Astley Bridge Junction in the 60's

This image is of the junction at Asda moss bank way/crompton way/blackburn road pressumably around the 60's.

Anyone from around this area and know if this is correct or recognise it?

karlypants wrote:

This image is of the junction at Asda moss bank way/crompton way/blackburn road pressumably around the 60's.

Anyone from around this area and know if this is correct or recognise it?

I’m struggling to connect this image to the junction but possibly too young to remember those buildings.

finlaymcdanger wrote:

karlypants wrote:

This image is of the junction at Asda moss bank way/crompton way/blackburn road pressumably around the 60's.

Anyone from around this area and know if this is correct or recognise it?

I’m struggling to connect this image to the junction but possibly too young to remember those buildings.

I am old enough to remember but it doesn't really ring a bell with me either.

I can't remember the mill at all but checking on Google Earth there are a couple of buildings next to where it stood and I remember seeing a Bernard Manning gig in one of them in the early 1970's.

I know it isn't PC to say but I found him really funny.

I also remember Asda first coming to Bolton and their first site was on Blackburn Road just up from the Iron Church and across the road from the Tramways.

When they built the superstore where it is now, they shut their first store down, and the Asians open a shop there iirc?

When the original shop first opened we lived a good walk away from it (the other side of Halliwell Road) but my mam and dad used to walk up to it one night a week to shop there.

Once it moved to the present site they didn't bother and went back to shopping in town again.

Funny what old memories are brought back from just a random picture.

We used to walk through the Mop from Halliwell to go to Asda when we were kids. We were only there to carry the bags back though!

I remember a Kwik Save further down Blackburn road, was that the old Asda?

Sluffy are you sure there was another Asda in astley Bridge? Was it not a Co Op at the start of crompton way before it changed to a B&Q and now the Range? It’s facing Lidl that used to be a petrol station.

Norpig there was a kwik save close to the iron church on Blackburn road that also faced an old esso petrol station (a mosque is being built there now) that turned into a netto for a short while. It’s now a wynsors with pk foods and a kids play centre.

Norpig wrote:We used to walk through the Mop from Halliwell to go to Asda when we were kids. We were only there to carry the bags back though!

I remember a Kwik Save further down Blackburn road, was that the old Asda?

You are right Norpig, I'd forgotten that it was Kwik Save that moved in. I had in mind that for a while it was something Asian, maybe even a garage for awhile?

I can't remember now, too long ago.

That was a fair old walk for you then unless you moved afterwards because I thought you said once that you lived towards Sally up steps, over Chorley Old Road way?

karlypants wrote:Sluffy are you sure there was another Asda in astley Bridge? Was it not a Co Op at the start of crompton way before it changed to a B&Q and now the Range? It’s facing Lidl that used to be a petrol station.

Norpig there was a kwik save close to the iron church on Blackburn road that also faced an old esso petrol station (a mosque is being built there now) that turned into a netto for a short while. It’s now a wynsors with pk foods and a kids play centre.

Yes, Kwik Save moved in when Asda vacated to go to the super store at Crompton Way, where they've been ever since.

I'd forgotten about the Esso petrol Station too, I remember my brother collecting Esso's 1970 World Cup Coins when he went filling up his old Ford Classic that he had at the time.

I found this interesting article from the Bolton News and reading the comments section it does look as though I was wrong and misremembered.

It seems it WAS the Tesco I was thinking about and not an Asda as I had thought.

Sorry if I led anyone astray, I really remembered it as an Asda but clearly I was wrong about that.

(Also in the article itself it talks about the mill, which I guess is the one in the picture above.  Seems it was knocked down and is now where Asda stands if I understand the article correctly?).

LOOKING BACK: Inside Bolton's first superstore
https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/17230579.looking-back-inside-boltons-first-superstore/

Sluffy wrote:I found this interesting article from the Bolton News and reading the comments section it does look as though I was wrong and misremembered.

It seems it WAS the Tesco I was thinking about and not an Asda as I had thought.

Sorry if I led anyone astray, I really remembered it as an Asda but clearly I was wrong about that.

(Also in the article itself it talks about the mill, which I guess is the one in the picture above.  Seems it was knocked down and is now where Asda stands if I understand the article correctly?).

LOOKING BACK: Inside Bolton's first superstore
https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/17230579.looking-back-inside-boltons-first-superstore/

I never knew of a Tesco further down although it would make sense as they had a bit of a joint venture with esso for the fuel.

A close friend of ours, her mum who is 91 worked at Hesketh’s mill until it closed then moved to Littlewoods further up Blackburn road at Holden Mill.

It was nice listening to her tales of the trolley buses going up and down Blackburn road as well which she used to use.

The thing is though, was it actually Bolton’s first superstore as you had the co-op at astley bridge and one that was where Argos on bridge street is?

I'm certain the Tesco (which I thought was an Asda) predates the Asda superstore in the article BUT although it was the first supermarket I remember going into in Bolton, I wouldn't call it a superstore on the scale of the Asda shop.

It was massive to go into when it first opened, simply because there wasn't any other food supermarkets around us at the time but we'd probably class it as a Tesco Local these days.

I would also say the Co-op on the corner of Bridge Street and Bow Street predates both the Tesco and the Asda which I've been talking about.

Maybe what the article really is talking about is an 'out of town' superstore, which you go and drive to and park outside it - perhaps?

Sluffy wrote:

You are right Norpig, I'd forgotten that it was Kwik Save that moved in. I had in mind that for a while it was something Asian, maybe even a garage for awhile?

I can't remember now, too long ago.

That was a fair old walk for you then unless you moved afterwards because I thought you said once that you lived towards Sally up steps, over Chorley Old Road way?

It was before we moved over to Chorley Old Road, we used to live off Halliwell Road not far from the Robin Hood and the Lord Raglan pubs (known as the Rag by locals).

Another view of Hesketh’s Mill where Asda is now. This picture was taken from the bowling green on moss bank way…

It looks like to me the yellow car is on Crompton Way. The road sign says turn right then left to Preston which would be the 3 Pigeons. If I'm right then the mill is where Asda is now.

karlypants wrote:Sluffy are you sure there was another Asda in astley Bridge? Was it not a Co Op at the start of crompton way before it changed to a B&Q and now the Range? It’s facing Lidl that used to be a petrol station.

Norpig there was a kwik save close to the iron church on Blackburn road that also faced an old esso petrol station (a mosque is being built there now) that turned into a netto for a short while. It’s now a wynsors with pk foods and a kids play centre.

The first supermarket near the Iron Church was a Tesco that had a petrol station attached that did Quad Green Shield stamps. The Tesco was opposite the Esso station which was called Canning Petrol station.

The site where the Mosque is being built use to be a camping superstore and next to it was the Methodist Hall where my Grandma and Grandad had a wedding anniversary.

Here we have a picture of Asda in 1970.

Anyone remember it?

Here is a picture of the shops on Blackburn Road in front of Asda.

These units were apparently rented off Asda. They have since beeen knocked down at the time the store was expanding the car park and store.

There was a sports shop on that block that i used to go to all the time as a kid. I remember buying a Geoff Boycott cricket bat from there (twice as wide as other bats  )

Norpig wrote:There was a sports shop on that block that i used to go to all the time as a kid. I remember buying a Geoff Boycott cricket bat from there (twice as wide as other bats  )

Was it Len Tobutts?

karlypants wrote:

Was it Len Tobutts?

not sure, that was further down Blackburn Road on the other side wasn't it?