Local History Month – Walkden’s retail history
For the first stop on our trip back through time around our local area, we’re diving into the history of retailers here in Walkden and more notably, the Ellesmere Centre or Walkden Town Centre, which is now recognised as the main shopping area, located a short drive away from our depot.
As our sweepers regularly pass this location on the way to some of our customers based in areas like Bolton, Blackburn and Preston, it has been really interesting to see how this area has developed over time.
Walkden’s first retail trading developments date back to 1860, where Bolton Road was recognised amongst locals as the main shopping district that was developed to cope with the demand from the growing population as more people came to the area.
The continued growth led to further changes being made to the west side of Bolton road, which eventually saw both sides lined with stores and independent businesses that would stock most of the things that this thriving community would require.
Almost 100 years later, more considerable changes appeared and in 1960 Walkden residents welcomed the first supermarket to the town, as Kenton’s opened their doors to the public. This was extremely popular amongst many of the locals and queues were often seen outside of the supermarket.
As the first phase of the new shopping precinct in Walkden began, Bolton Road began to drastically change once again, as some of the smaller shops, houses and even the old cinema were all demolished, making way for this new shopping experience.
Completed in 1965, the precinct attracted several national stores such as Woolworth’s, Halford’s and Tesco and following the Hypermarket area in 1973, Tesco moved into a larger unit four years later to keep up with demand.
This shift in the location of the majority of retailers coincided with redevelopment works on the east side of Bolton Road where more sheltered housing occupied the area.
Having been there for almost 30 years, large refurbishment works commenced on the “Ellesmere centre” and further down the line in 2010, Tesco moved once again into their current store which is now recognised as the largest supermarket store in England which at 185,500 square feet is larger than two football pitches!
As the area has developed, more retailers have set up stores in and around the Ellesmere centre, with Pets at Home, JD Sports and several high-profile food chains now trading to Walkden residents and those nearby.
Do you remember Walkden in any of these photos?
