Photo-a-Day  (Thursday, 8th May, 2025)

Making a comparison with the photo on the Album entitled ‘Bay Horse Hotel - Hallgate’ I have come to a new conclusion.
In this photo the building has only four windows at the upper level the old building has six.
The dorma window in the roof in this photo is close to the gable end, in the old building it is still above the fourth window but not near the gable end.
My conclusion is that at some stage part of the building with two of the upper floor windows at this end was demolished and the gable end rebuilt using the original bricks and corner stone.
If you look closely at the gable end brickwork on the above, you will notice that it looks a little more clean and fresh than the brickwork on the front of the building.
What I previously referred to as an extension on the back may have been there all along, just out of sight on the Album photo.

To my untrained eye that’s the conclusion I came to. I thought the building was knocked down and re-built again. I think that’s what happened with a lot of buildings around Wigan. I do like the old building though without all the busy advert signs. The building above is well built as well. It’s good to see how buildings have evolved.

The Bay Horse would have been just one of at least five pubs that I know of on that stretch of Hallgate and there might have been others. Certain there were more on that part of Hallgate that continued through to the Market Place, subsequently renamed Market Street.
Further up The Bricklayers Arms and The Crofters Hotel.
On the opposite side The King Of Prussia and The Globe Vaults.
Four of the buildings are still there relatively intact with only a small remnant of The Globe Vaults remaining. None are now in use as traditional pubs.

It feels special, somehow, to be able to share the view of what was her grandparents' pie shop with Helen today. Hallgate still retains a quaintness and a sense of the past, which some of us feel is important, because, like the special offers aisle in Aldi, "once it's gone, it's gone".

So from what you're saying Col these two buildings might not be the same one after all.

No Mick, they are the same building but part of it (two upper floor windows worth) at this end no longer exist but the gable end has been rebuilt using the same bricks and stone.
If you make a comparison with the old building this one looks to be shorter in length.
Makes me wonder if there is still a cellar down there!

Colin yes you are correct in your assumption that the last part of the BAY HORSE was demolished to enable the access road to the Bus Station to we widened. The pie shop would have been in the middle of the road into the Bus Station..

Well if it is the last shop on Hallgate. I can remember going in when it was a barbers shop, I remember the owner telling me that one of his relations run a website called Wigan world and how he loved reading the comments and adventures from one of the members named Big Harold.

Mick, there was a men’s hairdressers there, I think Ron gives the best update.
Regarding the cellar, curiosity got the better of me so I went down to Wigan and asked in the Wine Bar and very nice inside it is too, very cosy. Rob was very interested but could not confirm is there was a cellar but to me the floor boards sounded quite hollow so perhaps it been boarded over. Might go back with a crow bar next week!
Even more interesting he had three photos of Hallgate from times gone by. I took copies and will send these to Ron for the Album.

Mmm, a barber shop with a pie shop behind, it's enough to give you cold shivers down the spine. : ¬o

Mick you need to get your glasses on if you can’t see that this building is roughly a third of the length of the original.
And as Ron says, Helen’s shop was where the access road to the bus station is now. Hallgate was widened and the end of the row demolished to achieve this.

A building I remember was, as you turn right at towards the bus station, there used to be a driving school, where I took lessons back in the 70's.

Colin, there were some other pubs on this part of Hallgate in the past. The Ringers Arms was at 36 Hallgate from at least 1860 until 1904 (I think Longy's is now on that site, not sure if that is the original building) and the Three Arrows was at 23 Hallgate (where the travel agents is now). The Three Arrows lost its license in 1889, when the landlady tried to bribe a policeman following repeated licenses breaches. It then became a confectioners shop - I think I remember it being a TV rental shop but might be in the wrong place before it was demolished.