Photo-a-Day  (Tuesday, 22nd July, 2025)

They are numbers 6 to 12, Orrell Road, Orrell.

I can see these fine shop turning into fast food outlets or gents barbers.
I hope not, we have for too many junk food and barbers shops flooding our Town and high streets.

No doubt soon to be a Men’s Barbers and a Vape Shop!

I don’t think they will be empty long. There’ll definitely be a Barbershop and perhaps a Mini Market selling everything from vegetables to fags.

This photo is taking me back to the early 1960s. I was an apprentice cabinet maker at Pem Caravans, and at dinnertime, after my chips and steak pudding, I would walk up to the bottleneck of Pemberton with some other long-haired workmates.
We would oggle the girls who worked in the shops, and they would oggle us.
Those were the days, my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we choose
We'd fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way
La-la-la-da-da-da
La-la-la-da-da-da
Da-da-da-da, la-da-da-da-da

Orrell Road actually, Brian - numbers 6 to 12 Orrell Road.
The Orrell/Pemberton boundary used to be Pigot Street, just out of shot to the right of this photo.

The first time I ever gave blood was in a blood bus parked on that side street.

The Council needs to get a grip who going to buy these shop and what they intend to sell. They need to investigate what business they intend to sell.

I agree, most shops that do close down get converted to junk food outlets, vape shops or barbers. Just like the boat crossings we need to put a stop to it, full stop.

What a sad sight. I'm beginning to hate the words "buy online" which have sounded the death knell for so many shops. Home deliveries have been around since the 1920s when posh folk in big houses rang their orders through to the grocers and a lad on a bike delivered them, (my husband worked in a butchers in the 1960s and delivered up Wigan Lane), but at least the customer spoke to a person on the phone. A sad sign of the times when people order silently via a screen and shops stand empty.

Irene I fully understand your point. But Supermarkets have killed the corner shops and butchers as we knew them.
We are now being infested with a totally different type of shops, we've all seen what's been happening on the news lately. Before the Supermarkets got a hold, the outdoor shops were all thriving
up and down the Country, and they were shops you could trust.

Some of these shops are hiring people who claim benefits and get cash in hand. The foreign cigarettes they sell are cheap and hidden away. We have weak inept leaders who have no idea how to run the country. It’s all waffle and nothing done.
The country is being
‘sold down the river’ whether we like it or not.
Nothing is being done…

Vape shops and so called Turkish Barbers man’s by Kurds, Iraqis, Syrians, Pakistanis etc, etc.
All rotating staff like a revolving door as new ones cross the English Channel.
Where do they get their money from to get here and set up shop? All cash in hand, no Vat, no tax or national insurance and probably all receiving hand outs and state benefits.
This country has gone mad.

Exactly Veronica, just like the boat crossing and for me it should start there. We are not the Great Britain anymore because of weak Government leaders. I do believe Nigel Fararge could make an impact....hopefully.

I haven't watched the news for forty years, Peter......it's what keeps me sane! But I get your point and thanks for your reply.

Has anybody mentioned that the address in today's Photo-a-Day post is 100% wrong?

No wonder more and more young people are seeking a career selling drugs . There is no pride in this country any more , it’s just fast food , fast junk from China and overflowing tips . Nowt gets fixed , people are pulling their own teeth , cameras and mobiles are logging your every move and you have to be online to pay a sodding bill.
If you stand in one place too long the bin men will recycle you . How inviting do those shops look ? You get the feeling like the government is always chasing behind what is happening and when something serious does happen they have a government enquiry to show they are on top of things ????

First of all I'd like to say thanks to Brian for taking the trouble to go out and find the location of the pic. As soon as I saw it I too thought Ormskirk rd but anyway some good talking points about modern day England.
I agree that most shops these days buY and sell TRASH and can you blame them? when modern day customers seem quite happy to buy that same TRASH!

I've got to agree with most people on Here.

a stones-throw from where I was brought up but Orrell Road not Ormskirk road Brian

Both of the shops for rent were something to do with hair dressing the one on the right a tandoori takeaway. So nothing lost really. Mick the blood bus was probably parked just around the corner was because the building just in view was a GP surgery. The new surgery is still in that street although in a new building.

Anne - these shops are on the corner of Orrell Road and Loch Street.
The doctor's surgery (originally Peter Garmon Jones's practice) was 200 yards further up the road on the corner of Orrell Road and Bradshaw St.
This has been replaced by the Bradshaw Medical Centre, at the bottom of Bradshaw St.

Sorry looking at wrong corner. With the mention of blood bus I thought I was looking at Bradshaw street corned.

Yes, Anne, it would have been, I know the new surgery in Bradshaw st because this is where they monitor my warfarin dosage.

Slippery Mick, does it matter.
What matters it's in Wigan District.

I'm sure that many folks would still say these shops are in Pemberton, even though they're within the Orrell boundary, and some folks may even still call it 'Lommera'.
The two pubs being on Ormskirk Road, Fishergate Inn and Leigh Arms, which I'd often call into, this row of shops and the row across from here I would say they were in Pemberton, even though technically they are not, it's just what you've grown up saying. Over fifty years ago I knew some folks whom lived on one of the streets behind here, and they would say that they lived in Orrell, because they said, "it sounds posher" than Lommera or Pemberton.

You are on Who Wants to be a Millionaire and you are on the million pound question.
Jeremy Clarkson says, "For a million pounds, is numbers 6 to 12 Orrell Road, Orrell, in Pemberton, Hindley, Aspull or Orrell"?
Would you answer -
a) Pemberton, because that's what everybody calls it.
b) Aspull, because you've never heard of the others.
c) Hindley, because you once saw a bus what said that on the front.
or d) Orrell, because, beneath your Wigan-bred stubbornness, you really know it's true and you could make good use of a million pounds?

I think I'd "phone a friend" who lived near there!

No point phoning a friend from Wigan, Mick, as most of em know nowt

Oggle???

Mick, I'd ask Jeremy. But his reply would probably be "never heard of it".

The two pubs on Ormskirk Road in my initial comment at 13:31, should have read 'on Orrell Road'.

'Pemberton Glazing', one of the shops in the row are excellent, I had glass cut to size there around 2005, and they did a great job, so I'm not surprised at all to see that they are still there.

A good way to Launder money.