Uncle Joe’s Mint Balls Factory, tucked on Dorning Street in Wigan, fired up in 1898 when William Santus began boiling sweets in his kitchen, moving to this red-brick site by 1919. Famous for its fiery mints, the family-run works churned out treats through wars and booms, its recipe unchanged for over a century. Still producing today, its quirky past brews Wigan ghost stories that linger in its sugary air.
The factory thrived as Wigan dug coal and spun cotton, its mints a pocket-sized comfort for miners and mill hands near the Leeds-Liverpool Canal. A survivor of industrial shifts, it’s a local legend—some say with spirits still stirring the pots. Uncle Joe’s fuses Wigan’s history with a haunted whiff, drawing fans of Wigan ghost stories and oddball haunts.
One eerie tale tells of The Boiler’s Whistle, a 1930s worker scalded to death by a steam vat. His faint whistle cuts through the hum of machinery, and a shadow limps—staff feel a hot breath. Another story spins The Sweet Wrapper, William Santus himself, who died in 1952 but lingers to check his legacy. His soft cough echoes in the office, and wrappers crinkle—workers spot a figure in a flat cap. These Wigan ghost stories cloak Uncle Joe’s in a spectral mist, its sweets tinged with the past.