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Margaret Rowden Thank you so much for bringing back so many memories.

Joyce Wonderful memories thank you so much Jim

Jack Excellent piece of work, brought back many happy memories, its a piece of art that surpasses all and truly deserves its place, top spot. Thank you - I shall email the link to 4 of my 7 children (who are now adults) and who were borne there. Kindest regards, best wishes, good luck,

Tony Kearns Brilliant! Brought a lump in my throat, and tear in my eye. Was born Wallgate area in '39, and lived Standishgate from '49 to the 70's. Made my day watching these pics

Maureen, old Wallgater Thanks Jim for taking us back to our memories of a lovely town..they are brilliant shots.

dave h of old rd ashton lived on the isle of wight for ages thanks for the marvellous memories

Ron Hunt Excelent Well done

gary derricott excellent show

Jim The same view today with the tower of Highfield church on the skyline.

Jim St. Matthew's Church, Highfield, was built in 1892 by Pemberton Collieries owner Colonel Henry Blundell - the white house on the left, now a nursery, was the home of the colliery manager.

Jim This old photo of the Blundell's Pemberton Collieries complex, with its rail lines and chimneys, give some idea of the enormous scale of it. It employed thousands of miners and ancillary workers.

Bill F Beguiling ;my mind went into auto suspense after the first few shots ,like travelling on the TIME MACHINE ,moving over the same territory yet in a different time suspense , feeling the years rolling back ,almost expecting some of the old people saying hello from across the street yet from 80 90 100 years ago WOOOW Beam me up Scottie .

Jim Today - the church was largely rebuilt in the 1850s - the tower was heightened, with the clock section being added.

Jim The Wigan parish church of All Saints, as it was in 1832.

Jim The Hippodrome in the 1950s, at the bottom of King Street.left prior to its closure.

Jim Old view of the convent girls school looking down towards the Whitesmiths.

Jim Its interior.

Jim Its demolition in 1987.

Jim The 1960s.

Jim Early morning. Houseproud Wigan housewives used a Donkey (brand name) stone to whiten the front doorstep in the local traditional way. Rag and bone men would give donkey stones for rags

Jim The Minorca Hotel on the corner of King Street, Wallgate.

Jim The Minorca today renamed Berkley's.

cockyedwards1@hotmail.co.uk first class, jimmy google.

gerald and mavis What a great show, we remember a lot of the original pictures!!!!!

M. Grundy Thanks Jim. Lovely looking back on 'Old Wigan' . Shame that It's lost all its character. Really enjoyed the tour.

Jim Still together after 700 years.

Jim Ten years after their reunion Sir William was murdered "in an affray" - Lady Mabel bequeathed the Lady Chapel in Wigan Parish Church.

Jim Its original location.

Jim A group of workmen and miners enjoy a pint outside the Bricklayers Arms in Hallgate in the early part of the last century.

Jim THe cross being moved from its original location across the road in 1922.

ROY good show Jimmy

j cannell once again jim i loved every min.of it thanks jim

Jim Thanks Angela, the only thing that's missing there is me.

Angela Once again Jim a lovely trip down memory lane for us all including mum this rainy afternoon. oxtail stew in th'oven roasties crispin nicely..mmmmmm soothing music too. love to all Marie, Ang and Keith. xx

Jim Present view - in Winter.

Jim In his book The Road To Wigan Pier, George Orwell wrote a graphic description of Wigan miners toiling underground.

Jim With the police presence here, it might have been taken during a pit strike.

Jim Queen Street veers off left. In the far distance the buildings of Wigan Pier, and the tower of the Trencherfield cotton mill.

Jim The view today.

Jim ..The dome seen in the previous photo, and missing here, has recently been rebuilt in a more modern simpler style.

Jim Todays view looking along Standishgate to the town centre.

Jim The Whitesmiths regenerated on the right. The Market Hall is in the distance on the left.

Jim The Boars Head Inn today, some of the beams inside were carbon dated and found to be a 1000 years old.

Jim Central Park stood at the end of this street where Tesco's supermarket is now. I well remember walking down it many times, anticipating the game ahead.

Jim As it is today. St Mary's school the area in front of it was Central Park.

Jim From Wigan Lane you soon reach Standish - which has an association with Myles Standish, military commander for the Mayflower Pilgrim Fathers. Hope you enjoyed the show.

Jim Mabs Cross. Lady Mabel Bradshaigh of Haigh remarried thinking her husband killed in the crusades - but he returned and slew the Welsh knight at Newton.

Jim Lady Mabel had to walk from Haigh Hall to the cross on Wigan Lane once a week as a penance - her husband Sir Wiliam, was banished for a year and a day. Their stone effigies lie in the Parish Church.

Jim Their story is said to be the inspiration for Sir Walter Scott's novel The Betrothed.

Jim Today the policeman stood where the bikes are in this picture.

Jim Today the station frontage looks very much as it did then.

Jim Wallgate today..

Jim Present...with not so neatly trimmed hedges, or maybe it was caught on a bad hedge day.

Jim Today.............................

Jim A reverse view of the Market Place from Church Gates which lead to the parish church gardens.

Jim Northway. Links the top of Mesnes Street to Greenough Street.

Jim Wigan Pier.

Jim The Bricklayers Arms, Hallgate, today as seen from the strangely named The King Of Prussia Yard, which leads into the parish church grounds.

Jim Today all those old shops that stood here have been swept away by the new road of Northway cutting across Standishgate - behind the traffic lights the Whitesmiths still stands - now a tapas bar.

Jim Standishgate climbs away to Wigan Lane, passing St. John's church on the right - Girls Convent school - now gone - St Mary's RC Church, and what was the Girls High School now a primary school.

Jim Gathurst Bridge and the Navigation pub.

Jim Birds eye view of Central Park, the old home of Wigan RLFC. Top left is St. Mary's RC School with the entry leading to Standishgate by its left side. Right is rear of the Wigan Girls High School.

Jim My photo of Central Park taken in the 1970s - the site is now occupied by a Tesco super store.

Jim The new banks seen on the left, replaced the old Lowe's department store building

Jim ..over on the right are Wigan Corporation double deck service buses at their stands. Their livery of cherry and white, like the colours of Wigan RL team.

Jim Left we can see what was the wholesaler Rushton's building - now the town's Civic Centre - and to its right the Wigan grammer school playing field.

Jim The Wiend today. It leads down and into Market Place.

Jim With the shawls went wooden soled clogs. Now a curiosity, like these childrens clogs, now used as an ornament in a home.

Jim The Whitesmith's next to the shops in tha last picture - taken in the 1970s - the alley on its left is Brick Kiln Lane.

Jim The road to Wigan Pier - near Trencherfield Mill and the canal.

Jim My photos taken in the 1970s

Jim Two boys fish the Leeds Liverpool Canal at Ince - the cooling towers were demolished in the 1980s

Jim May Mill cotton mill at Highfield, Pemberton, just before its demolition in the 1970s - on the left the slope of Blundell's slag heap - The Blundell coal company was a huge mining complex.

Jim Looking like Ayers Rock, the Blundell's slag heap once dominated the Little Lane area of Goose Green and Highfield, Wigan.

Jim The tiny figure gives some idea of the immense scale of it - now long gone, the area was landscaped and built on with new private housing estates springing up.

Jim The Wiend, Wigan's oldest street - Thomas Beecham of Beechams Pills fame had a shop here when he moves north from Norfolk - he then moved to St. Helens nearby and created a pharmaceutical empire.

Jim Taken in the 70s, this photo taken behind Billinge Road at Pemberton, shows the old outside toilets once common behind terraced houses up to the 1940s.

Jim Kitt Green Post Office and houses now demolished.

Jim THe old Wigan of pits and cotton mills is long gone, it town centre is surprisingly pleasant . Its Market place as nice a town centre as any in England. If you want a visual guide to modern Wigan find the tour on my shows at http://photopeach.com/user/Jim

Jim Today - in the background the new facade where Lowe's department store stood until the 1950s.

Jim The old mining college now the town hall who's sign hides the original Wigan Mining and Technical College sculpted sign over its doorway.

Jim ..and he wanted his son, the famous George junior, to be a jockey!!! It closed in the 1950s after a fire.

Jim Modern Market Street.

Jim A modern view from the same spot.

Jim Today's Makinson's Arcade - in the original arcade Marks and Spencer had their first Penny Bazaar and the town was the company's headquarters for some years.

Jim On the outskirts.

Jim Trains to Southport, Manchester, Liverpool, and eastwards into Yorkshire.

Jim The new Galleries on the site of the old Victorian market hall.

Jim The grammer school is now a state of the arts outpatients unit.

Jim The new baths and fitness centre on the site of the old Pavillion cinema. On the left the corner of the old mining and technical college, or Wigan Tech. as it was known locally.

Jim Looking towards Standishgate today from the Market Place, Wigan's heart since the middle ages.

Jim Today the old Pennington store building awaits its fate.

Jim Present day. The war memorial was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, who also designed the iconic British red telephone box also seen in this picture.

Jim The Wrightington Fish Ponds next to Wrightington Hospital where Professor Sir John Charnley invented the replacement hip joint procedure. Bringing pain relief to thousands around the world.

Jim Our modern Wigan - a nice friendly place to live.

Jim Welcome to Wigan Old and New.

Jim Wigan Mining and Technical College now Wigan Town Hall. This was the first mining college in Britain. Note in the next picture the dome on the left has disappeared.

Jim Wigan Grammer School with neatly trimmed hedges, now Wigan's NHS outpatients centre.

Jim The Old Hippodrome theatre, King Street - George Formby senior appeared here. He was earning the equivalent of £30.000 per week....

Jim The Park Hotel - next to Conroy's fruit and veg wholesalers - on demolition, the Park's snug bar was installed in the Wigan - The Way We Were - folk museum. View is near the present Market Tavern.

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