Photo-a-Day  (Wednesday, 14th February, 2024)

I imagine it’s a lot quieter these days. On the left is a path that leads out onto where St Mary’s Church is. It’s strewn with litter. Not how it used to be before Tesco was built. There was a shop on the corner of the street out of the photo. I don’t know if it’s still there….probably not.

A neat terrace of redbrick houses, bay windows. Very traditional.
Shame the first house has been allowed to extend out to a flat front .
Here there is a similar row of houses & when an old corregated metal hall was demolished the space was filled with houses that matched the old ones exactly. Thats what I call good planning.
Nice photo Dennis.

Bet all those residents are pleased the rugby's gone from there, it must have been bedlam for them on match days.

Wigan v St Helens Bank Holiday Monday 1965 - Wigan lost, indifferent display, with Alex Murphy scoring an early try and thereafter winding up the home crowd. Injured at one point, the crowd cheered when a stretcher came on. Not needed.
Packed in this street, heading for bus home, a vocal St Helen's business
type sounded off: "Terrible sportsmanship you've shown today! Why, you'd cheer for a bl**dy hearse!!"
Most of us laughed.
What a memory a photo like this can bring!

Must have been L for all the people living there on rugby match days.

Often wonder when walking down here if the residents prefer it now or before. Relatively constant people passing now to get to and from Tesco compared to a few hours every week or 2 where I imagine it was chaos

I imagine most Tesco customers go by car....it's a bit out-of-the-way for walking, especially for people not too good on their feet. That's why Morrison's was so popular; it was near the bus station and the market and handy for older people without a car. To people living in Hilton Street, nipping to Tesco must be like nipping to a big Corner Shop! Newspapers, groceries, electrical goods all within walking distance. Very handy!

It is a nice row of houses, a miracle that they have survived.
That flat building at the end used to be the Rugby Club shop. I believe it was the first shop owned by a rugby or football club and was so successful that many others including the big guns of sport followed suit.

Colin, it was a sweetshop before it became a "Rugby Club shop" and, I remember, it had a machine (bubble gum, I think) outside, on the wall as you entered the street. The shop probably also sold cigarettes and, I am quite sure that it did a roaring trade when matches were on.

The path, which Veronica first mentioned, slopes up and comes out at the side of The Royal Oak (between The Royal Oak and the land belonging to St. Mary's Parish Rectory). Also, as you walk up towards The Royal Oak end, there was a gate on the right which led into St. Mary's School (back) playground; this gate was used as an entrance and exit for school pupils.

"Shame the first house has been allowed to extend out to a flat front."
Helen of Troy, I certainly do not know how the person got planning permission for that awful extension, which certainly does not fit to the row of terraced houses in any possible way. Additionally, if I had lived in the house next door, I certainly would have put in an objection as it steals natural light from the front room. But, this is Wigan, so expect anything.

Certainly a very handy place to live, especially now having a Tesco supermarket so close.

Google Earth allows you to look back in time - and it is clear that the new housing now on the end of the terrace replaces much earlier buildings which were also built out to the building line. From the looks of it, the building which was on the plot next to the terrace before the redevelopment was extended forwards at some stage in the distant past - and it was decided to take the whole building forward, creating more space inside. I doubt if the planners would have been able to object to an owner claiming their rights over their own property.... Doubtless if they had, someone would have shouted about dictatorial Councils....

Sorry, I also meant to thank Dennis for another very interesting photograph to trigger our memories and to discuss.

Thanks Ian, I do remember the sweet shop and the path at the back of the old main stand leading up to the Royal Oak also those grotty men's toilets at the back. Just a series of walls with no roof!

With regard to the above mentioned St Marys Church.
Fr John Johnson has announced his retirement
Age 85 years we wish him well. He was a well respected Priest.

Ian, you'll remember too the Tuck Shop like window at the side of the shop which they opened to serve ice cream and drinks in summer to ramblers, and also the match goers on Sundays so they didn't need to queue in the shop.
It got to be extended to the side when it was renovated to become the rugby shop, so the curtilage must be up to where they've built, though I too agree as to why were they allowed, or why would they want to block the light to the neighbouring property when only gaining a foot or so more.

A handy place to live … providing you don’t have an aversion to rats coming up through the floorboards that is .

The houses aren’t built on a concrete raft , just brick footings .

I did a clearance from one of the properties a while back ( I won’t identify which one ) and the rats had gnawed through the floorboards and carpet from below and when I disturbed one of the wheelie bins in the back yard , the little buggers jumped out and went scampering back down their escape tunnels , returning , I assume , to their sanctuary beneath the property .

They were having a whale of a time until I turned up and spoiled their fun … Still … a mere 50 yards or so from the duggie , it’s only to be expected I guess .

Now I’ve heard it said that you’re rarely more than three feet away from a rat . I doubt if that’s strictly true , … although it probably is in Hilton St.

Thanks .Ozy, I feel so enlightened!
John, I did read about Father Johnson, very many years of dedicated service to parishioners of both St Mary's and St John's.

No no , is hamster !

Cyril, I don't remember the "Tuck Shop like window", but this may have gone before my younger days or I just didn't notice it. It wasn't a shop I often used as there were sweetshops closer to where I grew up. But, I did go in to the shop a number of times.

Colin and Cyril, I remember the path at the side of The Royal Oak very well because I went up-and-down it hundreds of times and many times on my bicycle.

A time ago, I walked past that corner building which we have been discussing and my immediate thought was how awful it was, especially the part on the corner with its bland brick walls and with no bay windows to match the older houses around it.

In the Market Place it’s true, only these are the flying version.

Looks like colin and Ian are talking to themselves now.

Yeah ! Good old Manuel eh Dave ?

Good shot Dennis, I've walked down that street s few times. I don't know about the rugby being and issue on game days, I would have thought the Riverside Club clientele at least twice a week would have caused more of a disturbance.

On the above photo that Dennis has taken, the building to the left isn't the shop, it's the first house on Hilton Street and which also belonged to Wigan Rugby, it is this which was been built out onto the build line of the bay window which David explained. You can see from the photo by Tommy 2// on Communicate via the link below.

https://i.ibb.co/z2MVCmZ/4.jpg

Ozy, Hilton street was featured on the TV programme Call The Council and was about rats in the backs, they'd found and fixed a broken drain in the back alley and was supposedly the end of the problem - and by your tale obviously not so, I know folks have reported seeing rats on the steps leading down into the street from Tesco, and I too have seen rats on the car park near the cash machines feeding off discarded fast food, most likely Mc Ds.

Colin, United have had a supporters shop near their ground since the 1950's

Helen of Troy, I am Bob of Worsley Mesnes ....

"The first property extended out to a flat front", that was the shop on the corner and I think it is actually on Powell Street, and I remember it being a Newsagents shop and it sold sweets too.
But in the 1980s it became the Rugby League shop, selling all sorts of Wigan Rugby paraphernalia, Rugby Shirts etc, and then it was altered and extended at the back to enlarge the shop area, and the shop entrance was moved into Hilton Street at the side.

https://ibb.co/f829vb8

When Central Park closed in 1998 and the rugby shop moved into Marketgate, the old shop was then converted into flats, and that is where the flat wall came from.

You’ll most likely find this difficult to believe Cyril , but I could point out a bloke that lives in Scholes , not far from the duggie , who actually goes down behind the W.L.T periodically in order to feed the rats ….
Seriously .
His logic being that if they are being fed near the river , then they’re less likely to bother making the arduous 100 metre journey up to Butler st .

I’m reminded of the old adage , bull**** baffles brains .