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Ask for Hovis Ghost Sign at Tardy Gate in Lostock Hall

Ghost Sign in Lostock Hall

 

Ask for Hovis Ghost Sign at Tardy Gate in Lostock Hall

𝔾𝕙𝕠𝕤𝕥 𝕊𝕚𝕘𝕟 𝕚𝕟 𝕋𝕒𝕣𝕕𝕪 𝔾𝕒𝕥𝕖 - “𝕁 𝕎 𝕐𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕤. 𝔸𝕤𝕜 𝕗𝕠𝕣 ℍ𝕠𝕧𝕚𝕤”

I haven't done a post about this topic for a while. However, this came to my attention this week, so I thought it warranted an early revisit.

Ghost Sign in Lostock Hall

This old advertisement is painted onto the north-facing wall of a building, on the junction of Coote Lane and Leyland Road, in Tardy Gate, Lostock Hall.

There was another advertising billboard over the top of it, up until relatively recently, so that's probably why it is pretty well preserved. That billboard was removed some time between August 2016 and July 2017.

The building was formerly used as J. W. Yates' General Store (fondly known locally as John Willies), and the painted advert comes from that time. Another source of information said that store was run by James William Yates, a “master grocer”, and he traded here from the 1920s until his death in 1954.

I am not sure why some of it is partially obscured by the red paint over the top. Somebody proposed that it was probably because there was another portrait billboard over the top of this sign, prior to the large landscape one that I remember.

I was considering climbing up a ladder with some nail polish remover, borrowed off one of my daughters, to do some remedial work - a bit like one of those art historians I have seen on the tele. However, I have a strong feeling I would just bring the whole lot off.

For anybody local, they might remember that it was next to Tom Ball's shop (not the shoe one). If you couldn't get it there, it wasn't worth having. A list that included petrol, anything at all in the hardware department, electrical goods, cycles, pipe tobacco, the list was endless...

When I mention, "seeing things on the tele", that's not likely to be a thing theses days. I don't watch conventional television anymore, so I may never have known about this video if somebody had not posted about it on social media.

The photograph below, within this post, it not one of my own. It is actually a screenshot from a national advertising campaign being run by Hõvis. They have featured a number of ghost signs in it, and the infamous one in Lostock Hall is included amongst them.

The photograph is a screenshot from a national advertising campaign being run by Hõvis.
The photograph within this post is a screenshot from a Hõvis advertisement 


When I describe an 'early visit', since my initial posts on the topic, I have generally saved them for a pun related post at Halloween. I'm slightly early for that, but I though that it was worth sharing.




Hovis - Strength Baked In 2026 on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/8fUqxd49OXQ?t=14


~


Ask for Hovis Ghost Sign at Tardy Gate in Lostock Hall
Ask for Hovis Ghost Sign at Tardy Gate in Lostock Hall


Ask for Hovis Ghost Sign at Tardy Gate in Lostock Hall
Ask for Hovis Ghost Sign at Tardy Gate in Lostock Hall


~


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Location: Lostock Hall, Preston, UK

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