticed the plaque this morning James H. I was on the bus going to Middlebrook. I knew I had seen it before. It does stand out. That was due to our Local History Group who do so much for the town.

DerekB sorry I didn’t read it right as you were saying anybody’s guess what they did with the ticket rolls.