Uncle Joe's Mint Balls are part of Lancashire folklore. Made in Wigan for over a 100 years Uncle Joe's Postal Service sends them all over the UK and beyond, easing the pangs of MBD (Mint Ball Deprivation)
UK residents can send a stamped, addressed envelope for a price list and free samples of UJMBs ( mentioning the LQQK website) to:
Uncle Joe's Postal Service.
PO Box 115. Wigan. WN5 0WW
Wigan Photo Album. Page 1
Colour photos and comments by Jim Farrell
Lock keeper's cottage at Chapel Lane, Wigan. Leeds - Liverpool Canal.
A close up of the cottage. Note the bay window so the keeper can see approaching barges.
Porters Wood, Kitt Green,
after a December snowfall.
Porters Wood in Springtime, with May bluebells
This famous sign on the gable end of the Uncle Joe's factory in Dorning Street is seen by thousands of rail passengers every day, as they travel through Wigan on the West Coast Line
A pre war picture of Uncle Joe's stall in the market hall, no longer in the Market Hall, the modern version is Uncle Joe's Emporium at 14 Crompton Street.
The largest working mill steam engine in the world at Trencherfield Mill, Wigan.
Dozens of ropes running from the huge drum ran all the cotton looms in the factory. Open to visitors.
The Market Place, Wigan. In the English Civil War Royalist sharpshooters kept the attacking Parliamentarians at bay from the top of the Parish Church tower,and only capitulated when the Roundheads theatened to blow the tower up under them.
Wigan's coat of arms.
Motto
Ancient and Loyal
Upholland, old and quaint, home of highwayman George Lyon. Lancashire's last highwayman. He was publicaly hanged at Lancaster Castle in 1815. His body was brought back to Upholland by his friend the landlord of the Old Dog Inn, and buried in the *churchyard, In the 1930s thousands of people came to view a haunted house in the village.
*See b&w picture, bottom of page
St Matthews Ramblerswait for their bus at the Venture pub at Highfield. Once a month they travel to places like the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales for a day's walking, and finish with a meal together in a local pub..
Check out their web site.
Here are some of the ramblers on a December walk around Billinge Hill ending the day with a Christmas meal at the Holt's Arms. ( Foot 0' Causway ) or simply known locally asThe Foot. ( Picture below )
I hope you have enjoyed this first page of my Wigan Photos and snippets of information about this great old town.
Keep checking back as I intend to add more pages of Photos as I find them.
Left - Old Upholland. George Lyon's grave is under the churchyard boundry wall, (lower left) in this 1930's photograph of Church street, Upholland. The famous haunted house is the one with the man standing at the door. the story goes that the ghost was that of a previous tenant, searching for his hoard of money -- and there's a twist to the story, for when the house was demolished and the debris dumped nearby, local children would turn up gold sovereigns in the rubble. Another interesting point concerning the house with the three windows on the right- it had no staircase - access to the upper floor was by means of a plank fastened to the wall which had alternate footholes cut in it.
The large building on the left, (second after the figure) was the Red Lion pub - another haunt of George Lyon.
There were three Red Lion pubs locally, the other two were at Orrell Post (opp. the Stag Inn ) and Lamberhead Green, opposite the White Swan, on the corner of Fleet Street. See pubs listed below.
These nuggets of information come from an 82 year old, who spent his childhood in the village.
St. George's church is hidden away, just yards from the hustle and bustle of busy Standishgate.
George Lyon is buried in his daughter's grave which bears the worn inscription.
"Nanny Lyon. Died April 7th 1804" .
The stone lies flat in the grass and is situated below the now long-gone wall in the picture, about midway between the lampost and the main gate on the left in the picture. See picture below
Go down the steps and turn left along the path then turn off this under the shrubs and walk up to the new railings. The stone lies lies below these, head on to the road.
The gravestones that form the paving by the church entrance make facinating reading, spanning 1700/1800s
A couple of examples John Morton 1811
"Here underneath thou dost approach, man Mourn not for me, my joy begins.
the body of John Smith, the Coachman" Bestow your sorrows on your sins.
