Photo-a-Day  (Saturday, 11th May, 2024)

I would not live in a house with no front garden. The house in the photo is that and is also on a main road with cars/hgv's thundering past. Like a lot of rural places they are not ideal to live there if you do not have a car and there is no public transport.we are lucky because we have two different major bus routes within a few minutes walk from our bungalow.

Re- yesterday's PAD.
Thanks for prompting me to look at your family pictures of the farm David B, really
Interesting.

I am a bit lost with this! Is this house somewhere near The Gerrard Arms in Aspull please?

Dennis a friend of mine used to go out with the lady that lived at that house and was prone to flooding,there was always sand bags at the door and the Gerrard was another pub we frequented next door but I’m afraid there’s a lot of water gone under that bridge since then.

Dennis good luck with that, I would feel isolated without access to public transport.
There is a bus service from Chorley to Middlebrook but one from Wigan to Middlebrook taking the route you describe would be good.
I love to go to Haigh Hall but now without a car the walk from the Planation Gates is a bit of a stretch for me and then there is the getting back. I'm sure there used to be a bus that ran from Standish to Aspull going up Red Rock Lane with drop of points closer to Haigh Hall on Hall Lane and at the top of Copperas Lane, if not one would be good.

Excellent photos Dennis, both yesterday and today with different views of the Lane.

PS, lovely view Dennis.

I know a few people on Dicconson Lane who used to catch the bus and have no transport now. It’s disgraceful as the shops are too far off to walk for them. It’s a service that’s very much missed. I miss the journey very much by the 715. A memorable photo for me today Dennis.

The 715 did still run but turns around in Westhoughton to go back to Bolton. I don’t know if it still does that as I haven’t seen it for quite a while. It’s neither use nor ornament. Not many go to Bolton these days it’s worse than Wigan.

I agree Peter P, not for me too.
Front door on the pavement and traffic noise. After saying that, look at the view it offers.

I was born just further up the row of houses facing the gerrard arms when they was pulled down in the 80s now i live further up the terraces across from the kitchen place Aspull is my home and it always will be.

Well said veronica bolton is horrible and disgusting.

Helen, thanks for the reminder, I have just looked at David's photo's on The Album. Lovely selection of memories David, I put a brief comment on a couple so they may pop up on Recently Viewed.

I have always lived in a house with no garden and with traffic passing within a few feet of our front door all day long. We would have loved a semi with a garden when we had two children at home but just couldn't afford it. It's what you just have to get used to if it's all you can afford, and you DO get used to the traffic and with people walking right past your window. Good luck to those who have a garden separating them from the road, but sometimes you just have to be grateful for what you've got. We are certainly not short of buses though and from the bottom of our road we can get a bus direct to Wigan, Leigh, Ashton, St. Helens, Bolton or Warrington.

Nice area and another good photo Dennis. It is a dangerous S bend at the bottom of that valley where Borsden Brook runs. Stranded on Dicky Lone courtesy of Thatcher of course. The Labour promise is to take back control. Oh dear when did we last hear that, and what happened? Good luck to all involved with the reinstatement efforts. You obviously need and surely deserve a decent bus service.

Your welcome Helen of Troy, my dad Harold Barker, with his carnation in on his wedding day ,the cows still had to be milked even if its your wedding day lol.

John westhoughton wasnt they called thompsons who lived in the house on the photo wasnt one called shirley?

Oops! Borsdane Brook not Borsden, and yes near the Gerrard Arms. Noticed a lot of people give up their front garden to park vehicles under the front window of their home these days. Terraced or semi, same difference in Wigan Irene.

He should have getten his brand new missis ter milk ‘em David. No use gerrin a wife and milkin’ thisel is it? Poor lad must have been exhausted what with aw them wedding arrangements fert see ter.
Start us tha means go on I say.
Tha doesn’t want her thinkin’ her con have a day off just cos hers getten wed. Before tha knows weer tha are her”ll have thi peggin’ weshin’ ont line fer her.

We too used to love in a house where the traffic was literally on our doorstep..but we had a yard and my hubby built a walll at the bottom and filled it with compost then flowers..I then got some hanging baskets ..painted all the walls of the yard then placed the hanging baskets all around the wall...the beauty of living so near to traffic or people is if ever you're ill and your family are all busy or at work or school then you only have to show your face and you can get help...I have a garden now,but am on my own now and find it very hard work coping with weed etc..in fact that's what I'm doing today but it's been neglected lately due to not being 100 per cent well..so having a front or not having a front to your house has its drawbacks and blessings at the same time.

Does a garden save anybody from the traffic? - I don’t think so. Park Rd and Leigh Rd near me all have gardens but they still have the worst traffic there is. Gardens don’t protect from the fumes believe me I know..I am yards from a road with an extra large garden and a banking as well. In fact I am thinking of moving and looking for a nice terraced house.

Irene coming down the lane the Gerrard Arms is past there .
Ps the traffic came later than those old buildings and if I’m correct is that road a ‘B’ road? I wouldn’t mind a renovated terrace around there the views are spectacular. Just wish there was a bus service. My driving days are gone.

What load of snobbish nonsense, whooooo I’ve got front garden, aren’t I the fortunate one.

Double glazing cuts all the noise out as well. Forgot about that..I can’t hear a thing where I live. I wouldn’t have a new build given to me. They are popping up all over Westhoughton sad to say.

Veronica,I live on a main road and sometimes..well most of the time I open my front door and all I can smell is traffic fumes so you see it doesn't matter where your house is situated there's always going to be some sort of problem..I always wanted to live in a little cottage in the Yorkshire Dales, but the way crime is escalating I'm not too sure about that now. To live so way out you would need a couple of big dogs...which would cost a lot to feed everyday...I've lived in my present house for forty years and have alway wanted more room ,it isn't big enough to enjoy my hobbies s there's nowhere to keep things..my paints and paintings are everywhere because there's not enough room to keep them together...a big win on the lotto would help a few of us wouldn't it.

Veronica,my driving days have also gone,there's a bus stop exactly facing my house which I believe was for the public once upon a time,now it's only used for the School kids to get to college..I've enquired as to having a bus for the public but got nowhere,..I had to go to the bank a few months ago..I hadn't been well and still felt lousy plus it as pouring Down.I got a taxi to run me to the top,of Library st..it cost me £8.78.

Gardens brings any house to life.
And with gardens you are away from the pavements. Kids can play there too.

Back in the day, no one in Aspull referred to this area and beyond as Howfen - even though it was. Beyond the bridge "tha come fer up t' Dicky Loan."
Further on, under the railway bridge, there was a row of terraced houses, immediately followed by a shop, set back off the road. The shop had a huge metal sign on the terrace gable end for Mazzawattee tea. I used to think this was really exotic!
The buses, number 15, on Bolton Road were twenty to the hour going up to Wigan and twenty past going back to Bolton.

We use to live in a house on the main road and our front door on the pavement, it was horrible, kids running past and knocking on the door and running away.
But you do get use to traffic chaos.

Tha cud bi ono o them theer marriage gliders fert council DTease.

Mi pals grandad wuz one, un ee towd im this

"Tha shud wed er wumun wi small feet lad"

He said "Reeto grandad, but.... why" ?

"So er con stond nearur tert kitchin sink lad"

Oh aye!

Headphones and Sarah Vaughan . Bliss. .

Wherever I've lived it's been with noise ,I was brought up down Wallgate in Great George St,and right at the back of our house was the railway line..so I was used to it,when we got married we went to live with hubbys parents but it was so quiet at night that I couldn't sleep..so it suits me now living where there's traffic all day..the fumes are a nuisance though..

It doesn't matter one jot if the front door of a house opens onto a pavement or a garden, it's what goes on between the four walls that matters, with love, care and compassion making a house a home.

Albert, all children enjoyed a game of 'Tap Latch', do they still do it, or have those camera doorbells put a stop to it.

Gary, your comment on Mazawattee Tea made me laugh as I too thought it to be an exotic tea, you saw it advertised, though never saw it far sale in any shops, and it sounded like something from off the Goon Show.

I love a backyard with a brick wall around and York Paving with a few flags taken up and loads of pots. Perhaps A tiny front garden. I hate wooden fencing…living in a semi doesn’t exclude you from noisy neighbours either. One of the modern houses I once lived in for 2 years you could hear the toilet being flushed! So much character in older well built houses. I agree Maureen home is where the heart is. Last year I spent nearly £2000 on posts and fencing. That’s another job - re- staining.
Gardener’s World I never see kids playing in front gardens because they are nearly all paved over for cars. It’s all a matter of preference. My dream would be a terraced house in Lytham near the sea or failing that a stone cottage. We can but dream Maureen.

You'll find out most modern houses have front and back gardens. I think houses on the pavement would get filthy with vehicle tyre spray, forever cleaning windows especially in the Winter months.

We used to live in wooden house that had sunk on one side so when it was dinnertime we had to hold our soup bowls in our hands so the soup wouldn't spill over the sides, l liked sausages the best for dinner because they would slide off your plate.

Plenty folk were brought up in houses with no gardens,it was just a way of life.

Lovely photo Dennis and great views for these houses,whether terraced,semi or detached!

Some stuck-up comments on here today,what does it matter whether you have a front garden or not?? Having said that so many change them over to drives

That sounds more like a houseboat Sally. Wuz it on’t canal?

House proud. you're absolutely right about the spray from buses and lorries.....my front pavement and windows are always mucky! When we go to our caravan, there isn't a sound in the night and I am thrilled if I hear an owl, and I love the Dawn Chorus of the birds in the early part of the year, but when I get back to Abram I just adapt straight back to the traffic noise because, after 50 years, I am used to it! Peter and I slept in a tiny back bedroom for 18 years when our son and daughter got to an age where they needed separate rooms, and we split the front bedroom into two tiny bedrooms for them until they left home, but you just lived within your means and managed with what you had. Compared with the house where I had grown up, (no bathroom, outside toilet, only the living- room heated and no hot water), it was an improvement! I'm sure many Wigan Worlders grew up in similar circumstances.

Julie I never new the woman that lived in the house but new Fred that was always there he was a regular in the Gerrard around 1990 people used to call him 2 pint Fred as he would always order 2 pint’s never 1 pint and later another,so after finishing his second pint he would make his way to that house and originally he lived in Westhoughton his dad owned Harrison’s Garage Wigan rd.

David B I understand everything you’re saying about the cows needing milking I started working for Jim Whitelegg January 63 when I was 15 the barrow shafts would stick to your hands freezing, people were driving cars across the Thames frozen over,
Jim got married the following year and had 2/3 days honeymoon and left me in charge of the farms Cow Lees Farm,Snydale Gate Farm,miklking, feeding pigs and loads of hens,mucking out bottling milk etc etc £5 a week 7 days a week and loved it for 3 years then started chasing the money 10 jobs before finding what I was after and always grafted hard after being taught what work was with Jim he was a great fella.

There’s nowt wrong with gradely folk wherever they live.

Irene,our house in GGS only had two bedrooms,in fact I was still sleeping in the same bed as my brother who was 15 and I was 17 ..until my Dad paid for another small bedroom to be built above the small pantry...we had no electric only gas mantles but..we were never short of food and love..and that's more important.

WN6 Our detached bungalow is on a corner plot and it as a front garden on one street and and a side garden with a drive for the car.on another street we also have a back garden . So if that makes me a snob tough.I was born in a cottage with no electricity gas mantles downstairs and a ash petty at the bottom of the back garden and the old tin bath. Even this cottage had a front and back garden. We moved to a council house which had a front garden a small side garden and a large back garden which you went down 10 steps to get to it.When I got wed we moved into a terraced house and this had a front garden and a long narrow back garden (about 15ft x66ft) with 6ft brick walls round it.Then we moved to our present home. I have visited houses which opened onto the road and I used to jump every time a HGV went passed. So I don't think I am a snob for having gardens it is I have always had them and grown up with them

Most of us on here were brought up in terraced housing ..so I suppose it’s a ‘feather in the cap’ to have a garden later on. When I got married the first house had a garden and I hadn’t a clue how to look after it…! My grandfather had a garden in a council house in the fifties and it looked like a jungle around the back it must have been too much for him! But the front garden had wild rose bushes and I loved it. There are some snobbish folk on here though and they can’t hide it and I don’t think you are Peter for what it’s worth. Usually snobs are folk who grew up with nothing!

Notably it’s the ones (or one) who don’t use a usual name who are guilty of snobbery changing the name to suit the subject...

My Mam and Dad lived in a terraced house in Wallgate and my Dads dream was to have a garden,so when they eventually moved into a council house I'll never forget his face when saw a lawn in the back garden...he was in heaven..bless him.

My Mam and Dad lived in a terraced house in Wallgate and my Dads dream was to have a garden,so when they eventually moved into a council house I'll never forget his face when saw a lawn in the back garden...he was in heaven..bless him.

Maureen I think I have told you this before but anyway. My grandfather moved from GG street to Pemberton to a Council house. He had five daughters and had to bring them up on his own as his wife died very young. I daresay during the war he looked after the back garden growing their own produce besides working down the pit. But later on it got too much for him. But as a little ‘un I loved playing in the back garden because I used to find wild strawberries - I was in my element gobbling them up. I always thought it was posh because the house had a bathroom!

People don’t realize what a luxury it was to have an indoor toilet at last.
After years of having to go out in the yard at dead of night, in the middle of a freezing cold Winter with nothing but a tiny paraffin lamp which was put there in a vain attempt to keep the temperature a fraction above zero, it was a luxury indeed to have the toilet indoors.
These youngsters today don’t know they’re born, a say they don’t know they’re born.
Bring back constipation, that’s what I say.
Army boots un discipline is what they need, a say Army boots un discipline.

Dtease you sound just like my dad..;o)) It was his unfailing mantra to say “ you don’t know you’re born!” We were the first generation after the war and we really did not know we were born despite not having an indoor lavatory!

Veronica.wouldnt it be awful not to have memories of our parents and grand parents.

So true Maureen even the poor folk who have no memory of the present can recall their past.

DTease most people didn’t have a tiny Paraffin lamp they had a Road lamp the ones that the council placed around road works that where paraffin and already had a handle that was used to hang the lamp on the water feed pipe which was above your head in the outside loo,smiley face.

Yes very true John, always something needs doing on the farm. thanks. D.

Veronica.wouldnt it be awful not to have memories of our parents and grand parents.