Photo-a-Day  (Friday, 9th February, 2024)

I just felt for a moment that I was 18-20 years old again when I worked in the chemists just yards away from that police station. I remember it so well, and The White Duck pub nearby, (the pub is called by another name now). Those were the days, when you could walk into a police station and speak to a bobby if you had lost or found a purse, or your dog had gone missing.....something as simple as that, and the bobby behind the desk took down your details, . in pen. in a book. We may have computers and "online" communication now, but I sometimes feel we've gone backwards instead of forwards! A nice photo, and good to see the blue lamp...."Evening, All"!

Used to work there, I was a typist in the late 60’s.

Think I read a while ago that it doesn't actually currently function as a police station, no-one arrested is ever taken there and interviewed etc and is just pretty much used as somewhere any police working in Standish can make a brew and store any alcohol confiscated from kids etc

IS it still in use or has it closed down ready to be turned into appartments like the rest of them!

Mick posted this exact same picture last July.
Great minds think alike?

Irene, it was called the White Swan but the locals called it the,Mucky Duck.

Linma, we must have been "ships that pass in the night"! I worked at the chemists from 1970-1973. It only opened in 1970 and was next door to the hairdressers. You had probably only just left your job at the police station.

All you hear now are screeching police cars…not good

As I said on the other photo of the station it looks like it was ‘commandeered’ as a Police Station from two houses although the coat of arms are a bit deceiving. Could it be it was built specially?
I like the lamp as well. Strange it’s not been nicked!

I only went in Standish nick once when we was on a man hunt for a robber.

Did you find him in there Ex Speed Cop?
Shades of Last Of The Summer Wine.

DTease, thanks for the info' I have only been a regular for a few months and not seen many of the past postings so I suppose some repetition might occur.
Is Mick, Mick Byrne? He has posted some great pictures in the past, I just love the video on his bike driving around the underground bays beneath the Galleries.
I am sure like myself others try to capture not seen before scenes but with so many buildings photographed in Wigan, duplication might be inevitable.

Alan H, I'm sorry to disagree but it was definitely The White Duck. I remember it vividly. I've actually just looked it up on Google and it was at 73, High Street, Standish, which will be correct as the chemists was at 81. It says "The former White Duck became "Fifteens of Standish"" and there is even a photo of The White Duck Rovers Football Team, Standish.

Irene, they have conveniently put a yellow telephone outside the door so you can make a call which will put you through to a Call Centre in Manchester, this will then be past to an appropriate officer who will put it on his or her 'To Do List'. It the crime figures are too high that month it will wait until next month by which time your dog or your purse might have turned up, in which case they will immediately send a police van with four officers to your house, take you into custody for 24 hours and then charge you with wasting police time. Honestly I never used to be so cynical!
PS. I'll send you a picture of the White Duck, locally known as The Dirty Duck, now a Little 15.

Alan H, you might be right, it was something like Dirty or Mucky, might have been the 'Fowl' language used inside!

Veronica, both coats of arms above state 'Constabulary Station' so I think it was purpose built at the time crime rates in Standish were high.
Of course now we don't have any crime in Standish, all are law abiding citizens so no need for a Police Station!!!!!

ps Alan H.....it's apparently just called "Fifteens@Standish" now, not "Little fifteens".
I'm sorry to disagree with you re its former name, The White Duck.....I wish my "today" memory was as good as things I remember from 50 years ago! Lol!

Alan, the pub next door was originally the White Duck, hence the Mucky Duck. I can't remember it ever being the White Swan although in recent years it has been the Bears Paw, Standish Arms, Last Orders and currently 15s at Standish. When it was the Bears Paw, we always used to call it the ' Flying Bottle '. The only time I ever had business in that Police Station was when I got the occasional ' tug ' on the roads and issued with a produce note. Some of the officers who worked at this station lived in the Police Houses on Glebe Close near where the recently demolished ambulance station was. Policing was different back then, the bobbies knew everyone and everyone knew them too. If something criminal occurred, they knew where to start looking.

Irene is right on this one for once it was the White Duck.
DTease do you know if Mick made any videos of the inside of this building, it would be marvelous if he did and we got to see what it was like, maybe a bit like the one in the TV show Heartbeat

Colin. I imagine The White Duck WAS probably known locally as "The Mucky Duck"....pubs do usually acquire local nicknames. My disagreement was that its proper name WAS The White Duck, not The White Swan.

The old Wigan Borough is ringed with former Lancashire Constabulary Police Stations - with Wigan itself having its own Borough force within its boundaries. The Stations doubled as housing for the officers - with the likes of Wigan Borough meeting housing needs by building houses elsewhere in the town. Officers now don't like having their homes identifiable....

Good to see your keeping busy Colin, I used to take my cortinas for MOT at Standish facing Lidl. Would be good to know if they are still going strong,was Will or Gary that carried out the MOT test,cortinas have gone now.

There was always police houses on council estates in Westhoughton up until the 90’s. Quite a number of them. But they are very well built in W/H

John, I am sure they are still open but will be going past there tomorrow and will check both name and number. I will put this up on tomorrows PAD.

We've gone backwards instead of forwards. Every community had its own Police station were officers looked after its own. We got to know the officers patrolling the beat on foot. It was very reassuring to see them and we knew the officers by names. It was a matter of trust and it worked.
To day, if you want the Police, you have to ring Greater Manchester police headquarters and they put you through to Wigan Police, by this time the crime has been committed, and most of the time they don't attend.

Veronica, there is an ex-police house in Westhoughton, (Daisy Hill area, think). that Peter and I fell in love with many years ago an look at every time we pass....the windows are beautiful! There have been signs over the years that it may have been about to be renovated, then it seems to have come to a standstill. However, we came past only this week and it seems to be finally being renovated. I envy whoever will live there.....it is a beautiful, 1930s-type building. It is on the main road.

Veronica, there were always police houses connected to police stations for the local bobbies to live in, certainly the case in Orrell and Shevington, they had their noses on the ground and kept an eye on local ‘knowns’. Perhaps at one time this was the case in Standish?

We had two V , and we called them just that police houses !
I saw so little police growing up where I lived , you would think my memory would have gathered up something of them somewhere, but , it holds absolutely nothing ! All I hold is police houses !
But it was a different time then , few had cars and most of all you knew your street and your neighbours and they became your family . No one was better than the other and the meaning of values was formed by itself . I am fully aware , the younger generations will look upon my words, of days gone by , as that from a puzzled old timer out of date, which to be honest to them is not far short of a full bat !

I know the one you mean Irene a friend of mine lived next door but she passed away a couple of years ago. It wasn’t a police house though. It’s had two buyers and this last one seems to be completing it. It had a massive garden at the back and they cut a lot of trees down and ruined it. They are all good houses on both sides of it. I have been inside when the first buyer was doing it up. I don’t know why they gave up on it. Perhaps ran out of money. It will be lovely when it’s finished.

Tom, I don’t think they would have let him in on his bike!

You are correct, Colin. My late brother, (also called Colin). lived in the Police House at Halewood, near Liverpool, in the late 1960s, with the "police station" attached, and there are two lovely private houses in Abram that were. at one time, police houses with the "police station" connecting them in-between.

With Mick and the Parish Council running things in Shangri La Shevy there would be no need to have the Police there, no matter what they kept their noses on.

That’s good of you Colin I think Gary is the owner and Will worked there.A good friend of mine Vinny who lives facing what was the golf club (Standish)put me in touch with them probably 2008 as I needed maybe a 10 mm hole welding and Gary sorted that,may sound trivial but I like vehicles right wagons or cars,the telephone number was 01257 425120 so please don’t go out of your way Colin as I was curious that’s all,and thanks again,

I only remember Bobbies walking about in two’s like pigeons up and down Scholes.! I also remember the ‘Bobby’ being a bogey man if you did anything wrong Mark.. like batting a ball on a wall!
No Dtease there was no need for Bobbies in Shangri La it must be the only village in England with no Police Station ..or if there is it’s been commandeered by the Parish Council and it’s well know volunteer..

On the 1939 England and Wales Register it records Sergeant Peter Groome and his wife, and PC William Hill and his wife living at the police station. Sergeant and Mrs Groome later lived in Market Street in the 1950s..
In those days the pub nearby was officially named the White Duck, always just called "t' Duck"

On the subject of policing … I understand that in certain states of the U.S. … California to give just one example, shoplifting has reached epidemic proportions since legislation was passed whereby theft of goods to a value of less than $950.00 doesn’t even warrant police intervention .

Individuals therefore of a wide ranging diversity of ethnicities appear to be helping themselves to whatever they fancy, then simply exiting the crime scene unchallenged , in order to fence the gear on the street to fund their next hit .

So! … given that whatever happens today in uncle Sam’s fair land will inevitably occur in Joe Biden’s lap-dog country … i.e. this dump, my question is this .

How long will I have to wait before I can nick a new pair of 501s and a fresh chip pan from Primark without having the plod come round hammering on the tin roof of my shelter ?

If the world’s most powerful country appears to have given up on law and order , then what chance does this laughable , pokey little former empire, governed by halfwits stand of getting it right ?

Since successive governments appear to have failed spectacularly in the policing department , a fair proportion of society seem to have just given up reporting crimes that nobody bothers turning up to investigate …. myself included .
So for all the use they are , you may as well board up all the bloody police stations .

James Anderton however … now there was a bloke that could have made a difference .

Still , it’s too late now …
There’s no going back .
Just Armageddon to look forward to .

Ozy, the chip pan caught fire again didn’t it? You fell asleep after over indulging on cheap plonk and let it catch fire, no wonder you’re shall we say a trifle grumpy.

Garry makes a good point.
Police were only in twos at night Veronica, and yes every place ie Ince, Hindley, Ashton, Standish and so on had their own Police station. There use to be a police house at Coppull at the start of Spendmore Lane, not too sure if it's still open. In fact Ince use to have two police stations, one in lower Ince and the other in higher Ince.

Ozy just make sure you have plenty sandbags around your Shelter.
Ps Air friers are better than a chip pan for wedges. I understand your grumbles about the shop lifters they do it in broad daylight. One shop near us puts their photos in the shop window warning um not to come in! They have ‘heavies’ waiting for them.

Wiganer, I go past the Police Station on Spendmore lane regularly and there are Police Cars outside so I assume it’s still open.

I believe there was a doorway on the right hand side facing the white Duck if You look You can make it out, It is now bricked up.