What possessed us to go to Hindley after going to
Westhoughton? The lure of charity shops.
Hindley is just a short drive from Westhoughton along the
A58. We managed to find some free
parking behind the “Summat to Ate” restaurant and found that Silcock’s fun fair
company were storing some of their rides by the car park. We noticed someone had tried to remove
graffiti that stated “xxx is a grass”.
The irony was that even though they removed the paint, you could still
make out the name of who was the grass.
I think someone needs to rethink their graffiti removal technique.
It was mid-afternoon on a Saturday and all was very
quiet. There were many shops already
with their shutters down, although from the looks of some of the shops the
shutters had been down for many years.
The main shops in Hindley are located on the A58 (Market
Street / Bridge Street) with an ASDA on Ladies Lane and a Tesco Extra on Cross
Street. Apart from ASDA and Tesco, most
of the shops are independently owned. As
with Westhoughton there were a few with odd names: Buttyful (a sandwich shop,
unsurprisingly), Bonkers (discount shop) and Cheerful Cantonese Restaurant. We did pop into the Suga Shack that does a fab
range of sweets. I’m sure this place must
be popular with the local kids.
On our travels I’ve begun to notice shops and market stalls
doing frozen foods and in Hindley there is a shop called Frostys. Unlike the likes of Farmfoods and Iceland,
all these shops have are white chest freezers.
There are no promotional signs to brighten up the place, so it looks
quite odd from the road. It’s like you
have found an electrical shops that just does chest freezers or there is a
random minimalist art exhibition going on.
The architecture in the town is predominantly Victorian red
brick, although there are a few stand out places. The Lloyds Bank appears to be a mini Greek stone
temple, completely symmetrical with columns framing the doorway. Its only adjustment to 21st
century life is the insertion of a disabled ramp on the side. The RBS is housed a in a purpose built
Victorian bank and looks fab with ornate stone work. The Mahabharat Indian Restaurant is housed in
a former Baptist chapel. I have to say
the restaurant have done a good job to make the outside of the chapel look well
presented. Part of me wonders if they have
managed to keep any of the original features inside the restaurant.
It was sad to see the former library was up for sale. The grand Victorian red brick and stone building
looked so forlorn boarded up with windows broken. I really hate to see public buildings left to
rot like this. It would be interesting
to see what it looks like inside. I do
wonder what this building could be used for in this day and age. A restaurant? Converted into flats? Or will
it be torn down and be replaced by a featureless building? It probably has too many problems that the
Council can ill-afford to resolve.
One thing is for sure in Hindley there are plenty of pubs to
choose from and some of which date back to the 18th century. The pubs appeared to be the most popular
places to be in Hindley. Apparently the Lord
Nelson Hotel is a grade II listed building.
The reasons we came here were for the four charity shops
listed online. Of the four, only one was
open – Annies Orphans. Maybe it was too
late in the day to visit the town for charity shops as Hindley was dead. Although next door to Annies was a house
clearance shop which we had a quick wander through. Sadly Neil didn’t find
anything in either shop.
Maybe it was the time of day and the fact that the football
was on, but there wasn’t much going on in Hindley. There are too many shops for what is needed
and the supermarkets really draw shoppers away from the centre of the
town. I do think these former mining and
mill towns are struggling to find a purpose in the 21st century now
that the industries have gone. In
Hindley’s case it appears to be a functional, commuter town with reasonable low
cost housing that serves the local community.
Definitely not one for day trippers – just for visiting friends and
family. I don’t think we will be back
here in a hurry, except maybe just passing through to Wigan or Bolton.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.