Photo-a-Day  (Thursday, 14th March, 2024)

Well I would certainly look at the old Tesco building, than some of the buildings on King St today.
King St today only offers junk food outlets and nightclubs. The place is only a shadow of the past. The road on King St is awful, because the road is so narrow, deliveries by lorries make passing them impossible, so traffic congestion builds up.

King Street road is so idiotic, if someone stops to deliver, everyone stops. King Street had some wonderful shops and business in the 1960s, but like the rest of the town in decline.
Why the Council made the road so narrow is beyond me.

A shame to see such a seedy establishment in our town centre

Arthur, we all wish that the buildings on King Street could be put better use. My main concern is the buildings themselves, their architecture, history and state of repair.

Nice buildings, just not inviting due to the nightclubs etc. It was a popular street at one time when The Court Cinema with its adjoining sweet shop was open, and The County across the road, and later The Turnkey Restaurant and The Berni Inn (Minorca) on the corner with Wallgate. I also remember going to pay our mortgage at Abbey National down there, which was set amongst solicitors' offices etc. I suppose it's still a popular street but at a different time of day and by a very different clientele now! My son was going on a night out to Manchester a few years ago and I said I wished he was staying in Wigan from the safety aspect, (he's in his forties but men are always lads in their Mums' eyes), and he said "Mum, it's safer in Manchester"!

The Architecture is still there behind the ugly worse for wear facades. Whoever thought those up needs to go to SpecSavers.
Depressing to walk down there these days of a once elegant street. I know which I prefer. A colourised version of the old photo would be lovely. No taste to be seen anywhere these days. A good photo taken from the same spot Colin.

Hi Irene. I would have thought you'd be called Mam by your children and not mum. I know you like the old days. Mum seems to be the modern way. Just a polite note.

Good photo Colin.

“ The Architecture is still there behind the ugly worse for wear facades.”

Don’t you believe it. The buildings behind the worse-for-wear facades are terrible.

Another good record shot Colin. It's s shame what has happened to the Royal Court Theatre with the refurbishment works having to stop.

It’s a s- - - hole blame the council they’ve killed the town and still we vote the same idiots in take a look around every town in so called greater Manchester is dead everything gets sucked into the centre and the crap gets shipped out that’s what’s happened and our council as allowed it to happen look at Chorley still labour run and it’s buzzing

Colin hope you got a good supply of black puddings yesterday in Bury, I see you mentioned Tesco in the late 60ties and early 70ties I collected fat and bones from maybe 50 Tescos in the north west loved the job and kept you as fit as a butcher’s dog.

Superb photo Colin, and the buildings look totally different without those long and wide awnings, and I can't say that I've seen that stylish carved stone doorway before, but I must have, though it wouldn't have been so obvious before if it had been blackened with coal smoke and soot, looking at those hoardings further up they are a bit too obvious, but I suppose far better than them being covered with fly posters and graffiti.
It is lovely too on the photo to be able to look up and see all the wonderful architecture and the styles of the buildings, and we should be happy too that they are being used and so are being maintained and not left derelict.

I wouldn’t know Wise One I haven’t been in any of those buildings since the late sixties. Judging how and what they’re used for now it’s unlikely I ever will.

Thankyou for your comment Alan. I called my own Mother Mam. She was 42 when I was born and my older brothers born in the 1930s and 1940s respectively, called her Mam, as most Wiganers did then. When I was at school in the 1960s some children still called their Mother Mam but most had started saying Mum by then. When my children were born in 1976 and 1981, "Mum" was "the norm" and I think my children would have been mocked for saying "Mam". Funnily enough, my grandmas, who I sadly never knew, were never known by my older brothers as "Grandma" but were called "Mother", and I believe that was quite usual back then. Language has changed amongst many, (but not all), Wiganers over the years but one thing I will never give in on is this trend for calling mid-day and evening meals "Lunch" and "Dinner"....it's Dinner and Tea in our house and NOTHING will shift me!

Mam sounds grown up, mum for the young ones. Lunch is a Yankee thing anyway. Dinner and tea for me or tay. Fully agree what you said Irene. I called my mother mam. And mam is on her headstone at the cemetery.

We called my Mams Mother, Mother probably because we lived with her. My Dads Mother we called Granma. Still refer to them by those names.
Strange isn’t it.

I hate the word MAM. Mum sounds a more gentle name.

Steve, my thoughts exactly, both Wigan and Bolton have had the economic and financial blood sucked out of them. Chorley (Lancashire) and Warrington (Cheshire) where we have been today are thriving.

Thanks for those interesting replies and I'm sure Colin won't mind us going off the subject of the photo....that just "happens" with p-a-d and no disrespect....one thing triggers another! Alan, my daughter-in-law is from London and says "lunch"; she grew up saying that because that's what the call their mid-day meal down South. It's when people I grew up with and played with as a child, who used to say, "I'll have t'go in now for me dinner", or "Me Mam says I can come out after me dinner", but who NOW say, "We thought we'd try that new cafe for our lunch" who annoy me. It's as if they're ashamed of their heritage and their speech, and no-one should feel like that. We are simply from different parts of the country and use different words.....neither is right and neither is wrong....just different.

Luncheon is very English with the upper crust. I believe the late Queen always referred to that meal as’Luncheon’ never Lunch …..and Tea at 4 00 on the dot. Dinner was late evening. Which would be supper to us mere mortals. I quite like the word Supper. My mother was Mam but my children call me Mum. How times change. Charles called the late Queen
‘Mummy’. It did make me laugh at her Diamond Jubilee. I thought she looked a little embarrassed with her raised eyebrows and sidelong glance. He looked quite old to call his mother by a childish name really. Philip was never ‘dad’ either only Papa! They do things different don’t they these Royals?.

You are not alone in putting the blame on the Wigan MBC Steve, as this fellow who once lived in Leigh wrote almost 9 years ago in his blog. https://kindadukish.wordpress.com/2015/04/09/leigh-the-decline-and-fall-of-an-industrial-town-thanks-to-wigan-mbc/

I did like going to Leigh as there were plenty of those little independent shops like what Wigan town centre once had, Tyldesley and Atherton also had a good mix of independent shops, though I've no idea as to what all those towns are like now. Folks from Chorley are also calling their council for running down the town and making a mess of what was the Flat Iron market. So it seems all towns are in the same boat and going through the Doldrums.

Read the blog Cyril thanks. It’s the same all over. No wonder they blame Wigan for the demise of Leigh. You can’t blame them. It is depressing. The only time I go to Leigh is to catch the bus to Bents.

Thanks all for some memorable comments today. So good to share our views generated by a simple picture.XXX.

We called our mother 'Mammy' when little, and later it was Mam. Meals were dinner at 12 o'clock, tea at 3.30pm (jam sandwiches, and tea), supper at 6 o'clock - any misbehaviour and it would be straight to bed, without supper!

I should think ‘mam’ is a corruption of ‘Madam’.
Just a thought.

Well Veronica, I didn't know I could get a bus from Leigh to Bents. Thank you for that info. xx

I’ve posted you an answer Edna but it’s not appeared. Try catching the Warrington bus from Wigan which may go through Culcheth and pass Bents. Go to the information desk on Wigan bus station. xx