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Wigan
Wigan maps
Historic maps of Wigan and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Wigan maps
Wigan area books
Displaying 1 of 4 books about Wigan and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Wigan
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Wigan.
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Wigan Clogs Made Especially For Old Bull Clog Morris Dancers
The clogs I wear were made by an old craftsman in Wigan. I had them made around 1980 at which time I was dancing with a morris side in Barnet named Old Bull Clog Morris Dancers - so called because they practised each week at the Old Bull Arts Centre in Barnet.
It was nearly thirty years ago and my clogs are are still looking good and are comfortable despite the knocks they have taken at folk festivals, in processions and in pubs and on hard pavements! Over these years I have graduated to a morris musician, firstly with Old Bull Clog Morris for a year or two, then with Pumphouse Clog Morris in Watford for four or five years, and mostly with Whitethorn Morris almost continuously since 1979. These morris sides have provided my excuse to travel around much of the country and I reckon my Wigan made clogs may be good for another thirty years yet!
Latterly I have been wearing my clogs while... Read more
Re Comment by John Howard Norfolk on Wigan Clogs
Wigan-made clogs always did have a reputation even way back when - so it's nice to have this confirmation of their quality holding up even to today. I've even discovered that one of my ancestors made his living as a Boot and Clog Repairer having been Apprenticed to a Clogger at a very young age by to-days standards. I unfortunately never did get to own a pair - but oh! how I envied my school friends who did wear them, and could make sparks as they walked along the pavement!!
I do remember however getting a few demerit marks for my House at school in Essex because of clogs - thanks to a few extra notes I added to those I had to write up following a Geography lesson on the cotton industry in Lancashire. Somewhere along the line when visiting one of the more up-to-date mills in Wigan with a teacher from St Michaels (when we were buying muslin to make the angels costumes for a Christmas... Read more
The Plantations
Well not just for the 1930's but for twenty years after as well. Memories come flooding back - not just for this picture but for Wigan itself. I was born there in 1931 - in my grandparents home 38, Dicconson Street - a section no longer in existence although others that belonged to my gt Uncles do remain intact but in a sorry state compared to the days that I recall. What I don't remember however is being removed from my pram - outside either Woolworths or Marks & Spencers (can't identify which from any of the photo's I've seen) when I was a few months old, by one of the Mill girls returning home from the Mill. Apparently after many hours searching by the local Police one of the other Mill girls said her friend had taken me home to show me to her mother - apparently her mother knew my grandfather's family and so there was no malice aforethought in the daughter's action!! Just a great deal of... Read more
Haig Hall
I have wonderful memories of sunny day outings to Haig Hall. Mum and I would catch the bus from Newtown to Wigan and then we would walk from the town centre up to the main gates. A short walk in from the main gates and the little tractor would be waiting to take us on a lovely bumpy ride through the plantaions up to the Hall. Once there and it was straight to the playground. Mum would spend hours pushing me on the swings and the roundabout, she never seemed to mind how long I was there. Later we would have an ice cream and a walk up to the fish pond. The goldfish in that pond were huge and I was just so fascinated by them. I have a faint recollection of some greenhouses near the fish pond, but there was no interest for a 9 year old in flowers and plants....I was more interested in the fish. After we would have something to... Read more
Wigan in 1950 to 1964
I was born in Queen Street, off Wallgate Street, in 1949 and lived in Queen Street till late 1959. I remember going to see Wigan rugby play Workington at Wembley 1958 and in 1959 beating Hull. I attended the Wesleyan Methodist school in Dickinson Street before going onto Gidlow Secondary Modern School in Buckly Street, leaving in 1964. I remember the girls with their clogs making a noise on the cobbled street that Queen Street was as they made their way to work at Ekerslys and Trencherfields cotton mills in the early morning. Those were the days when you could leave your front door unlocked and you always had people poping in. My dad used to work as a porter at Wigan Wallgate Station. He later moved to Newburgh then bBurscough Bridge and finally to start a new life in Ipswich in Suffolk. I have many happy memories of my home town. My name then was Ken Charnock.
The Plantations Wigan
A view deep inside the Plantations.
Family Life
I was 3 years of age when my dad came home from the army (national service). We didn't have a car or much money, so my mum, dad and myself took long walks, Upholland, Dalton, Newburgher, Parbold. When I was tired my dad carried me on his shoulders. We knew all the farms which served tea and cake (still rationing), my dad loved cake and would have lived on it, with a large mug of tea and a woodbine. My mum knew all about flowers, trees, and birds and taught me about them. I too am a keen gardener and encourage birds and butterflies into my garden.
