page_title: Museum of Wigan Life
section_title: The History Shop (1990–2010)
hierarchical_section_title: Museum of Wigan Life / History / The History Shop (1990–2010)
caption_attribution_description: English: The History Shop - formerly Wigan Library
context_page_description: The Museum of Wigan Life is a public museum and local history resource centre in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The nineteenth-century listed building is by the noted architect Alfred Waterhouse. It originally housed Wigan Library, where George Orwell researched his book The Road to Wigan Pier in 1936.
  The museum works with other museums in Greater Manchester as part of the Greater Manchester Museums Group.
context_section_description: In 1990, due to an increasing need for space, the library was relocated to the New Town Hall, on site of Wigan Mining and Technical College. In 1992, the newly formed Wigan Heritage Services opened the History Shop in the old library with intentions of hosting travelling (temporary) and in-house (permanent) exhibitions and the Wigan local history collection, parish registers and census returns in a study/research area on the first floor.
  Initially, the History Shop shared the building with the Wigan Careers Service which moved out in 1995 and Wigan Heritage Services took over the entire building. Funding –a total of £260,000– came from the National Lottery and Monica Whickham, last surviving daughter of Wigan vicar William Whickham. In honour of the  donation, the art gallery by the Library Street entrance was renamed the Whickham Gallery.
caption: 'The History Shop', as it was in 2007
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