Photo-a-Day  (Sunday, 2nd February, 2025)

Wiganers must wonder what is going to hit the dust next....and just a thought...if you don't know who your local councillor is...you can't complain when they vote for something you disagree with.

To older eyes it still looks like a modern new building and it's hard to believe it's being demolished. My Dad used to work at Ince Wagon Works and they used to hold an annual Christmas party for the employees' children; I remember one year it was held in the hall of the Thomas Linacre School. It would have been around 1959/1960. We were always given a very good-quality gift and, years later, as an adult, I still had the sewing-basket I was given at that party; it seems almost unreal to me that the building will soon be no more.

Its not a current fad. Redevelopment of some sort has been going on in Wigan since the 13th century when the town was first established and it will continue into the future. If it didn't we would all still be living in caves and mud huts. Societies needs are continually changing and all buildings have a lifespan. There will come a point when they eventually outlive their usefulness and that is what has happened here. It seems to be a very difficult concept for some in here to grasp.

R.I.P. Wigan, it was nice to have known you.

Helen, I do know two of my local councillors, I think there are three in Standish but you never really see them and to voice a concern or suggestion is futile, I wouldn’t waste my breath.
Whatever Wigan Councillors want it will always be at the mercy of those from East of the Borough Leigh, Tyldsley, Astley and Atherton and often due to Wigan Councillors not turning up for vital votes.

We have lost Wigan and it's identities, why do Wigan Council love demolition, they are indeed destroying our Town and District. I wish they'd sort out dangerous potholes, parking on double yellow lines, litter all over the place, spend more money on Police, help stop our small shops from being robbed and more Social care help.....

MikeW, I think most people would agree with you that change is a constant thing but at the rate it is happening to Wigan it does seem that the powers that be are grasping at straws in the hope that it will revive a lost town. I doubt it will.

MikeW. Walk around Wigan any day of the week and you’ll see plenty of grunting Neanderthals who dress, behave and probably do live in Caves or Mud Huts.
So you see, really there is a degree of consistency and tradition to uphold.

Irene makes a good point at 8:49.
How things have changed and not for the better. I started work in the 1960s and remember the works Christmas parties for all the children we had every year. We used to get a Christmas bonus in our Wage packed (cash) and aways before the Christmas break the top bosses would make a visit and shake everyone's hand, wished all a very merry Christmas and Happy New year.
What great times they were indeed.
This started to disappear around the late 1980s, each year something or other got stopped ie Christmas bonus, kiddies parties, Christmas thank you and hand shakes from top bosses and of course our firms being taken over from a family company and then merging with bigger firms then we never saw the bosses at all. So it was very true for our company in the end,
when people would say "your just a number these days". How very true.

To be quiet honest I don't feel safe walking round Wigan Town anymore.
I am at the age now, I have seen the glorious years of Wigan, for me the 1960s. Believe me.

Sad to see, TLS was my old school, i was in the very first intake September 1953. We got an extra long summer holiday that year after leaving our previous schools in early July as the TLS wasn't ready for occupation until mid September.

You have all got what you have deserved voting these lot in they are no better than the last lot who were in in my opinion these lot are even worse they are not for the working class these lot who are now in they dont care about our own people its no good complaing now the damadge has been done for our country now.

I'm so glad I was born in the early 1950s. I think other people from my generation would agree. Most of us have lived a great live during that time, childhood, schooling, work, housing and people were so friendly. We were so fortunate. Wigan is now a different world, we live in a different world.

Wigan is one of many towns in the Country doing exactly to same thing.
Its called progress in't it.

Migration is a massive factor to our culture here in Wigan. Just look round our Town, we are being smoothed.
Lately, I prefer not to go there.

Marks moved out of Wigan and Bolton now they’re expanding the store at Middlebrook. The traffic is bad now - what will the traffic be like when that happens. Horrendous I presume as folk will be flocking there from all areas.

It looks like Education, education, education is the important factor high on the list at the moment to get school leavers into apprenticeships. Wigan College is actually very good. A lot of kids now realise that University is not the best thing to do.

EE !… there’s nowt like startin ‘ t’ day off wi’ a good moan is there ?

Saddened to see this photo as this was my old school in the 1960’s. Not seen this building for many years and, surprisingly, it seems a lot bigger than I imagined. The picture includes the headmasters study - a room that I was a lot more familiar with than I should have been. My recollection of the school (W.G.S. When I went there) is that the pupils got on well with each other but several of the teachers were vicious bullies who, with hindsight, were a disgrace to their profession. I did well there despite the school not as a result of it. I have heard that when it was the Thomas Linacre school it was a lot better but that was before my time.

Roy, I am an old TLS pupil. I started in 1957 Left in 1962. I am the 'unofficial' TLS archivist/ historian. I have a lot of mags, books etc. about the, short lived school. If you want to look at hem let me know. A few years ago, myself and a friend, who incidentally didn't attend the school and lives in Australia. Wrote a history of the school. We thought that something needed to be written about the school. As when it opened in 1953, it was a new innovation in Grammar School education A TECHNICAL GRAMMAR SCHOOL Were, instead of teaching Latin etc. It taught Engineering and Engineering Drawing ...

It’s a shame it couldn’t have been extended. Unless it’s because theres asbestos in it.

Ozy it's justified.
I thought you as a top moaner, look at some of your comments
I agree with most people on Here!

It doesn’t matter how much you moan and groan, the fact is you couldn’t persuade enough people that you are right and they are wrong and you lost the election, but all is not lost in four and a bit years you will get yet another chance to persuade them all that you know better than they do and I hope you have more success than you had last year.
What a waste of time it all is!!

Yes it is true wiganer but there look again its not just in wigan its everywere you go its a joke when they come here a majority have not paid into the system they just take take take them lot come before our own people there again all people do is just talk about it if people was really bothered they would do something about it just like the 80s people in this country now are to dam soft putting up with this and doing nothing everybody now are brainwashed.

You all seem to want to blame councillors for what is happening to our town, but really it's nothing to do with them. Development is controlled by the government, the faceless figures who you never hear of. The political party system is only in place to keep the public in the dark. Vote Labour, Conservative, Liberal, Green or Raving Loony, it doesn't matter one jot.

Whaaaat ???
……
Me moan ???

…… Where in tarnation did you get that idea from Kath ?

And where did you get that photo on Album from, Ozy? I had to cadge a sherry of Garry for the shock! What a blast from the past!

I hope I’m around to see the downfall and better days and plans. There’s so much misery going on for some people these days. Time passes quickly it will hopefully be a day of relief.
I remember seeing an old newspaper headline celebrating the end of war. It was a drawing of a tough looking soldier looking over his shoulder directly at the reader and holding a banner with the word ‘Victory’ on it. His words were
“ We Have Won the War…Don’t Lose The Peace”…for some reason those headlines touched me to the core and I wasn’t even born then.

How could anyone imagine that you moan Ozy? In all the years that I have been reading your comments you have been nothing more than sweetness and light, a joy to read and a purveyor of lighthearted wit and wisdom.
Granted you have slipped over to the dark side on occasion, but we don’t hold that against you do we?
I mean, it’s understandable that a man who lives in an ex war surplus air raid shelter would tend to take leave of his faculties now and then.
Mind you, you don’t have to keep going on about it. After all, you do have a bloody Aga in the shelter don’t you? The rest of us are out here in the cold surrounded by dismembered brass monkeys.
Now that I think about it they’re right, you are a bit of a moaner and groaner after all.

Only joking.

I've seen a lot of things from my youth razed to the ground over the years, workplaces, cinemas, railway infrastructure but this is personal to me as I started at TLS in 62 and have very fond memories of that school. I don't know what teachers 'Owd Reekie' was talking about but there were no vicious TLS teachers who fit that description in my memory. I enjoyed my time there ( apart from exam time) and learnt so much for the future. I agree with the comments about works Christmas parties, my dad worked at De Haviland at Lostock near Bolton and every Christmas they held a party for the kids which ended in everyone getting a present....good times indeed.
Then we got to the eighties and nineties where you were no longer a member of a team but just a clock number, then as time went on you weren't even a clock number just an object for the management to ignore and look down their noses at, but hey ho they can't take our memories away can they..........well not yet but who knows what the future will bring.

I very often comment on my days with Rank Audio Visual, it must have been in the early 1970’s when we were awarded the contract to provide the audience seating, audio visual equipment and stage lighting in the new Linacre Theatre. It was later in the 1980/90’s when Wigan Gilbert & Sullivan used to hold their performances in the Theatre which we really enjoyed. The Theatre Company disbanded but we went a few times to see and hear the chorus perform in a few venues including The Theatre Royal in St Helens.
That bit of cultural entertainment was something else that bit the dust.

A few of my friends went to WGS / TLS some having passed their 14+ exams from Thomas More and John Fisher.
Did they get shipped off to when they closed? Suddenly turfed back to Comprehensive Schools or was it a gradual process of elimination to a les elitist, more socialist egalitarian education?

Aha ! … you ain’t seen nuthin ‘ yet Irene … to quote some famous bloke or other .
… Just watch this space eh ? …………..
Nethen …let’s get this reet once and for all DTease , as there’s just no getting away from the fact I’m afraid … It’s true … I am a moaning barsteward . No doubt about it

It’s the combination of age and experience that’s sculpted me into the miserable old git that I’ve become .

But it’s being so miserable that keeps me happy , and I feel sure that you of all people wouldn’t deny me a little happiness in my twilight years would you ?

And reading through the comments above , I suspect I’m not alone in being happy being miserable .
It’s this knowledge that helps to sustain me in my hour of need in fact .

And with regard to taking leave of my faculties . My faculties got that fed up with my moaning that they took leave of me years ago .

Anyroad up … I’m experiencing an irresistible urge to deposit another log on the AGA right now , so if you’ll excuse me …..

So be lucky mate . It’s far better being lucky than being handsome ….
Like wot I am .

Its the smallest firms that treat its workers well, especially family business. I know, I've worked for both.

Since de Havilland at Lostock has been mentioned …
I was doing a bit of work up there a while back on the new estate across the road from the former factory and it occurred to me that many , if not most of the properties on the estate appeared to be occupied by individuals displaying a distinct oriental appearance … Or Chinese if you prefer .

Presumably , these people form part of the vanguard of the millions of Hong Kong residents that were granted British Citizenship a while ago .

Call me racist if you like , but to my mind , if things carry on the way that they appear to be heading , the hardcore from the Thomas Lineacre school , along with many other buildings , will have to be transported to Blackpool , dumped on the beach , then bulldozed into the Irish Sea in order to make a bit of space for the rest of us .
Now what do you reckon to that line of thinking ?

I believe rubble was dumped in the sea
after the Luftwaffe bombings in Liverpool..so it wouldn’t be the first time.
Might even help to preserve the sea wall already there…but I’m no expert in these things.

eWAN kerr could you not think of a better name for yourself? Looks like you’re up to your tricks again.

For Ozy.

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Dylan Thomas.

I bet the tin shelter shakes to its foundations Dt when Ozy rages at the chip pan catching fire when he nods off.
Great poem by Dylan Thomas he was always raging especially when in drink!

And he was very often in drink Veronica, but if it inspired his poetry I wouldn’t hold that against him.

It certainly did inspire him. He makes you feel what he’s feeling you want to rage with him…that’s the mark of a great Poet. Sadly Dt all that rage has to succumb in the end. I sincerely hope the Welshman is at peace now.

Veronica, I was with my father when he died. For some hours he had struggled to breathe, each breath was a torment to him. When he finally lost the battle and the breathing stopped all the pain and agony drained away from his face.
People say that when you die your soul departs from the body and the body is left at peace. After seeing that I understood why they would think that was so.

I believe that Dtease an enveloping sense of peace. I was with my dad on my own at the end and you never forget. I had just asked him did he want some water and he just turned and looked at me and never answered - so I was the last face he saw and the last voice he heard.. He went in the Infirmary on the Sunday and died on Thursday . I went at 9 00 everyday and stayed till 5 00 and he died at 4 00 as if he knew I had to go home….strange how these things happen. I wouldn’t have wanted him to be on his own. Many do die alone. A few strange things happened later on as well but I won’t go into them.