RETRO: the Wigan Pier-based Robert Opie Museum of Memories

It was the visitor attraction which was guaranteed to raise the nostalgic hairs on the back of your neck. For a few short years at the turn of the millennium, the Robert Opie Museum of Memories found its home at Trencherfield Mill, complementing the other Pier-based tourist draws. Consumer historian Opie began saving evidence of our branded world when he was 16 and 60 years later he’s not stopped!

The heart of the museum was a mock high street with each shop pulling you into a different decade of the 20th century, teeming with household products, books, magazines, toys, gadgets and other paraphernalia from those times.

13. Photographer Ian Beesley (centre) with MP Neil Turner and Wilf Brogan, chairman of culture, looking round the The Opie Museum

. Photo: JOHN LEATHERBARROW

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14. Some of the older artefacts on show at Opie's Museum of Memories

. Photo: NICK FAIRHURST

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15. Elizabeth Bates, Wigan Pier manager, is pictured at Trencherfield Mill, just after began on Opie's Museum of Memories in 1998

. Photo: NICK FAIRHURST

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16. Metal workers Andy Hazel and Bryan Stutt, of Acme, Hull, put some of the finishing touches to the giant mantlepiece at Opie's Museum of Memories

. Photo: NICK FAIRHURST

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