When in Leigh ............. go looking for some history

So last week Andy Robertson was in Leigh and came across a little bit of history.

And as you do went looking for The Grand Theatre and Hippodrome, which he tells me began "life in 1908, converted to a cinema, then a club, and became a pub in 2007".  

Adding that "Many old cinemas/theatres have been now converted into pubs, usually Wetherspoons. I can think of loads like Moon under Water on Deansgate, Tim Bobbin in Urmston, Regal Moon in Rochdale, Eccles Cross in Eccles.

And here is 'The Thomas Burke' on Leigh Road. Thomas was a local lad and became an operatic tenor".

 So I suppose it is fitting that the Grand should be reunited with its link to the world of live entertainment through the late Mr. Burke.

I notice from that website Theatres Trust it "contained a charming stained glass window, now plain glass" and that it closed in 1939 for a "radical modernisation which had little effect on the external appearance. The auditorium was remodelled in Art Deco style".

There is more but for that you will have to follow the link.

But I will say that according to the same site "The Hippodrome remains a major landmark in Leigh".

So there you are, trust Andy to find one of Leigh's tourist land marks.

Location; Leigh

Pictures; The Grand Theatre and Hippodrome, now 'The Thomas Burke' 2023, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*Theatres Trust. https://database.theatrestrust.org.uk/resources/theatres/show/2235-grand-theatre-and-hippodrome

Buildings waiting for a story ……….

There will be heaps of people who know this building and a few who can offer up its history.

Andy Robertson was on King Street in Leigh and took the picture with the comment “Generally speaking, Taxi or cab offices are usually rather grim looking places, not so this one on King Street, Leigh”.

It is an intriguing building reminding me of the London Underground Stations of the 1930s and W.H. Smith kiosks on our railway stations.

So, I await the comments which will give its history.

And for those who want exact directions, it is on King Street at the junction with Twist lane.

Location; Leigh, Wigan

And no sooner had l posted this and Christopher Roman commented "A building that's always intrigued me when I ride along the canal to Liegh. It was the offices and waiting room for a bus company. Possibly Lancashire United".
 

Picture;  Taxi or cab offices, King Street, Leigh, 2023, from the collection of Andy Robertson

Looking for cinema glory ……. in Atherton

Now, when Andy went to Atherton I knew among the pictures he took there would be stories.

Palace Cinema, 2023

And so today from his photographic jaunt across Atherton here is the first, which with that wonderful cinema resource, cinema TREASURES, and the Kinematograph Year Book for 1928 is an account of the town’s picture houses.

Back in the late 1920s, the place had a population of just under 20,000, and supported three cinemas, which were the Gem Theatre on Bullough Street, the Palace on Market Street and the Savoy.

All were owned by Eagle Picturedromes Ltd who were based in Wigan.

The Gem offered one nightly show with “Two changes weekly” and prices ranged from 5d to 9d.

Gem Electric

For those who wanted to choose when they saw the fil, The Palace provided two shows a night, with “two changes a week” and charged the same as the Gem.*

Alas the Kinematograph Year Book has little to say about the Savoy.

But turning to cinema TREASURES, Dave Simpson fills in the gaps on these and a further two picture houses for which you will have to follow the link, because as ever I don’t lift other people’s research.**

And that is it.  

 Kinematograph Year Book for 1928

Of the three pictures Andy identified the Gem and the Place, leaving the third to be named by someone from AthertonLocation; Atherton

Pictures, Atherton’s former cinemas. 2023, from the collection of Andy Robertson

* Kinematograph Year Book for 1928

**Atherton cinemas, cinema TREASURES, http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/united-kingdom/england/atherton?status=closed 

The mystery Picture house

James Guy from Leigh who served in the Canadian Expeditionary Force and died on the Western Front

There is a real sense of satisfaction at finding out something about a young man who would otherwise just be a name in a cemetery.

And so it is with James Guy who was born in 1891 and died in May 1917.

His name appears on the family gravestone in Leigh Cemetery and it is another of those recorded by Antony Mills.

James was just 13 when his father died and as his mother was also dead it appears he went to stay with his aunt.

He was a baker by trade and some between 1911 when he was living with his aunt and four years later he settled in Canada where he enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force on 13 December 1915.

He died on May 3rd 1917 and is buried in La Chaudiere Military Cemetery, Vimy.

Now given the date and the place I suspect he was part of the Battle of Vimy Ridge which lasted from April 9 through to April 12.

In the course of the battle, 3, 598 Canadian soldiers were killed and it seems likely that he died of wounds sustained in the fighting,

On his Attestation papers he gave his sister Mrs Forbes who lived in Bolton as his next of kin and he was living in Brantford which is a town in south western Ontario.*

It isn’t much but at least when I go to Leigh Cemetery I will have a little knowledge of this young man.

Location; Leigh, Brantford and Vimy

Picture; the gravestone of the Guy Family, Leigh Cemetery from the collection of Antony Mills

*Library and Archives Canada, Personnel Records of the First World War, http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/first-world-war/personnel-records/Pages/item.aspx?IdNumber=293490