Photo-a-Day  (Saturday, 18th January, 2025)

Remember it well Dennis, can you remember walking along here on the very first day we started the brand new Aspull County Secondary Modern school back in 1958/59 ?, Ken Joint had a little shop on the left close to the New Inn pub. Now in life's autumn mate, what great memories, thanks Marra.

Is this anywhere near where the Running Horses pub used to be?

Please, no complaints about lack of snow, what you see is what you get and it is very nice.
Any problems blame Carol Kirkwood not Dennis.

No wonder they turned aspull chippie back to a dwelling they had there heads screwed on it would have been a takeaway lowering the tone especially in a nice area like this!

I bet the residents of Ratcliffe Road are glad the chippy is gone; last time I was in there, I asked for a pie, chips and gravy, and the woman serving put my pie on top upside down.
I complained about it but she didn't understand the presentation of a meal.

That used to be a cracking chippy, went there many times.
Veronica. The chippy was just off Haigh Road. Whereas The Running Horses was near the Finger Post, just off Bolton Road.

Col, I believe the comment you're on about was just pointing out why the photo wasn't good enough to be considered for a magazine or a calendar as previously stated.

Does anybody remember the shop who was ran by phylis and her husband i cant remember his name but he was a caretaker of aspull secondary modern school the shop was next door 2 from the aspull chippie.

No, Veronica.....if you went through Aspull from the Westhoughton end, The Running Horses used to be on your right, at a distance from the main road. If you carried on along there you came to The Fingerpost. Go past The Fingerpost on the road towards Haigh and The Balcarres Pub, and Ratcliffe Road is on your right. I remember going to the chippy down there many years ago with a friend; it was a lovely traditional chippy run by friendly people; it was very clean and very popular with the locals and it certainly didn't "lower the tone" of the area.

Thank you Kath I have always liked Aspull. Plus a couple of the famous pubs!..I would be quite happy living there. The views of Rivington on the doorstep is a plus as well. No nicer place than the tip of the Pennines! What more could one ask for….

Sorry if this appears twice but my comment doesn't seem to have been added. Veronica, I did explain where Ratcliffe Road is but the comment seems to have disappeared! Perhaps it will appear later. However, I can see someone else has explained where it is. I went in that chippy many years ago with a friend....it was spotlessly clean, the people were lovely and the food was excellent.....it most certainly didn't "lower the tone" of the area and seemed very popular with the locals.

"The house to the left of the lamp post used to be Aspull Chippie,"

Was he the only joiner in the village?

Dennis, you’re certainly stirring up memories, with these photos so close to where I was brought up. By the way, isn’t a chippy a take away. We had never heard that expression when we were kids.

The couple who ran the Chippie retired l believe. It wasn’t for lack of customers.

Irene, you were only a visitor, imagine having to live in the same row of houses you would have had car doors slamming and the smell of old cooking fat in a morning.

Big Harold. When that chippy was open it was mainly the locals who walked there. Hardly anybody had cars. I walked past that chippy six times a day for three years, going backwards and forwards to school.

A simple photo of a street can invoke memories of the past

Thanks Irene ignore the boring twerp. He doesn’t know any better.
Nobody cares what he thinks it’s a load of twaddle anyway. He doesn’t know any difference. He does seem fascinated with you though but you are too far out of his class girl.

I don’t remember the Chippy but didn’t Ken Cowap chairman of Wigan Athletic in the 1970’s have a Betting Shop somewhere in that area?

I'm all for Chippy's especially the traditional English fish and chips.
The problem we've got in this so called modern day is that the young people much prefer junk food, ie kabbs, burgers pizzas and other stuff.
Our high streets are full of them, sadly and they are killing off our much loved Chippy's.

Big Harold, three houses at the end of the row I now live in were demolished many years ago but one of them used to be a chippy, I never noticed any smells of old cooking and there were no car doors slamming as most of its many customers lived nearby and walked to it. My late brother lived next door to a chippy in Ince when he first married and I visited him and his wife often. There were no smells and no car doors slamming....there were so many chippies back then that everyone just walked to their nearest one. The only problem that ever occurred was people walking into our Colin's house and saying "Oh Sorry, ....I thought it was the chippy!". Their embarrassment was just met with smiles and "Don't worry about it", from my good-humoured brother, who found it more amusing than annoying and had a laugh with the "intruders" because he saw the funny side. He knew he was moving in next to a chippy when he got the house, as does anyone who moves in next door to a chippy, a pub or a shop....no-one has their arm up their back forcing them, and some people find it convenient.

Kath H, I'm on about now, today, January 2024, not when you were a schoolgirl, and this is the reason the residents are happy it's gone.
And like being said if it was still there it would have been taken over by a pizza, kabab, prawn cracker outlet.

Ken Cowan’s betting shop was the end shop in the row of shops across from the Post Office near the Fingerpost Colin.

Harold, shouldn’t you be out on the cart collecting scrap iron?

Yes he did Colin. It was on the end of the row of shops at the Fingerpost. My Dad was a regular visitor there.

BH , Robert Maxwell got me a serious telling off when he complained to the management about me . He said to me ‘
Don’t you know who I am ?’ I said ‘ No sir , I don’t ‘. Which was true , I didn’t . He stormed off and complained. I was reprimanded for upsetting him and was given a verbal warning
From then on Mr Maxwell refused to acknowledge me even though I always politely acknowledged him . He blanked me completely!
My point is , maybe she didn’t know what a privileged person you were and how big your ego was ?
The thing about Maxwell was even though he always refused to acknowledge me he also would never ever look me directly in the face either .
What I regret not telling him is that I’m from Wigan , born and bred !
That would have course guaranteed me the sack without question , but I would sooner sleep in a ditch, than grovel to those with their heads up their own backside !

I believe 'Big Harold' is under the mistaken preconceived idea that there must be a 'better class of chippy smell' in Shevvy-la ! Deluded or what??

Lovely photo again Dennis,great memories from this

I remember that first day very well Walt, we were all steered into the hall where we were sorted out into various different classes.
At our old school all the lessons took place in the same classroom, whereas here we had to move to another room after each lesson and it took a bit of getting used to.
That little shop that Ken Joint had Walt is now a private house and they seem to be building some sort of veranda on the front.

I’m just left wondering if he knows something we don't. I mean was there a petition? Did he know all the neighbours? Did he get together with them? At least the Luftwaffe didn’t drop any bombs on it. It survived the war - sounds more like a well deserved retirement was on the cards after a long service to the fish ‘n’ chip eating public. Simples!

Veronica,
in a way the Luftwaffe did drop a bomb there, had my late wife's father not lost his life in the war she would have had the dad, she never saw or knew , returned their home in Ratcliffe Road.

That is so sad Wigman. I am sorry about that. I have a friend who never knew her dad and all she has is a photograph. He was paratrooper and was shot down over Holland. Terrible for children growing up without their dad. x

Big Harold. The last time I looked we were in 2025.

Irene you wouldn't have noticed any smells because the whole area would have stunk.
And no car door slamming because people walked and they didn't drop their chippy wrapping on the path.

Mark, I'm from Wigan, and I wouldn't have been calling Bob, sir, if he had asked me the same question I would have just said, no, who are you.

I know a chippy (not near Shevington I must state) that does smell even in January 2025 . You catch a whiff even in the next road on a summer's day. And that's before you get waken up by all the car doors banging.

Will someone tell BH that this is January 2025 not January 2024.

Is Little Harold the son of Big Harold because I imagine he’ll inherit the Scrap Yard in years to come……Dtease take note.

Big Harold, I'm sure we in Ince were poor, deprived citizens with having the smell of TEG'S Pickle works and Sutcliffe's Tripe Works on our doorstep, and oh! what would we have given for a whiff of Chanel Number 5 wafting over on the breeze from Shevington?! And no, people didn't drop their chippy papers on the path then, but then I don't drop litter NOW , and neither do my son or my daughter or my grandson or my granddaughter because that's HOW we were brought up, not WHERE we were brought up. And don't forget to feed Hercules; I bet he's enjoy a steak pudding from the chippy.

Strange isn’t it if you are at the Seaside the smell of a chip shop is heavenly and mixed with the salty sea air it tickles the taste buds. It doesn’t matter how long the queue is and how much more it costs for the chippie bundle - you stand there patiently whilst hunger pangs
gripe your insides and only subside when you’ve eaten every chip and crisp bit of batter on the fish! Long live chip shops the best
fore- runner of the Great British Take Away ever.

There's nothing better than the smell of English fish and chips whilst walking up the high street, it makes you want to buy some.