Edward Barton (b. 1839) and Ann Barton (b. 1840), Henry Harold Harrison Sr’s maternal grandparents, lived at these addresses from the mid-1860s or earlier until they moved to the Corporation Inn circa 1872. Edward and Ann were married in 1861 but their first two children were born at the home of Ann’s parents on Princess Street. We don’t know whether Edward and Ann were living with Ann’s parents or whether Ann stayed with her mother when she was giving birth. Douglas Street is therefore the first address we have for the couple. 15 Douglas Street first appears on the birth registration of their son Henry in August 1867. It appears again as Edward Barton’s address in a Wigan directory from 1869. Douglas Street (no number given) is the address given on son John’s birth certificate in 1869.
The 1871 census records Edward and Ann living at 25 Douglas Street with children Alice, Ellen, Henry and John. The family probably moved to the new address, although it is possible that the street was renumbered. Daughter Annie was born at 25 Douglas Street in March 1872.
Douglas Street was shown in the 1907 Ordinance Survey (image, left) running from Chapel Lane east for a stretch of two blocks to the River Douglas in the centre of Wigan. This area has been completely redeveloped and Douglas Street is no longer. (Although there is a Douglas Street in modern Wigan off Wallgate it is not where the Bartons lived.) The present-day location of the former Douglas Street is near the intersection of Riverway and Harrogate.