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

That looks a really nice pub and is a lovely p-a-d, Dennis. I'm not familiar with that side of Wigan and never know where Kitt Green, Marsh Green, Goose Green, Worsley Mesnes etc. actually are! However, that is a lovely building and looks quite rural.

Thats a grand pub I hope it keeps open. The kind of place to go for lunch on one of those rare Summer days we sometimes get.

I was only thinking about this pub the other day and if it was still up and running. So pleased to see that it is.
Both of my older brother where on bowling teams so one or twice went to watch them bowl, is the bowling green still there at the back?
One of the few photos we had taken together was in the bar, that would have been around 1995. Wish now we had taken more.

Irene, Heinz factory is directly behind the pub.
Colin, Unfortunately the bowling green has not been in use for a few years, a pity, as it was quite a tricky green to play.
Nice photo Dennis.

It might look quite rural to some but the fact is that it's next to the biggest food factory in Europe

Spent many happy evenings with friends in this grand old pub long ago. Sadly there's just me left now but your picture has brought back some lovely memories. Thank you Dennis.

Colin, i'm afraid the bowling green is no longer in use.

Thanks Aubrey and John 57, but for anyone looking at the photo it looks to be in a rural setting; never having seen the pub itself I had no idea it is near the Heinz factory and could only comment on what I can see on the photo. It is a lovely building and I hope it survives the current sad demise of so many local pubs.

Worked in that factory for 30 years and loved every minute. We used to get some lovely Christmas presents and they always had a wonderful children's Christmas party.

Thanks all, the huge Hienz factory is behind and my brother tells me the bowling green became a disgrace and then converted to kids play area. The world is not as it was.

Agnes, I can remember you, didn't you marry one of the Roberts from Marsh Green.
I was on the ketchup line but I got promoted to blue collar staff

Don’t know what it’s like now , I’m long gone from Wigan . Is the football pitch , clubhouse and rugby pitch still there? When I lived there you could walk from here down past Kings Wood . There was two fishing lodges on the left and when you came out at the bottom there was a pub but can’t remember its name .
We used to run school cross country up the lane around Heinz’s rugby pitch , through Marsh Green and out near St Edward’s . Probably changed in every detail but I prefer to hold the memories as I knew them because we had some wonderful times around here . Other side of the pub a lane took you directly into Porters Wood which was a dream to be in alone as small lad . You felt you were being watched in a magical way and your childhood imagination ran riot . Thanks Dennis

All thanks to Dennis today who brought many memories back on this and on the Album.

Colin get thi coat On I fancy a pint.

Only been in Porter's Wood once in 1971,it was very creepy,felt haunted !

That would make a fitting title for the line from Wallgate to Southport Agnes .

“ The Ketchup Line “

as it passes within yards of the Heinz production facility .

After all , they do have a railway named the Bluebell Line …down south somewhere … in Dorset or Hampshire , or one or other of those sleepy , idyllic thatched cottage localities where people who have lost the will to live , such as Ian Botham to give just one glaring example , having indulged in a surfeit of viewing daytime television , relocate in order to grow fat then die .

But seriously … considering the amount of LGVs that deliver haricot beans from east coast ports on a daily basis to this factory , I would have thought it would have made more sense for H.J.Heinz to have invested in the construction of their own sidings off the main line years ago and have the product delivered by rail .

After all , it isn’t just once a month , it’s several truckloads per day , every day , ( with the possible exception of Sunday ) .

I witness them coming down through Whelley and Scholes on a daily basis from the M61 at Middlebrook presumably .

Don’t get me wrong …
Road haulage plays a vital role in this country’s distribution infrastructure , but why ignore the fact that a rail link exists between the east and west coasts of this increasingly overcrowded , dot on the school atlas island that we inhabit ?

It makes very little sense to me .

I suppose I’d better take the matter up with Lisa Nandy …eh?

DAVE, they are long gone, housing estate on there now.

Dave, those are lovely memories. I have seen a picture of Porter's Wood on facebook and was going to copy it for The Album for you to see as it DID look a magical place but I can't find the photo now! John, (Westhoughton), gerrin' me coat on lad, and mine's a half!

Heinz is not even the biggest food factory in Greater Manchester, never mind the country or Europe.

Irene no problem bring yon mon wi that theer Minx to (big smiley face)

Ozy, there isn’t a line from Wallgate to Southport. Wallgate is merely a stop on the Manchester to Southport line.

Irene no problem bring yon mon wi that theer Minx to (big smiley face)

Agreed Daz , but the section of track between Manchester and Wallgate would hardly qualify for the title “ The Ketchup Line “ would it mate ?
In retrospect , maybe I should have said the line between Wallgate and Gathurst eh ?

Wiganers think nowhere else exists only Wigan and everything revolves around that town. They are small-minded people.

They don’t make ketchup at Kitt Green anyway Ozy, maybe you’d better call it the Beanz Meanz Heinz line.

Just in case you’ve forgotten Bruce it is Wigan. For all true Wiganers the road will always lead back. The road would lead back even more if there was some decent shops!

When yon train starts rollin fro Wallgate, folk still on't platform start runnin fert ketchup.