Wigston
Wigston maps (2 available)
Map of Leicestershire
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
See this old map of Leicestershire
Personalised maps
Create an historic map centred directly on any postcode!
Wigston books (14 available)
Market Harborough Town Walk Guide
Paperback
Melton Mowbray Town and City Memories
Paperback
Uppingham Photographic Memories
Hardback
- 6 photos on Wigston appear in 3 Frith books - View photos of Wigston
- Read extracts and see photos from these books on Wigston and Leicestershire
Wigston memories
Read and share memories of Wigston and Leicestershire inspired by Frith photos
Bell Street
I remember going to Bell Street around 1967/8 to see Michael Aspel open "Key Markets" which was a supermarket of sorts, and would be on the left-hand-side of this picture (I think either next door to the Co-op, or may have occupied the same space for a while until it closed down.
Also Foryan's (not sure of the spelling) bicycle and toy shop on the other side of the road (now the cancer charity shop). The old chap who owned it, sold bikes (Raleighs) but knew absolutely nothing about them, so a popular school-boy prank, which was a great source of amusement to me and my friends, was to go into the shop and ask for something like a pair of ...read more here
Contributed by David Harriman
happy days
The corner shop was Tyler's, a sweet and grocers shop. They sold 1d iced lollies made from a juice drink similar to Ribena. You were allowed out to play all day except Sundays, and we would very often go around in a little gang. We especially enjoyed going over the fields (the hills and hollows) behind Church Nook, to two little ponds to fish for tadpoles and further along to Rally Bridge, which was a footbridge across the railway line. Memories come back of running through the steam of the trains across the bridge for a dare.
Contributed by First Name Last Name
Leicestershire memories
Bell Street
I remember going to Bell Street around 1967/8 to see Michael Aspel open "Key Markets" which was a supermarket of sorts, and would be on the left-hand-side of this picture (I think either next door to the Co-op, or may have occupied the same space for a while until it closed down.
Also Foryan's (not sure of the spelling) bicycle and toy shop on the other side of the road (now the cancer charity shop). The old chap who owned it, sold bikes (Raleighs) but knew absolutely nothing about them, so a popular school-boy prank, which was a great source of amusement to me and my friends, was to go into the shop and ask for something like a pair of ...read more here
A memory of Wigston contributed by David Harriman
happy days
The corner shop was Tyler's, a sweet and grocers shop. They sold 1d iced lollies made from a juice drink similar to Ribena. You were allowed out to play all day except Sundays, and we would very often go around in a little gang. We especially enjoyed going over the fields (the hills and hollows) behind Church Nook, to two little ponds to fish for tadpoles and further along to Rally Bridge, which was a footbridge across the railway line. Memories come back of running through the steam of the trains across the bridge for a dare.
A memory of Wigston contributed by First Name Last Name
Extracts From Wigston & Leicestershire books
The design of the building on the extreme left of the photograph is ‘restrained Co-op’ of the 1930s, not pictur-
esque but solid and honest. Beyond are the utilitarian shops of the 1960s, quite new when the picture was taken.
Today much has gone, including the odd eaves-slatted canopy to the recessed shops, which has been sawn off.
The Co-op has been rebuilt in a modern grey brick and glazed tile of about 1980. At least the later 19th-century
backdrop buildings remain in situ.
An extract from from"Leicester Photographic Memories".
The pleasant later 19th-century houses look across at the cleared site upon which the Fire Station and the garage
(once Regent, now Texaco) were built around the late 1950s. The fire station is typical of its kind with its curving
roof, jettied first floor and flat-roofed flanking engine park. Behind the camera on rising ground is St Wolstans
Church, vainly trying to ignore its insensitive dual carriageway setting.
An extract from from"Leicester Photographic Memories".
Looking towards Bull Head Street, a mixture of building periods come together to provide a pleasant moment in
Wigston. The Queen’s Head Pub of the late 19th century is next door to the mid-20th-century house, with to the
left and right two-storey shops. From this perspective the scene has changed little, but look behind the camera and
there is all the poor quality 1960s buildings that one could ever wish to see!
An extract from from"Leicester Photographic Memories".
Before traffic calming started, the central shopping area of this large suburb had already seen some changes: note the 1960s building encroaching and replacing the Victorian terraces - some of them have been boarded up.
An extract from from"Leicestershire & Rutland Living Memories".
This architecture is not exciting, but very user-friendly: a corner shop with others adjacent, each with their good
timber fronts, and on the opposite side of the road The Bell pub, making up a standard local group. In the dis-
tance lurks the precursor of Wigston’s architectural doom in the form of a less attractive newcomer of the later
1950s. Now, apart from the pub, all has been cleared away, needless to say to provide sites for more drab 1960s
development. There is nothing more to be said.
An extract from from"Leicester Photographic Memories".