General Chit Chat

[Worthy4England]

I'm currently watching Synth Britannia on You Tube, originally shown on BBC4 I think. Some great quotes in there...

"We wanted to be Punks, but you needed to know three chords for that" - Phil Oakey

"I went into the studio to make a Punk album and someone had left a Mini Moog there and it only needed one key pressing, so I did that instead" - Gary Numan

"Musicians Union tried to ban me for a year, because they thought I was putting proper musicians out of work" - Gary Numan



I think Oakey is overstating the case for punk, you can probably wing it on two.

[TANGODANCER]

No, I'm sure the Closed Market is now Market Hall. The main entrance was on Corporation Street. I got my first bike at Halfords whose shop was both ion the Closed market and had an entrance on Knowsley St. The Open Market was up near Black Horse St and Great Moor St. - it was open in the sense that there were large gaps in the main floor walls which werfe always open, but there was a roof. There were many many fish stalls there. It could have been on Ashburner St (was that a deliberate typo? ). If the Open market is now Bolton Market they appear to have put in some walls and windows (I just went there on google and I think it probably is it).

To me, Monty, the Market Hall has always been just that. The fish and fruit and veg market in Ashburner Street is still in action and undergoing extensive refurb at the moment. You can still walk through it to an indoor stalls general market. Years back they used to have outside stalls on Ashburner Street itself, but now the outside market (Anoraks, T-shirts, mobile phones, batteries, general tat and garden plants) is on the end of the bus station outside the fish market. The Market hall , last time I went through it, was just a soulless space of mobile phone sales, Next and travel agents complete with a large escalator and no doubt a massive electric bill and thirty three empty premises.

Just for you Monty, the old Odeon Cinema is now a skate-board park ( all the cinemas as such are long gone) and The Wheatsheaf pub on Great Moor Street is a Home Bargains emporium. The always impressive Trinity Church is currently being converted into flats. Things sure ain't what they used to be.

[Montreal Wanderer]

No, I'm sure the Closed Market is now Market Hall. The main entrance was on Corporation Street. I got my first bike at Halfords whose shop was both ion the Closed market and had an entrance on Knowsley St. The Open Market was up near Black Horse St and Great Moor St. - it was open in the sense that there were large gaps in the main floor walls which werfe always open, but there was a roof. There were many many fish stalls there. It could have been on Ashburner St (was that a deliberate typo? ). If the Open market is now Bolton Market they appear to have put in some walls and windows (I just went there on google and I think it probably is it).

To me, Monty, the Market Hall has always been just that. The fish and fruit and veg market in Ashburner Street is still in action and undergoing extensive refurb at the moment. You can still walk through it to an indoor stalls general market. Years back they used to have outside stalls on Ashburner Street itself, but now the outside market (Anoraks, T-shirts, mobile phones, batteries, general tat and garden plants) is on the end of the bus station outside the fish market. The Market hall , last time I went through it, was just a soulless space of mobile phone sales, Next and travel agents complete with a large escalator and no doubt a massive electric bill and thirty three empty premises.

Just for you Monty, the old Odeon Cinema is now a skate-board park ( all the cinemas as such are long gone) and The Wheatsheaf pub on Great Moor Street is a Home Bargains emporium. The always impressive Trinity Church is currently being converted into flats. Things sure ain't what they used to be.

It probably always was Market Hall but the term Closed market was used to distinguish it from the "Open" one on Ashburner Street (at least among the parental crowd I was subject to). Going shopping was certainly different then since we visited all the little shops - the grocer's on St George's Road, the butcher's on Deansgate (Aspinalls'), the sweet shop close by (Lyons), etc. Now I suppose one goes to a supermarket for most comestibles.

[Bruce Rioja]

It probably always was Market Hall but the term Closed market was used to distinguish it from the "Open" one on Ashburner Street (at least among the parental crowd I was subject to).

I was just going to say - were these terms used by anyone outside of your house? Because I can guarantee you that I've never heard them used by anyone, ever, including my grandparents and their generation.

[Montreal Wanderer]

It probably always was Market Hall but the term Closed market was used to distinguish it from the "Open" one on Ashburner Street (at least among the parental crowd I was subject to).

I was just going to say - were these terms used by anyone outside of your house? Because I can guarantee you that I've never heard them used by anyone, ever, including my grandparents and their generation.

Certainly outside my house but I expect the society, or set, my family was part of may have differed from the majority. Still, being me, I did look it up. Here is a photograph of the Open Market dated 1937 where the terminology is clear. More here.

[thebish]

it seems you and tango are just plain wrong about the town you live in, Bruce!

[TANGODANCER]

it seems you and tango are just plain wrong about the town you live in, Bruce!

Not saying some people didn't call it that bish, just that we never did and I don't recall it ever being that. . I've lived in Bolton, Westhoughton and Farnworth my whole life and have heard the term "outside"/inside used. Imagine going to the open market and finding it closed.

[Bruce Rioja]

it seems you and tango are just plain wrong about the town you live in, Bruce!

And the market I shop at. The terms 'The Market' for one, and 'Market Hall' for the other are woefully insufficient. I'll visit the spot where my Grandparents ashes are buried and blame them. However, for me? Well, it simply has to be self-flagellation with thorny branches.

[Prufrock]

I've definitely heard someone call it the closed market, but I couldn't tell you who! My great gran maybe. She was from Edgerton; where were you Monty, Lostock? That wouldn't seem to explain it.

[bobo the clown]

I've definitely heard someone call it the closed market, but I couldn't tell you who! My great gran maybe. She was from Edgerton; where were you Monty, Lostock? That wouldn't seem to explain it.

My dad used to call it the Open Market ... even though much of it was covered, even indoors. It distinguished it from the Market Hall I guess, plus "the market" was what we called the Friday market in Horwich.

[Bruce Rioja]

I've definitely heard someone call it the closed market, but I couldn't tell you who! My great gran maybe. She was from Edgerton; where were you Monty, Lostock? That wouldn't seem to explain it.

My dad used to call it the Open Market ... even though much of it was covered, even indoors. It distinguished it from the Market Hall I guess, plus "the market" was what we called the Friday market in Horwich.

Yes, well, one of you is from Adlington and the other from Horwich. And Pru, your Great Gran was from Egerton.

[Montreal Wanderer]

I've definitely heard someone call it the closed market, but I couldn't tell you who! My great gran maybe. She was from Edgerton; where were you Monty, Lostock? That wouldn't seem to explain it.

Yes, I lived in Lostock but a very different Lostock from the one of today. Large houses and large gardens on Princess Road where I was born. There are now three houses on my mother's property which she sold in the 1980s to come out here. Yes, I was a member of Markland Hill Tennis Club. Yes, I went to the Hunt Ball in formal wear. Yes, I went to a private boarding school (Public School to you). Yes, I was privileged and probably represented everything WtW detested. And finally, yes, I turned my back on it all and emigrated.

I actually had a girlfriend who lived in Egerton in the early 1960s - I'm beginning to have to unsettling thought about you, Pru.

[Montreal Wanderer]

I've definitely heard someone call it the closed market, but I couldn't tell you who! My great gran maybe. She was from Edgerton; where were you Monty, Lostock? That wouldn't seem to explain it.

Yes, I lived in Lostock but a very different Lostock from the one of today. Large houses and large gardens on Princess Road where I was born. There are now three houses on my mother's property which she sold in the 1980s to come out here. Yes, I was a member of Markland Hill Tennis Club. Yes, I went to the Hunt Ball in formal wear. Yes, I went to a private boarding school (Public School to you). Yes, I was privileged and probably represented everything WtW detested. And finally, yes, I turned my back on it all and emigrated.

I actually had a girlfriend who lived in Egerton in the early 1960s - I'm beginning to have to unsettling thought about you, Pru.

I've just walked (on google maps) to her old place (it was called Dunscar House) which now seems to be some kind of NHS home and there are some 17 houses in her father's garden.

[Prufrock]

Well, my Great Gran was 48 in 1960, so if so, fair play to you ha!

Lostock is hardly the worst part of Bolton now!

And Brucie, she lived at the Edge of it. So ner

[TANGODANCER]

I've just walked (on google maps) to her old place (it was called Dunscar House) which now seems to be some kind of NHS home and there are some 17 houses in her father's garden.

Last I saw of my mother's two-up, two-down terraced house, just before they flattened it, it was being used in a film about "The Troubles" in Belfast. ( it's the truth)

[Bruce Rioja]

And Brucie, she lived at the Edge of it. So ner

The edge of Egerton? I spent most of my late teen years in The Edge, as did Enfield.

Where did you're Great Gran live, Fella. On Deakins?

[Prufrock]

No idea what anything is called up there, all I remember is it looked out over the cricket field, and there was a sweet shop about five minutes away (which given I was about 10 means it was just around the corner ).

[bobo the clown]

I spent most of my late teen years in The Edge, as did Enfield.

... as did I spend many a school lunchtime in there.

Kids of today, huh !!

[William the White]

I lived in Astley Bridge in the 70s... I visited the Edge on a regular basis... In the days when the ale was - i think - Duttons...

[bobo the clown]

I lived in Astley Bridge in the 70s... I visited the Edge on a regular basis... In the days when the ale was - i think - Duttons...

It was indeed Bill. We'd pop in, blazers and all (black ... 6th form ... only, not the brown ones), for a pint, a game of bar-billiard sin the back and very acceptable gnosh which I can't recall.

Proper pub.