A MIDDLEWICH DIARY

MIDDLEWICH ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY IN KING STREET 1968 (2)

2012-03-11T16:28:00.000Z

WORK IN PROGRESS PLEASE CALL BACK

'BAGGIN' TIME' AT MURGATROYDS

2012-03-10T21:34:00.004Z

If you own the copyright on this photograph, please let us know

A happy group of workers at Murgatroyds Salt Works in Brooks Lane.

They are: Jack Clarke, Tom Gallimore, Bob Peach and Bill Challinor and they're all taking a well-earned rest from their labours and sitting on whatever is available to sit on, which includes blocks of salt.

This photograph has all the hallmarks of being taken by a professional photographer and could well have been taken during the last shift at the works before it closed.

As Middlewich Town Council's Heritage Officer Kerry Fletcher reminded us in a recent contribution:

The last salt lump at Murgatroyd's was produced in December 1966. The Manchester Evening News came to take photographs of the last shift. The open pans were in operation for 76 years almost to the day, as the first salt lump was produced as the New Year of 1890 was seen in.

So this might well be a photo of the last 'baggin' time' at Murgatroyd's.

Note the footwear. Clogs were the traditional footwear of salt workers, as they were able to stand the harsh corrosive conditions in the open pan works much better than traditional boots.
By this time a form of combination clog/boot seems to have been the style, but the cloth bindings secured with string which kept the abrasive salt out of the worker's trouser-legs can still be seen.

SEE ALSO: MURGATROYD'S SALT WORKS AERIAL VIEW
MURGATROYD'S SALT STORE ROOM

MUSIC IN MIDDLEWICH: LIVE & LOCAL ACOUSTIC SESSIONS AT THE BOAR'S HEAD

2012-03-10T21:15:00.000Z

ON THE SECOND SATURDAY OF
EVERY MONTH AT THE BOAR'S HEAD, KINDERTON STREET, MIDDLEWICH

Live Music at its very best!

Singers, musicians and performers of all kinds very welcome

Starts at 8.45pm

Be early to make sure of a seat!

NEXT SESSION:

SATURDAY 14th APRIL

CHESTER ROAD, CORONATION DAY 1937

2012-03-10T01:10:00.002Z

ORIGINAL DATE OF THIS ENTRY 02/02/12

Editors Note: We originally published this Middlewich Diary Entry on the 2nd February but subsequently withdrew it in order to check its veracity.
This came about because the same photograph is reproduced on page 58 of Middlewich -Images of England (Tempus Publishing 2005) by Brian Curzon and Paul Hurley and described there as being taken in 1946 on the occasion of the visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.
We have now checked our original sources and we're satisfied that the picture was, as described here, taken in 1937.

On the 12th May 1937 Middlewich joined with the rest of the country in celebrating the Coronation of King George VI, and we assume that this picture was taken, if not on the day itself, on a day very close to it..
The Coronation marked the end of a turbulent time for the British Monarchy. Edward VIII had reigned for less than a year before he was forced to abdicate rather than give up his relationship with Mrs Simpson.
He was never crowned and by 1937, when Edward had been succeeded by George VI, the Monarchy was keen to mount an occasion to remember, in order to restore Royalty's somewhat tarnished reputation.
The town rose to the occasion, as it traditionally did when it came to Royal occasions.
Middlewich had always considered itself to be a 'Royalist' town, from the days of the civil war, although by 1937 this will have been more a matter of custom and practice than of any deep-seated emotional attachment to the Crown.
Nevertheless, for the 1937 Coronation, Middlewich pulled out all the stops. Among the many events were no less than three processions through the town, a bonfire and firework display, and sports on the football ground in Seddon Street.
All these things, and more, were recorded on film for posterity by members of the Mid-Cheshire Amateur Cinematography Society (MCACS) and the films subsequently shown to the public in the Alhambra Cinema.
The Coronation 1937 film is now preserved in the North-West Film Archive at Manchester University, as part of the Roberts Collection.
The film, with the original opening titles restored, will be made available through the Salt Town Productions Youtube channel later this year.
Another feature of Middlewich's celebrations for this momentous Royal occasion was the erection of arches bearing patriotic messages across some of the streets.
There was one in Kinderton Street, one in Kitfield Avenue, and one in Hayhurst Avenue. ICI built one in Lewin Street close to the White Horse
And there was the one shown here, erected by the Independent Order of Oddfellows, who were based at the Golden Lion, just out of shot to the left, proclaiming

LOYAL GREETINGS TO THEIR MAJESTIES THE KING AND QUEEN

This arch also features in the Coronation 1937 film and, fortuitously, when the MCACS cameraman (in all probability Clifford Ridgway) came along to film it, he did so from the other direction, and so we know what it says on the reverse side:

MIDDLEWICH HISTORY READS: 'ALL THE MEN ARE LOYAL THERE'

a quote which is attributed to Charles Frederick Lawrence, Clerk to the MUDC, historian and poet.

He was, of course, alluding to that old Royalist rhyme from the days of the Civil War:

Middlewich is a pretty town,
Seated in a valley,
With a church, a market cross,
And eke a bowling alley.
All the men are loyal there,
Pretty girls are plenty;
Church and King and down with the Rump,
There's none such a town in twenty

In the background Middlewich Motors can be seen, draped with bunting for the occasion, and with another of those superb vintage cars parked outside, complete with spare wheel carrier.
Under the arch itself a gentleman who looks very much like a postman is passing the time of day with a local resident.
(with acknowledgments to Middlewich 1900-1950 by Allan Earl (Cheshire Country Publishing 1994)

MAKING WAY FOR GATEWAY 1987 (1)

2012-03-09T09:25:00.014Z

by Dave Roberts

At the beginning of March 2012 Cheshire East Council gave the go-ahead for a much-enlarged Tesco supermarket on the company's existing Middlewich site between Wheelock Street and St Ann's Road and taking in a lot more of the adjacent land between Darlington Street and Southway, which is currently given over to housing.

It's fair to say that these plans have caused a lot of controversy in the town, with many people saying that the development is far too large and out of keeping with the character of the town centre and others claiming that expansion of shopping facilities in Middlewich is vitally important for the town's survival and that the new store will be a big boost to existing traders in Wheelock Street, who will benefit from the increased numbers of shoppers in the town.

We thought now might be an opportune time to look at the area before it was developed as a Supermarket site in the late 1980s, and, quite fortuitously, Mike Jennings has sent us a wonderful set of photographs taken in 1987, just as work was beginning to transform an old industrial site into what has become, for better or worse, the hub of Middlewich's shopping facilities.

In the 1980s the site was more or less just a field with F Coupe & Sons' Orchard Works and a few other industrial buildings at the top (Southway) end.

The site had long been earmarked as a suitable site for a supermarket and the Co-operative Wholesale Society (Co-op) had submitted plans on several occasions, only to have them rejected by the Middlewich Urban District Council's Planning Committee who 'wanted to protect local traders'.

Eventually the Co-op reached a compromise and built their 'Co-operative Superstore' not on this site but in the Bull Ring.

That 'superstore' (or part of it at least) has, somewhat ironically, now become one of two Tesco Express shops in the town.

This left the Southway site ripe for development and finally, as the 1980s was drawing to a close,the Gateway store and its associated car park was built on the site.

(I have a niggling feeling at the back of my mind that the 'Gateway' brand was used alongside another name at the time, but can find no trace of this anywhere on the internet. Does anyone remember this elusive 'other brand', or am I imagining things?)

This was the first supermarket ever to open in Middlewich and it made quite an impact - so much so that, even after all these years, many local people still refer to it as 'Gateway', whatever it says on the building itself.

Gateway was beset by financial difficulties in the early 1990s and began a major re-organisation which included re-branding of the company, and all its stores, as 'Somerfields'.

Thus, in 1994, Gateway Middlewich became Somerfields Middlewich.

Fourteen years later, in 2008, The Co-op (ironically) took over Somerfields and, for a short time, it looked like the Co-op Supermarket which should have been built there in the early 1970s was going to become a reality on the Southway site.

It never happened, as the Co-op sold on the site, together with others, to Tesco, beginning that company's association with Middlewich which, like it or not, looks like becoming even stronger in the future.

The Somerfield store became Tesco in 2009, according to the information we have.

Can that really be right? Is it only three years since Tesco took over the site? It certainly seems a lot longer.

The date of this Office of Fair Trading document seems to confirm the year:

OFT ADJUDICATION 2009

Mike's picture shows what is now the Southway end of the Tesco car park, with the rear of the Alhambra Chinese Restaurant (at that time a bingo hall) to the right. The tall building above it is Barclays Bank. Southway itself is behind the trees on the left.

MIDDLEWICH TOWN COUNCIL EVENTS - A MESSAGE FROM DAVE THOMPSON

2012-03-08T23:32:00.001Z

Here's a message from Middlewich Town Council's Events Manager, Dave Thompson:

HELP! my PC suffered a virus on Monday resulting in loss of all emails/contact lists.

I`m asking everyone to send out a short message (via their websites/blogs/Facebook etc) asking anyone who`s been in contact with me for this year's events to please email me again at the same address- events@middlewich.org.uk

Many thanks in advance.

Dave Thompson

Events Manager

Middlewich Town Council

Victoria Building

Lewin Street

Middlewich

CW10 9AS

01606 833434

07765 025596

THE MIDDLEWICH LIDO (CROXTON WATER FALL 3)

2012-03-08T21:42:00.012Z

We believe this image to be out of copyright. If you own the copyright, or know who does, please let us know

by Dave Roberts

The 'Middlewich Lido', of course, being a slightly ironic term coined by Geraldine Williams when I gave her a sneak preview of this photo before publication.

This was her reaction: 'This is brill. Positively turns the spot into the Middlewich (albeit dangerous) Lido'.

Which is a fair point.

When we were all a good deal younger a favourite pursuit on a sunny Sunday afternoon was to go 'down the river'.

The river in question being the River Dane.

But our favourite spot on the river (for King Streeters at least) was on the other side of the railway viaduct and road bridge, on the stretch between Middlewich and Byley Bridge.

It was Ravenscroft Hall not Croxton Hall which gazed down upon our paddling and splashing and early attempts at the breast stroke.

But Croxton Hall and the 'Croxton Water Fall(s)' are from a far earlier era. We're grateful once more to Mike Jennings for supplying the above post-card which shows more of the 'water fall' itself than the previous one and shows us just what a substantial structure it was.

I can't resist another comparison with Jim Moores' recent shot of the river and weir:

Such a drastic change, even taking into account the amount of time between the two photographs. But there's something about those walls on the far bank of the river which just doesn't look right in the modern shot. Shouldn't the wall be sloping down to the left as it does in the old picture?

Here's what Mike has to say about the post-card:

'I have come across this photo of Croxton waterfall in my collection. I don't know if you have seen this one?

I wonder who that lot are paddling in there? Judging by the trees and bushes it looks like this photo was taken at a different time than the previous one'.

And Mike has also been doing further research into Croxton Water Fall(s) on our behalf:

Hi Dave

I have been talking to my father who used to clear out the debris from the waterfall which by all accounts was connected to ICI Lostock. They used to do health and Safety surveys on it. I will gather more information from him. He also states that the building burned down at some point killing a number of people?

I will also get more info on this.

Many thanks to Mike and Geraldine and everyone else who has taken an interest in this topic. We await developments, as always.

See also: CROXTON WATER FALL (AND ASSOCIATED ENTRIES - PLEASE FOLLOW THE LINKS)

MIDDLEWICH TRAILS BROCHURE 2010

2012-03-08T21:12:00.000Z

(THIS MIDDLEWICH DIARY ENTRY WAS FIRST PUBLISHED ON 15/02/2012)

This brochure is available now from Middlewich Town Council's offices at Victoria Building in Lewin Street, and features eight walks in and around Middlewich: The Croxton Trail, the Middlewich Town Trail, the Roman Trail, the 'Tales of Wych & Water' Trail, the Waterside Trail, the Six Locks Trail, the Kinderton Walk, and the Wimboldsley Walk.
The directional information in the brochure has been compiled by Alan Wrench of Congleton Ramblers Society and the heritage information by Kerry Fletcher, the Town Council's Heritage Development Officer.
Photographs are by Cliff Astles.
The brochure is now available free and Town Clerk Jonathan Williams says: 'There are plenty available for collection, so please come and collect one'.

SEDDON'S BROOKS LANE 1974

2012-03-07T21:18:00.009Z

Today we're back in the Brooks Lane of 1974.
Seven years after it closed down, quite a large proportion of Seddon's Brooks Lane Works is still standing, including that chimney on the left of the picture which we last saw here.

In fact, as we've had occasion to mention before, the Brooks Lane works, unlike all the other works still operating in Middlewich at the end of open pan production in 1967, never really disappeared completely and remnants of it are still discernible in Brooks Lane today as newer industries such as Tarmac Readycrete have opened in the shell of the former salt works.

Pleasingly, one computer firm we (almost) had dealings with earlier this year gives its address as 'The Old Salt Works, Brooks Lane, Middlewich'.

On the extreme left of the slide, next to the chimney, is the corner of Seddon's railway wagon repair shop - often mistaken for a railway engine shed, which it closely resembles - which has, against all odds, survived to the present day, albeit in a derelict condition.

On the other side of the chimney the dilapidated roof of one of the salt pans, with many of its roof panels missing, can be seen.

To the right are the two buildings, with their distinctive black tarred roofs, fronting onto Brooks Lane, which are also evident in this slide from a few years earlier.

Beyond the grassy bank in the middle of the picture the River Croco makes its semi-subterranean way into Middlewich, running through tunnels under the road to meet the Trent & Mersey Canal at the lower of the three Brooks Lane locks, where it continues to flow through the town,confined in its channel alongside the canal, until it runs into the River Dane at the bottom of Harbutt's Field.

The square structure in the foreground is part of a railway bridge.
We're actually standing on the public footpath which runs from Brooks Lane, under the railway and alongside the access road to the sewage works ('Prosperity Way'), to join the 'Middlewich Eastern Bypass' on Midpoint 18, shortly before that road gives up the struggle and runs out of steam in the middle of a field.

It's interesting to note that this slide was taken from a point just a few yards away from the platform of the proposed new Middlewich Station.
When the new station is built, who knows what the future holds for this part of town?

That new Network Rail radio mast is on the embankment just behind the camera.

A PRINCE AMONG MEN COUNTRY

2012-03-06T07:46:00.011Z

Chris Barrie Photo: BBC

'Of all sad words of tongue or pen,

The saddest are these: It might have been...'

-John Greenleaf Whittier

by Dave Roberts
It could have happened. Who knows?

This area could have been as famous as Holmfirth near Huddersfield, in Last of The Summer Wine country or Goathland on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, the village which played the part of Adensfield in Heartbeat.

Middlewich could have been the centre of a local tourist industry centred on, of all places, Middlewich Football Club.

In the late nineties the BBC made two series of a A Prince Among Men starring Chris Barrie of Red Dwarf and The Brittas Empire fame.
Chris played a 'former professional footballer who has become an entrepreneur'. He was described as 'completely self-centred and suffering from a massive superiority complex'.
Gary had a beautiful German wife, Lisel (played by Francesca Hunt), who worked as a translator, and other characters included his secretaries Sonia and Beverley, his personal manager Dave (of course), his business manager Mark, and Vince, who was played by Bryan Pringle and whose role was the key to how Middlewich became involved in the making of this show.
Vince was the steward of the local football team's social club and the premise of the show hinged on the idea that, by helping his local non-league team and its club, the arrogant Gary Prince would be 'brought back down to earth', in particular after being subjected to Vince's homespun philosophy over a pint or two (or, more likely, a G&T or two) and emerging as a chastened, and a sadder and wiser man. Or something.
The production team were looking for a suitable football club at which to record the outdoor football and indoor social club scenes and the late (and still much-missed) John McAteer, a man who helped Middlewich in the short time he was with us more than most people will ever know, offered the use of Middlewich Town's pitch and social club (both of which had just been massively upgraded and re-furbished due largely to his own tireless fund-raising efforts).
So it was that when Gary Prince dropped in for a homely chat with Vince

Bryan Pringle Photo: BBC

it was at the Middlewich Town FC Bar they sat and chatted.

And when Gary went outside to cheer on the local non-league team, it was on Middlewich Town's touchline that he was standing.

Sadly for all concerned (and particularly for Middlewich's chances of being promoted to the Last of The Summer Wine league) the series was a flop.

Despite Chris Barrie's acting skills Gary Prince came across not as arrogant-but-funny, but as just plain arrogant, and the show ended after just two series.

We'd love to hear from anyone who was involved in the making of the programme, particularly if there are any photographs in existence.

But just imagine what would have happened if the show had been a smash hit. We'd all be drinking in Beverley's Bar, eating in Sonia's Snack Bar and having our pictures taken next to big signs saying 'Welcome To Middlewich in Prince Among Men Country!'
Twelve episodes of A Prince Among Men were made and transmitted on BBC1 during 1997 and 1998

Francesca Hunt publicity picture promoting the series

Facebook feedback:

Jim Moores I remember this, Dave. I watched the first episode in the Princes Feathers in Winsford. We all sat glued to the set because it was shot 'up the road'. I think we got the dominoes out well before the end...

Dave Roberts Yes. The best review of the show I've read is 'somewhat unsuccessful'. The main problem with it was it just wasn't funny.

RAVENSCROFT COTTAGES

2012-03-05T21:11:00.000Z

A familiar sight to travellers from Middlewich to Northwich along King Street, Ravenscroft Cottages were built in the mid-to-late nineteenth century to house workers on the estate belonging to Ravenscroft Hall, which lies a distance away behind the trees in the background, overlooking the River Dane (the bridge carrying King Street over that River is behind the camera at the bottom of the hill).
These cottages should not be confused with the Lodge at the end of the driveway to the Hall, which is at the top of the hill.
King Street is, of course, much busier these days but most of its current traffic in the Northwich direction comes via Centurion Way and the Holmes Chapel Road roundabout, rather than the traditional way from Middlewich Town Centre via Kinderton Street.
Centurion Way and the section of King Street between the Dane Bridge and the Croxton Lane Junction currently form the B5309.
King Street becomes the A530 after it is joined by Croxton Lane further north.
All of which was very far in the future when this group of children took their leisurely stroll down the hill back in the days of Queen Victoria.

CROXTON WATER FALL

2012-03-05T01:34:00.011Z

We believe this image to be out of copyright. If you own the copyright, or know who does, please let us know

(ORIGINAL DATE OF THIS ENTRY 04/02/2012)

by Dave Roberts

UPDATE: Below is the original text of this Diary entry, full of surmise, conjecture and theory, which I have, as is usual on these occasions, left intact to illustrate once more how the Middlewich Diary works, drawing in further theories, conjecture, surmise and, ultimately, information.

It appears that Croxton Flint Mill was the reason for the existence of 'Croxton Water Fall' in the first place,

The 'water fall' is still there, but in a ruined state - was it damaged by flooding, or just allowed to fall into rack and ruin?

And is the building in the background of our photo the original Croxton Hall Farm? What happened to that? Why was it demolished?

There appears to be no trace whatsoever of this building left in the present day.

All contributions, as ever, gratefully received.

Original text:

CROXTON WATER FALL

Here's an intriguing one. Where is, or was, Croxton Water Fall?

Our usual first resort, Google, reveals nothing (although it does reveal just how many places there are called 'Croxton' all over the world) and I have to confess to never having heard of Croxton Water Fall before.

Neither do I recall ever having seen this picture, until it turned up as part of the Paul Hough Collection recently (It does, in fact, appear in Middlewich by Bran Curzon and Paul Hurley - see Update, below - so must be a reasonably well-known Middlewich photo)

The fact that we are looking at a commercial post card seems to suggest that the area was quite well known as a local beauty spot.

Croxton itself, by which we mean the area around Croxton Lane, is an area where waters meet.

The Rivers Dane, Wheelock and Croco all come together close to where the narrow Croxton Aqueduct on the Trent & Mersey Canal stands.

So which of them was able to boast such an impressive water fall?

We can, of course, rule out the poor old River Croco. We're well acquainted with its course through the town, certainly from Brooks Lane down to its meeting with the Dane at the edge of Harbutt's Field.

It's a narrow and shallow river and, though it does have quite abrupt changes in level in its journey through town, can boast nothing on this scale.

The Wheelock too, which meanders into Middlewich near Nantwich Road and takes a leisurely course along the outskirts of the town heading for Chester Road and its own meeting with the Dane, is rather a small scale river, nothing like as wide as the river (if it is a river) shown here.

That rather grand house in the background, though, is rather suggestive of Chester Road, somehow.

Could Croxton Water Fall be somewhere along that stretch of the River between the Shropshire Union aqueduct and Chester Road, hidden by all those trees which Mr Boosey planted before the First World War and which have been growing wild ever since (see this entry)?

Is the River Wheelock wide enough at any point along that stretch for this water fall to be a part of it?

And could that part of Middlewich be legitimately described as 'Croxton', anyway?

Which leaves us with the River Dane itself.

That river, within the town boundary (in fact, to the north of Middlewich, the course of the river actually is the town boundary), flows mostly through low-lying pasture land and the only large house I know of anywhere near its banks is Ravenscroft Hall, which is not the house seen here.

The weir certainly looks very much as if it could be man made, particularly with that retaining wall on the left.

Maybe Croxton Water Fall is another one of those mysterious gaps in my Middlewich education (like the aptly named 'Mystery Wood') and everyone will be amazed at my lack of knowledge of it.

I have a feeling that the house in the background is the key to this one.

Is it the original Croxton Hall Farm?

Facebook feedback:

Andy Kendrick On the River Dane to your right as you go over the bridge on Croxton Lane. Years ago, when we swam there, the water had a salty taste. We weren't drinking it though...

Dave Roberts What's the big house in the background?

Geraldine Williams Croxton Hall Farm

Dave Roberts Wow! There you go - another gap in my education. I must get down there (when the weather improves, of course) to get a modern day shot for comparison.

Liza Cornall Not sure it is there. The height of the water is nowhere near...even when I was a kid swimming in the river, it wasn't that steep, I'm sure. Unless the river is now much higher than in the pic?

Dave Roberts I'm not sure either, Liza. The picture was taken a very long time ago (probably early 20th century) and so the area must have changed considerably. As I said before, I think a trip down to Croxton Lane with the camera is a must.

Geraldine Williams Zoom in on the satellite map of Croxton Lane and the waterfall shows up well.

Dave Roberts Extraordinary. The waterfall's there (on Google Earth - Ed), but very much in a state of dereliction, compared to the way it looks in the old photograph. And the farm looks a lot further away from the river than it would appear to be in the photo. In actual fact the buildings shown in the photograph can't possibly be the present day farm buildings. They're completely different. The photograph must be very old indeed, and the buildings in it long gone. And the retaining wall on the left of the photograph has disappeared, along with anything else which might show that this was once a neat and tidy structure. I wonder if it was all swept away in the 1930s, in the floods which also put paid to the original Croxton aqueduct? This would explain the difference in the steepness of the waterfall which Liza mentioned. Possibly the farm buildings and a lot of the river bank were washed away by flood waters. After all, if they were powerful enough to demolish an aqueduct...

Geraldine Williams What would be the purpose of an artificial waterfall like that one? Not for water power presumably.

Dave Roberts Possibly just for the sheer joy of having a waterfall next to your property?
(Not so - as we now know, the waterfall was there for a very definite, industrial, purpose - see below -Ed)
It was certainly very picturesque in its day. I wonder if the 1930s floods also swept away the original farmhouse and altered the level of the riverbank?

Geraldine Williams Yes, the waterfall certainly is an enhancement and the placement of the trees looks more landscaped and ordered than random. I can see why you thought about Boosey's. I'm a bit uneasy about the actual building. The farmhouse is currently at the top of the hill and Croxton Hall is on the King Street side of the farm and if the house shown in the photograph had been demolished because of flooding in the '30s I'm sure it would have been a major, recorded event. But if this is not Croxton Waterfall then where else could it be?!!

Dave Roberts You're right. That's what I was thinking. In Middlewich such an event would still be talked about to the present day. Mind you, not a lot has ever been said about the destruction of an entire canal aqueduct by flood water, which we know definitely did happen. And yes, the picture still reminds me in some way of Chester Road. That's just me. In the same way, the 'Awkward Turn To The Lompon' photo still looks, to me, like Kinderton Street, even though I now know it was taken in Lower Street.

Chris Koons Are we talking about the spot just off Croxton Lane? There appears to be another similar, but narrower and more complete, 'waterfall' structure a bit further round the river, close to the reservoir thing.

Dave Roberts That's the place. I take it we're looking at the area on Google Earth? Actually there are a lot of these waterfalls along the Dane (and our other rivers too, of course). But I never knew that this particular one had been dignified with the name of 'Croxton Water Fall'. The one you're talking about, further towards the King Street road and railway bridges, is close to the spot we were looking at here.

UPDATE: We've received the following in the form of a comment from 'Cliffhanger 41' which sheds a lot of light on this subject:

'Dave,the waterfall shown is certainly the one off Croxton Lane. I believe it was built to use the retained water to drive the Flint Mill that was used some long time ago to grind down flint to a powder. This was then transported to the S.O.T. area by the canal to be used to glaze pottery (I think)
A Middlewich Heritage plaque, on the canalside, at the junction of the canal and the river Dane will tell you more.'

The plaque in question is actually one of the information boards (no 10) for the 'Tales of Wych & Water' trail which is just one of eight trails featured in the Middlewich Trails Brochure.
According to the information in the brochure the flint mill operated for about a hundred years, between 1810 and 1910.
There is also information on the original aqueduct which was built in 1777 by Thomas Brindley, replaced in the late nineteenth century and replaced again following disastrous flooding by the present structure around 1930.
The blue brick structures on either side of the present aqueduct are likely to be part of the second aqueduct.
There are also traces, near the site of the mill, of the millrace which ran all the way from the weir (or 'Croxton Water Fall'), and underneath Croxton Lane to power the mill (see below).

UPDATE 11/2/2012:

This diagram was drawn by Frank Smith of Ravenscroft in 1993 to illustrate an article he wrote for the Heritage Society Newsletter in that year.
The weir (or waterfall) is shown here to the right of Croxton Lane and Frank has drawn the course of the millrace which ran from there to the Flint Mill which was, as can be seen, actually on the other side of Croxton Lane and close to the Trent & Mersey Canal (the Flint Mill was not the subject of Frank's article, and so the entire millrace is not shown. It must have been very long indeed).
To the right of the diagram is Croxton Hall, which Frank describes as a 'cheese farm' and has marked as 'demolished'.
Is it the large building seen in the 'Croxton Water Fall' photo?
MORE ON THIS HERE
SEE ALSO CROXTON WATER FALL 2

UPDATE: 5/03/2012: Page 75 of Middlewich (Images of England - Tempus Publishing 2005) by Brian Curzon and Paul Hurley includes the image of the 'water fall' together with a closer view of the hall.

This is what the book has to say about the hall and the 'water fall':

Croxton Hall is a rambling, romantic brick-and-timber framed house of the mid-nineteenth century, built on a picturesque site on the banks of the River Croco
and
'Croxton waterfalls' was actually a weir constructed to control the flow of the river and prevent flooding nearer the town. There was a pool behind which not only made a romantic aspect from the house but could also be used for boating, fishing and other genteel Victorian outdoor pastimes

SEE ALSO: THE MIDDLEWICH LIDO (CROXTON WATER FALL 3)

MUSIC IN MIDDLEWICH: SALINAE MUSIC SESSION AT THE BOAR'S HEAD

2012-03-04T20:00:00.002Z

THE SALINAE MUSIC SESSION

Hosted by Liz Rosenfield
at The Boar's Head, Kinderton Street
(upstairs room)
On the first Sunday of

EVERY month!
Next Session:
Sunday APRIL 1st
IN ANY EVENT WEBSITE

THE MIDDLEWICH DIARY'S GREATEST HITS

2012-03-04T12:51:00.015Z

Blogger, the company which provides the platform on which our Middlewich Diary is based, provides statistics on a daily basis showing us which diary entries are being viewed, by how many people, and in which locations.
At 1pm on Sunday 4th March 2012 there were 163 viewers in the UK, 25 in the USA, 20 in the Ukraine, 17 in Germany, 8 in France, 8 in Sweden, 5 in Russia, 4 in Australia, 4 in Brazil and 3 in Argentina.
Page views per day are around 200-300, which is very good indeed for a specialist interest blog like this one, and just goes to show the immense power of the internet.

Probably of more interest is the Top Five most viewed Diary entries since we started last June. This is the state of play as of 1pm on Sunday 4th March 2012.
As always, click on the blue links to view each one:

LEWIN STREET 1973 by Jack Stanier (820 views). I'm not sure quite why this particular entry should be so popular, but it consistently appears at the top of the list of pages people are looking at.
The original photo was filed with the title LEWIN STREET 1970, but the fact that the old Seddon's Workshops had disappeared by the time the picture was taken caused a change of mind.
There was some speculation about the accuracy of the road sign on the left (or, more precisely, the way in which the road layout is depicted on it - the sign is - or was - accurate enough, but we concluded that it was to be regarded more as a diagram than a map. Considering such points is how we spend our days.

MIDDLEWICH SALT COMPANY LETTERHEAD 1946 (573 views) Taken from a letter found when we cleared out a lot of paperwork from 33 King Street, this ornate and old-fashioned piece of stationery is redolent of old Middlewich salt town days, when the town had a certain something about it - rough, unglamorous and as salty as old Copenhagen.. If you lived here in those days, you'll know what we're talking about. If you didn't, it's difficult to explain. But we try.

CROXTON WATER FALL (185 views) Ah yes! Croxton Water Fall, or Croxton Weir. This entry is based on an old picture post-card showing what looks like a long-gone local beauty spot.

The mystery of where it was/is was solved very rapidly, but the related mysteries of just where the original Croxton Hall was situated, and why the 'Water Fall' looks so radically different from the way it did years ago have given us hours of innocent pleasure.

NOW AND THEN - MANOR LODGE (152 views) Or: The Case Of the Disappearing Gate-post. This, and related entries, show this early 19th century building at various different periods in its life, including its current renaissance as a very stylish residence. One of its gate-posts has had more of a chequered career and was the subject of a Middlewich Diary Exclusive when it was pranged by a motor-car just after Christmas 2011.

MYSTERY PHOTO #1 (SOUTHWAY and TESCO'S CAR PARK) (114 views) Dubbed 'mystery photo number 1' when we were looking through the Paul Hough Collection and giving each photo a roughly relevant title, it didn't stay a mystery for very long. It's the field alongside Southway where the Orchard Works once stood and Tesco now has its car park. Big changes are afoot in Middlewich in 2012, and this area will be radically transformed once more before too long.

So there we are - the five most popular Middlewich Diary postings - so far. We hope you'll stay with us as the story of Middlewich - Past, Present and Future - continues to unfold.

Dave Roberts,

Editor

WORKING AT THE WOODLANDS by Carol Jennings

2012-03-03T15:31:00.004Z

Editors Note: Following on from our Middlewich Diary entry on The Woodlands, Middlewich Diary contributor Mike Jennings e-mailed us with this account of working there in the 1970s, written by his wife Carol.

From what Carol says in her article, it's quite feasible that this photograph of The Woodlands was actually taken in the early 70s, at around the time she worked there, rather than in the 1960s. Many thanks to Carol for her memories and to Mike (Jake) for sending them to us. - Dave Roberts

WORKING AT THE WOODLANDS

by Carol Jennings

I remember this garage very well.

I worked there for a year in 1973-74 when I was 17. I used to work at ERF during the day and then work three or four evenings a week - from 6pm to 10.30pm - at the petrol station for extra cash to pay for driving lessons.

Jelliman's did own it in the late 60s - early 70s but, after the death of Mr Jelliman, his wife sold the garage to a Jewish man called Mr Radivan from Manchester. He owned a few petrol stations, by all accounts.

Mrs Jelliman managed the place on a day-to-day basis for him, along with another lady whose name I don't recall. I do know that she lived on Newton Heath.

They showed me the ropes (or the pumps).

In those days there were no self-service pumps. You pulled up and waited for the petrol pump attendant (me) to come out and fuel your car.

I recall sitting in the little wooden hut between the six pumps with a small paraffin heater for warmth, but still it was cold and draughty.

I read countless books waiting between customers.

You have to remember that in those days there was nowhere to go - no late night shops.

You might get a few filling up on their way to or from Leighton Hospital, or going to work on nights.

I think it may have been the only late-opening petrol station in the area. There were no supermarkets with petrol stations then.

Looking back, it was quite lonely.

I'd cash up on my own and a lady from across the road would come and take the money for safe keeping until Mrs Jelliman opened up the next day.

In the 1970s the big house -'The Woodlands' - was unoccupied, with just one room at the front used as an office during the day.

But late at night it was dark and lifeless and spooky.

I was always glad when my boyfriend, now my husband Jake, came to pick me up.

And yes we were still giving Green Shield stamps in the 1970s too.

Twenty-thousand stamps, or twenty books, got you a torch - something like that.

Petrol was 37p per gallon.

It was 1973, the year of the oil crisis. Petrol rationing was in force and cars queued for miles for fuel.

Black Gold...still the same issues. Still a high price.

CROXTON WATER FALL 2

2012-03-02T20:12:00.017Z

Image compiled by JOHN CAPPER

Following on from our deliberations on Croxton Water Fall and the actual position of the original Croxton Hall Farm, John Capper writes:

Hi Dave, The Croxton Hall post has quite intrigued me. I managed to find a map from 1898 and overlaid it on Google Earth. You can see the Hall was on the flat area behind the trees. I thought you might like to see this.

Many thanks to John for putting this image together. We've marked the position of Croxton Weir (or 'Croxton Water Fall') with an X.
The Old Hall (if that is the building shown in the photograph), while not as far away from the river as the present farm, still looks a little far away from the river.

This, of course, may be the 'foreshortening' effect we keep mentioning, caused by the type of lens used by the cameraman.
John's diagram also shows the course of the mill race running down from the River Dane and under Croxton Lane to serve the Flint Mill which stood where the river and the Trent & Mersey Canal cross at Croxton Aqueduct.
Jim Moores has recently been down to the area and taken some photos of the Croxton Water Fall as it is today:

Note that Jim's picture shows part of the retaining wall on the opposite bank of the river. The problem is that it doesn't look like the wall in the original photograph, possibly due to subsequent re-building.
In recent photographs, and indeed when glimpsed in real-life from the Croxton Lane bridge, the 'water fall' does not appear as deep as it does in the old photo. In this case we can't blame any differences in perspective: that 'Water Fall' has physically changed in the intervening years, and the water level in the lower part of the river appears to be much higher than it used to be. Is that sloping part of the weir, which probably inspired someone to call it a 'water fall' in the first place, still there under the water?.
Here's a comparison of the original photo with a recent one taken by Jim, illustrating how anyone could be forgiven for not recognising the 'water fall' immediately from that old picture post-card:

Now and Then: Can this really be the same place?

SEE ALSO: CROXTON FLINT MILL
CANALS AND RIVERS OF MIDDLEWICH

PEPPER STREET/LOWER STREET JUNCTION EARLY 1970s

2012-03-01T20:46:00.009Z

If you own the copyright on this photograph, please let us know

Looking almost impossibly narrow and confined, this is the junction between Pepper Street and the area where Lower Street became Wheelock Street. It's very early in the 1970s - quite possibly 1970 or 1971.

In fact it's rather difficult to say which particular street Pepper Street is joining here - Wheelock Street is to the right, and Lower Street to the left.

Perhaps it might be more apt to say that this is where Pepper Street meets The Bullring.

Across the road is the then brand new building built by the Co-operative Wholesale Society Ltd and known as the Co-operative Superstore, reflecting its purpose as a place where all the previously scattered Co-op departments in Middlewich were, for the first time, gathered together under one roof.

It's rather disconcerting to note that the shop's entrance wasn't always on the left hand side, as it is now that Tesco Express rules the roost there. The right hand part of the building, now occupied by Pineland Ltd, was at this time the Co-op's chemists department.

The windows in the building on the left belong to the flat above Vernon Coopers' Radio, TV and electrical shop, and the brick wall on the right was part of the house next to Dewhurst's butchers shop.

This junction, together with the reverse side of that ridiculously tall (for sighting purposes) STOP sign can be seen in this entry as it appeared from a camera position looking in the opposite direction from just underneath the Co-op's long vanished canopy.

As Seddon's Salt Works was in Pepper Street it might be thought that this cramped and inconvenient junction might cause problems for vehicles wanting to reach the works but, in actual fact, the entrance and exit for carts (and later lorries) taking loads of salt from Seddon's was further down Lower Street, next to the gas showroom near Town Bridge.

MURGATROYD'S SALT WORKS AERIAL VIEW

2012-02-29T20:35:00.000Z

We believe this image to be out of copyright. If you own the copyright, or know who does, please let us know

(ORIGINAL DATE OF THIS DIARY ENTRY 25/02/2012)

by Dave Roberts
This diary entry has been revised several times as I tried to reconcile what I thought I knew (and remembered) about Murgatroyd's Works with what is shown in this photograph from the Carole Hughes Collection.

The Murgatroyd's Salt Works in Brooks Lane is familiar to those who study the history of the local salt industry, but what concerns us here is that part of the works in the centre of this aerial view alongside the railway line.

When Murgatroyd's closed in 1966 (the first of the remaining open pan works to do so) the works as we knew it consisted of the buildings in the lower middle of the picture and a few ancillary buildings including the wagon repair shop and, of course, the building housing the no 2 brine pump, which is being preserved to stand as a representation of the town's long history of salt making. Incidentally the pdf document about the brine pump which we have linked to includes a plan of the site at its fullest extent, but with no date.

In the 1980s the Cheshire Museums Service published a poster featuring a cut-away diagram of the works showing how it was constructed and how it operated.

The poster can be found on page 37 of Wych & Water (Middlewich Vision 2009) by Tim Malim and George Nash.

This book, incidentally, is a must for anyone who wishes to learn about the Middlewich Salt Industry - and the canals which served it - and is available for purchase from Middlewich Town Council.

The County Museums poster shows the works as it was at the time of its closure and includes the buildings seen in the section of our main photo shown below:

We believe this image to be out of copyright. If you own the coyright, or know who does, please let us know

This section of the photograph is remarkable similar to the view of Murgatroyd's in the Cheshire Museums poster; so much so that the diagram must have been based on the photograph.
But the poster is titled 'Murgatroyd's Open-pan Salt Works Middlewich 1889-1966' and there is no indication that we are only looking at a part of the works.
So when was that large section of the works running along the railway line built, and when did it disappear?
Turning once again to Wych & Water and the invaluable series of maps showing the comings and goings of the various salt works in Middlewich over time, we can see that it appears in the 1898 OS map (dated as 1889) and is included in the 1909-14 and 1939 OS Maps.
So it must have been built some time between the years 1889 and 1898 and been closed some time after 1939.
It may well be that the remains of this part of the works was still there in the 1960s, but I can't remember them.
Another interesting point is this: what has happened to the network of railway lines which are shown on all the OS maps from 1898 onwards?
There were, from the late 19th century (possibly from the earliest days of Murgatroyd's), connections to the LNWR Sandbach-Middlewich-Northwich branch line, (via The Salt Siding from 1918), serving the ICI Mid-Cheshire Works and Murgatroyd's.
In fact the works (the part which survived until 1966) was, at one time, circled by railway tracks in a way which irresistibly reminded us of a model railway layout, as shown in this section of the OS map of 1907/8 (with additions to 1938):

The tracks in question must have been removed before 1966, possibly during the 1950s (Murgatroyd's were certainly using road transport during that period) or even earlier, leaving only the connection to the ICI Works, running behind the Scout Hall, across what is now 'Road Beta' and through the wrought iron works gates, which survive to the present day as part of Pochin's premises.
The ICI works itself was closed in 1962, but the rusting railway tracks lingered on for a few years after that.

Which puts the date of our main picture somewhere after 1939 and before 1966.
So what is intriguing me is this: was that vanished section of Murgatroyd's Salt Works still there as late as the 1960s?
When did it actually close down, and when was it demolished?

Facebook Feedback:

Geraldine Williams: See what you mean about the likeness to a model railway layout. It also strongly resembles the 'paperclip' pattern made by the planes when they are put 'on hold' at Manchester!
I was also intrigued by the 'Roman Road (site of)' shown on the OS map. Has this featured in any of the Roman Middlewich literature?

Editors Note: It appears that Newton Farm (later to be the site of Murgatroyd's Works) had well recognised Roman connections, and that may be the reason why Murgatroyd bought the site, possibly reasoning that the Romans must have identified a source of brine nearby. Follow the link to 'No 2 brine pump' for more on this from Kerry Fletcher's Middlewich Heritage site.

We're grateful to Kerry for the following additional information:

Kerry Fletcher

Just a couple of notes for you. The last salt lump at Murgatroyd's was produced in December 1966, Manchester Evening news came to take photographs of the last shift.
Demolition was in 1968 with the famous Common Pan Chimney coming down in April 1968.
The Open Pans were in operation for 76 years almost to the day, as the first salt lump was produced as the New Year of 1890 was seen in.
I don't know the exact year of when the railway side buildings disappeared, I'll find out for you but it must have something to do with the fact that the Common Salt Pans were last used in 1962-3. I have a picture of common salt being tipped into the wagons below from those buildings. As vacuum salt was being produced at the main factory I suppose those buildings wouldn't be required for anything.
I've discovered quite a few photographs taken around Seddons and Murgatroyd's, some taken by people who worked there, some publicity shots taken by local but now closed photography businesses, some by the papers and the aerial shots were by airview of Manchester or similar company. hope that helps.

NOW & THEN: MANOR LODGE 1974 and 2011

2012-02-29T15:50:00.001Z

(ORIGINAL DATE FOR THIS DIARY ENTRY: 20/12/2011)

In this posting we published a slide of Manor Lodge, close to the aqueduct in Nantwich Road, and blithely threw out the opinion that 'nothing much' had changed. Which, of course, teaches us yet again not to try to rely on memory alone. The Manor Lodge building has in fact changed radically since 1974, as can be seen from these comparison pictures.
At least some of the transformation has been brought about by local building firm Hough Construction, as this series of photographs from one of their publicity handouts shows us.

Photos: Hough Construction UK Ltd

Which reminds us of another point about local conservation, preservation and restoration. Renovation of buildings doesn't just happen. Someone has to have plans drawn up and engage people to actually do the hard work. Hough Construction has been involved in many projects locally in recent years, including restoration work on some of Middlewich's historic buildings, and the company's website has photographs of some of the work they have carried out.

HOUGH CONSTRUCTION WEBSITE

UPDATE: 10th January 2012:
There appears to have been some sort of mishap at Manor Lodge. The stone gatepost which had been painstakingly put back together has been knocked over, and this time the ball on the top has sheared in half. The window behind it (seen on the bottom most Hough Construction photo above) is boarded up, and the corner of the roof has been damaged. It looks as though a large vehicle has either run into or backed into the driveway and gone out of control. Does anyone know what happened? -Ed

UPDATE: 11th January 2012:
Well who better to tell us than the owner of the property, Ewan Macdonald, who posted the following on our Middlewich Diary Facebook Group page:

'A car hit the gatepost at high speed. Knocked one of the blocks up into the roof, damaging eaves, while another block went straight throught the front window. Happened late Boxing Night while we were away. Hopefully Patrick will be able to fix it!'

We're very grateful to Ewan for taking the time and trouble to tell us what happened. Here's a set of recent photos for those who like puzzles. See if you can figure out how it all goes back together...-Ed

CLUE: This is what it's supposed to look like........

SEE ALSO: MANOR LODGE EARLY 20th CENTURY

UPDATE (29th February 2012):

We're grateful to Ewan Macdonald for supplying this photo of the brand new gatepost at Manor Lodge:

As Ewan himself says, let's hope it stays vertical for a few years now!

SEDDON'S OFFICES PEPPER STREET 1920s

2012-02-29T00:28:00.009Z

When Hentry Seddon & Sons Ltd issued the brochure from which the above illustration of the firm's Pepper Street offices is taken, they were obviously keen to make an impact as a modern, go-ahead company in the spirit of the age.

Hence the somewhat stylised depiction of the Middlewich HQ seen here with the very latest in road vehicles parked outside, giving an impression of dynamic but quiet efficiency.

Most of the photographs we use on A Middlewich Diary are very little altered before publication; sometimes we increase the contrast or alter the colouring slightly to make them a little clearer, but mostly they're pretty much as they always were.

This is not the case with this particular photograph.

The original was graced with blue spot colour in an attempt to give the impression of those perennial clear blue skies which everyone likes to think were once common over Middlewich.

We've rendered the whole thing into black and white to make it look a little more natural.

Once again, as with other photos in the brochure in question, the art of the re-toucher is much in evidence, particularly on either side of the main building. This was obviously done to make the office block itself stand out from its surroundings. So why, then, was the row of houses on the left included in the picture? (those houses, incidentally, still exist and are now the whole extent of modern day Pepper Street - one of them is the house in which our old friend Sherry Hill Smith once lived)

We're wondering if it's because it would have been too difficult to preserve the outline of the motor lorry on the left?

Incidentally, as we've mentioned before, re-touching of photographs was very common in this era. Many people considered photographs to be almost akin to paintings, and the 'artistic license' afforded to painters - who often painted what they would have liked to have been in a scene, rather than what they were actually looking at - was extended to professional photographers too. The problem in many cases was that the methods used were crude, and they were often clumsily executed.

We're wondering if the SE DD ON lettering in the windows was placed there especially for the photograph? It just doesn't look very convincing somehow.

Or was it another little touch added during processing by the re-toucher?
And why has one of the windows, top centre, been blacked out?

But, in any case, the whole attempt at portraying businesslike, thrusting modernity is marred somewhat by some feckless member of the lower orders leaving his bike propped up in the open doorway.

The re-toucher doesn't seem to have noticed.

You can see these offices as they were after the works closed here . Note that in the later view of the office building (from the 1970s), that upper central window has been considerably altered.

Facebook feedback:

Geraldine Williams: This pic shows off perfectly the godsend side wall (not a window in sight) where we local girls honed our twosie-and-threesie tennis ball skills most evenings during the Summer.

FILLING SALT SACKS AT MURGATROYD's 1960s

2012-02-27T23:03:00.003Z

If you own the copyright on this image, or know who does, please let us know

A photograph which is fairly self-explanatory. The lady shown here, and the worker behind her (presumably another lady) are filling sacks with salt by the simple expedient of opening a hatch in the salt store and letting the free-running salt flow into them.

By this time women had, through the introduction of various Factory Acts and other legislation, long been banned from working in the arduous salt making process itself, but many of them were employed in jobs such as this, and also in stitching and check-weighing the sacks before despatch.

Others spent their working hours packing batches of boxed table salt or in loading boats, lorries and railway wagons.

As can be seen from the photograph, the working conditions were very basic, and would never be tolerated these days.
There's a photograph on page 29 of Wych & Water (Middlewich Vision 2009) showing exactly the same process being carried on at one of the Seddon's works.

MUSIC IN MIDDLEWICH: STEVEN DOYLE

2012-02-25T20:55:00.001Z

Photo courtesy of Steven Doyle

Here's a link to the website of locally based singer/songwriter STEVEN DOYLE

Featuring his new single 'Going Back To Ireland'.

STEVEN DOYLE WEBSITE

300+ AND COUNTING...

2012-02-25T14:01:00.003Z

THERE ARE NOW WELL OVER THREE HUNDRED ENTRIES IN OUR MIDDLEWICH DIARY, AND MORE ARE BEING ADDED ALL THE TIME.
TO ACCESS OUR TREASURE TROVE OF MIDDLEWICH-RELATED MATERIAL SCROLL DOWN TO THE BLOG ARCHIVE ON THE RIGHT HAND SIDE OF EACH PAGE WHERE THE ENTRIES ARE ARRANGED IN DATE ORDER, OR YOU CAN GO TO THE BOTTOM OF EACH PAGE TO ACCESS THE COMPREHENSIVE INDEX.
WE WELCOME YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS, BE THEY OBJECTS, ARTIFACTS, MEMORIES, PHOTOGRAPHS, SLIDES, FILMS, DOCUMENTS, TAPE RECORDINGS, CASSETTE RECORDINGS OR ANYTHING ELSE YOU THINK MAY BE OF INTEREST.
PLEASE DON'T HESITATE TO GET IN TOUCH BY PHONING US ON 01606 833404, TEXTING US ON 07988290988. E-MAILING US ON MIDDLEWICHDIARY@AOL.COM OR WRITING TO US AT: A MIDDLEWICH DIARY, 5 WHITLEY CLOSE, MIDDLEWICH, CHESHIRE CW10 0NQ.
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MIDDLEWICH DIARY FACEBOOK GROUP

THE WEIR, MILL LANE (OFF NANTWICH ROAD) 1960s

2012-02-24T23:11:00.022Z

If you own the copyright on this image, please let us know

by Dave Roberts

Once again we're taking an educated guess at the date of this photograph from the Paul Hough Collection.

The entire collection with the exception of, I think, one photograph is in black and white and there's a tendency to regard anything in black and white as 'old' and anything in colour as 'new'.

This can be very misleading.

Not every black and white print we see today originated from a black and white negative. Viable colour photography has been in existence since the early 1930s and many of the photographs we're used to seeing in black and white may well have originated on colour negatives and been printed in black and white for reasons of economy.

Then, if the original negative has been lost for any reason, we end up with just a black and white print (and copies of it) and that glorious colour information is lost forever.

Nowadays, digital photography makes it easy for photographers to switch from colour to black and white at the touch of a button, or the click of a mouse. Paul Greenwood showed us how this facility can be used creatively in these memorable 'foggy day in Middlewich' pictures.

So, to get to the point (at last), we can't assume that our photo of the weir in Mill Lane, Middlewich, is particularly old.

I've dated it at around the late 1960s (or possible early 1970s) because of the condition of the paddle equipment on the weir itself.

In the photograph this equipment looks in reasonably good condition (although the paddle framework nearest the camera has started to fall to pieces) and might even have been still capable of controlling the flow of water down to the end of the river at Croxton.

When I was in Mill Lane last summer, the equipment had all gone to rack and ruin and the weir itself was in a very sorry state indeed.
Which, of course, begs the question: if this weir is not being used to regulate the flow of water in the River Wheelock, what is, and who is responsible for it?
From 1989 until 1996 the National Rivers Authority was in charge of the well-being of all the rivers in England and Wales, but its duties have now been taken over by the Environment Agency, whose website yields very little concerning minor rivers like the Wheelock.
So, who knows?
It's not very clear in this photograph, but there is a gap in the brickwork, right in the middle of the bridge where, legend has it, a motorcyclist was killed after plunging over the parapet into the weir.
Whether this is true and why the gap in the brickwork was never repaired (if, indeed, it was caused by the accident), we don't know, but this weir, like all such structures, is a rather grim place and its easy to let your imagination run riot when standing on that little bridge with the constant roar of the waters beneath.
As we've mentioned before the whole area around Mill Lane and this part of the River Wheelock has become rather unkempt and overgrown in recent years.
A colour view of the area, with the bridge taking centre stage can be seen here, and there are some great shots of the weir on Jim Moores' Canals & Rivers of Middlewich Facebook Page

Facebook feedback:

Geraldine Williams I think I only walkjed that path twice in the whole time that we lived in Middlewich - and one of those was the official opening of one of the trails. I was always put off by tales of pet lions at the mill and recalling the demise of the German soldier trying to rescue the little girl in 'The Eagle Has Landed' !

Dave Roberts It's one of the town's creepy places (or I may have too active an imagination) and there's a vague air of unease about the bridge and weir. I found this even as a child when I went there often (my Uncle Bill and Auntie Winnie lived close by at Three Willows). Last summer, when I was suffering from a bad shoulder and couldn't sleep, I took the dog for a walk down there in the middle of the night. There were ghosts everywhere. Ghosts of the past, mostly, though.

Dave Thompson (via e-mail) I can vouch for the two pet lions kept in a barn at Stanthorne Mill.
When I worked at the Tut 'n' Shive (or whatever naff name they gave it after it was the Red Lion), Peter, the manager at the time, mentioned he had some terrapins I could have.
Following a guided tour of the newly-refurbished mill I was 'invited to feed the lions', which were housed in a large barn opposite the mill.
Being a 'cool' 22 year old I said, 'sure, no problem'.
Two fully grown lions greeted our entrance with (very) loud roars - have you heard them at feeding time at Chester Zoo?
It's a difficult noise to describe if you haven't - my recollection is vague, since my only thought was to find my way back out as quickly as possible!

MIDDLEWICH LOCAL HERO AWARDS 2012

2012-02-24T18:28:00.007Z

from the MIDDLEWICH TOWN COUNCIL website

www.middlewich.org.uk

LINK: MIDDLEWICH TOWN COUNCIL

2012-02-24T18:18:00.003Z

MIDDLEWICH TOWN COUNCIL

NOW and THEN: WHITE HORSE ALLEY

2012-02-23T22:00:00.007Z

Mike Jennings' photos of White Horse Alley provoked such a response, particularly from people who remembered, or knew people who lived in, the little cottages behind the White Horse itself, that we thought it would be a good idea to feature a comparison between the area as it was in the early 1970s and the present day.
The 1970s picture, taken from the Paul Hough collection, is reproduced full size below.
The obvious difference between the now and then shots is, of course, that the cottages were still recognisable as such in the early 1970s. In fact the middle one of the three appears from the photograph to have been more or less intact at that time, and there might even have been someone living there. Does anyone know if that was the case?
The one furthest away from the camera in the 1970s shot seems to have lost its upper storey and to be close to the end of the line. This was the cottage which, in our earlier Diary entry, provoked the comparison with the 'smallest house in Britain' on Conway Harbour.
It was a very tiny house indeed.
Looking at the 2012 picture it is not at all clear which houses the surviving walls actually belonged to. There seems to have been much rebuilding of those walls and those who never saw the cottages in earlier days could be forgiven for not knowing that that length of wall in the middle of the shot was ever part of a building.
But that grey sheet of corrugated iron seems to have a raised doorstep underneath it and so is probably the location of the doorway of the middle cottage (the window having been filled in to form a solid brick wall) and the length of low wall beyond it may well be the last remains of that tiny cottage next door.

If you own the copyright on this image, or know who does, please let us know.

From the Paul Hough Collection, the Lewin Street end of White Horse Alley as it was around the early 1970s. The rear wall of the White Horse is on the left and between that and the boarded up house next door is what looks like a bricked-up alley or ginnel.

The three cottages in this little row are all of different sizes and different designs, and appear to have been built in a piecemeal fashion, most likely by various builders and over a lengthy period of time.

WHITE HORSE ALLEY 2012

2012-02-22T01:14:00.015Z

by Dave Roberts
Mike Jennings was out with his camera at the start of 2012 to bring us these pictures of White Horse Alley which, for those who don't know, runs from Lewin Street (alongside the pub which gives it its name) and past Market Field (best known these days as the venue for the Middlewich FAB Festival) to join with St Ann's Walk immediately adjacent to the Oaklands Medical Centre.

The right of way then continues across the High School's car park and around the back of the Sports Hall to eventually reach St Ann's Road.
At one time pedestrians could take a more direct route through the school grounds, but this was never popular with people who at times had to run the gauntlet of some cheeky and appallingly bad-mannered schoolchildren.

When Mike originally sent these photos to us in January, he was asking if anyone knew why White Horse Alley had been blocked off at both ends.

Seemingly, the answer is quite obvious: it's been sealed off pending the start of work on the extension to the aforementioned Oaklands Medical Centre in St. Ann's Walk which, since there seems to be no sign of the work in question starting, would appear to be something of a premature move.
The main picture (above) shows the alley looking towards Lewin Street. Part of the Wych Centre on Market Field is just visible top left.
This part of White Horse Alley was always a good short cut from Market Field to the White Horse during the original Folk & Boat Festival. The festival's compere could make it back to the mainstage in less than a minute after a Festival Saturday afternoon drinking session with Jerry at the pub.
I know, I was that compere.
The alley does not run in a straight line; there is an S-bend close to the remains of the little houses which once fronted onto the alley (see below).
On the other side of the hedge on the right is a field where Mr Smallwood, who lived nearby, kept sheep.
It was the presence of those sheep just yards away from the main Folk Festival site which led, among other considerations, to the cancellation of the 2001 Folk & Boat Festival in the middle of a Foot & Mouth Disease outbreak.
The risk was just too high.
Some have claimed that 'the festival went ahead anyway' because a couple of pubs held music sessions.
Not so. A couple of sessions in a couple of pubs do not a festival make.

Mike's other photographs show (clockwise from top left): 1: A little further down the alley, towards Lewin Street. Some of the gates, fences and sheds of the gardens of Rosemount, backing onto the alley, can be seen on the left; 2: The view across the top end of what was once Mr Smallwood's sheep pasture looking back towards the property across the road from the White Horse in Lewin Street; 3: The last remains of the cottages (at least one of them a serious rival for Conway's 'smallest house in Britain' claim) which once fronted onto White Horse Alley, looking up towards the start of that 'S bend' 4: The same properties seen looking in the opposite direction, towards Lewin Street. the late Mr Smallwood's house is on the opposite side of the fence on the left. The barrier recently erected to prevent access from the Lewin Street end of White Horse Alley can be seen centre left. The White Horse pub itself is immediately to the right of it.

White Horse Alley is sometimes erroneously referred to as a 'cobbled alley'. Those are not cobbles, but setts - square shaped dressed stones, much more uniformly sized than cobbles and giving a smoother surface.

Many of Middlewich's main streets were laid with setts, and they're still there under the modern Tarmac surfaces.

Whenever the roads need to be dug up it's possible to see the original setts.

Which, Middlewich being the way it is, means that the opportunity arises very frequently indeed.

An older photograph of the Lewin Street end of White Horse Alley, showing those tiny cottages before they fell into complete disrepair, together with a 'Now & Then' comparison can be found here

Facebook feedback (from 'You Know You're From Middlewich, When...'):

Cat Cotterill My Nan used to live next door but one to the alley, and I can remember her taking my cousins and I to the smaller field behind the White Horse to see John's cows.
Also I can remember the fair moving to the field behind that (which I believe now has tennis courts on) (Quite possibly Cat means the all weather football pitch at the top of the alley - Ed)

Daniel Preston I remember windows in the cottages along there, the glass green and bulging at the bottom, the sound having slowly succumbed the gravity over the centuries.

Andy Kendrick The cottages which used to be on White Horse Alley were where my parents used to live when they had just married. My Dad told me some good stories about the characters who used to knock around in those days.

WARDLE LOCK COTTAGE

2012-02-19T18:20:00.027Z

Wardle Lock Cottage is, as its name suggests, situated at Wardle Lock at the very end of the Middlewich Branch of the Shropshire Union Canal.
In fact there are those who would argue that the lock, and the cottage, are not on the Shropshire Union at all, but on the Wardle Canal (also sometimes called the Wardle Lock Branch or the Wardle Green Section) which is often touted as 'the shortest canal in Britain'. The whole length, including the lock, is around 100 yards.
A stone set into the bridge over the junction between this short section of canal and the Trent & Mersey gives its name and title as WARDLE CANAL 1929.
Canal enthusiasts still argue for and against the Wardle Canal's claim to fame as the shortest canal in Britain; some say it is a fully fledged canal in its own right, while others say it is an extension of the Shropshire Union Middlewich Branch,
What is certain is that before it was built much transhipment of goods had to take place between the Trent & Mersey and the Middlewich Branch.
The Wardle Canal brought about a big improvement, but was not the perfect solution, due to the high tolls levied on cargoes travelling over it.
The cottage at Wardle Lock is a Grade II listed building, and is one of the treasures of the waterways.
A scale model of it was a great attraction at a National Waterways Exhibition some years ago, and we know of at least one other small-scale representation of the building, on a model railway in Sandbach.
Part of the attraction until a year or so ago was the much-missed presence of 'Auntie' Maureen Shaw who lived there for many years after 'coming ashore' following a lifetime of working on the boats.
Maureen knew all there was to know about the waterways, and gave talks on the subject to local organisations.
She tells her own story in the Tales of Wych & Water CD produced by Salt Town Productions for Middlewich Vision in 2009.
During her time at Wardle Lock Cottage Maureeen made countless friends among the pleasure boaters who travel through Middlewich every year, and was always ready to give advice (and the occasional 'rollicking') to the novice holiday helmsmen and women who passed through 'her' lock.
Sadly, Maureen was taken ill in 2011 and had to leave the cottage. She now lives in sheltered accomodation and, by all accounts, is not in the best of health.
When we appealed for a suitable photo of Maureen in order to pay our own small tribute to 'a true character of the waterways', our old friend Ian Murfitt, himself something of a scholar when it comes to canals, did us proud with this picture:

Ian writes: Aunty Maureen and my daughter Charlee at a fund raiser for Anderton Lift about 12 years ago. Charlee lived with us on the boats for many years. There was much excitement amongst old boaters when her birth was announced and many visited and put silver (coloured) coins in her hands.

Wardle Lock Cottage remained empty for a year and then, on Wednesday 15th February 2012, was sold at auction at the Boar's Head Hotel by Frank Marshall of Knutsford.

A link to the particulars, which include some interesting photographs, is included below

WARDLE LOCK COTTAGE (FRANK MARSHALL)

(please note that the link above will, for obvious reasons, only be online for a short period. If you find it won't work, we'd be grateful if you'd let us know).

P.S. The houses seen behind the cottage in our picture are on what was formerly known as Back Field, as discussed here

Facebook comments:

Geraldine Williams Always a good stopping point for my family on Sunday afternoon walks along the canal. I remember Maureen having an unusual flat-backed goldfish bowl fastened to the outside wall with two hemispheres and a connecting tube for the goldfish to swim from one to the other. I also remember how concerned she was by the lack of safety procedures shown by some of the new breed of boaters using the lock and their seeming unawareness of the dangerous undercurrents when the locks were being operated.

THE RIVER WHEELOCK AQUEDUCT ON THE SHROPSHIRE UNION CANAL (MIDDLEWICH BRANCH) EARLY 2012

2012-02-18T19:04:00.016Z

The Wheelock Aqueduct on the SUC Middlewich Branch, February 2012.

by Dave Roberts

Jim Moores has been out and about recently gathering photographs for his excellent new Facebook page

'The Canals & Rivers of Middlewich' and here he's giving us all a glimpse of one of the three aqueducts in the town - one we've talked about in several previous Middlewich Diary entries but have never had the chance of a proper look at, until now.

Like so many such places around our town, the SUC* aqueduct over the River Wheelock, just yards away from the much better known (for obvious reasons) Nantwich Road aqueduct, is a 'hidden gem'.

It's very similar to the nearby road aqueduct which was built at the same time but, in the case of the river aqueduct, the large sweeping buttresses on either side,with ornamental stone pillars at the end of them are very obvious:

The Nantwich Road aqueduct is lacking these stone pillars and the opulent curves on either side of the road, presumably because of space constraints in the narrow cutting in which it lies.

It seems strange, though, that the river aqueduct, out of sight of the general public, should be given these embellishments and the Nantwich Road one left unadorned.

In the early 1960s,when I was still at Wimboldsley Primary School I remember playing around this aqueduct with a group of friends.

One of our ambitions was to walk through the aqueduct from one side to the other along the middle of the river.

We never did it, as we were unsure how deep the river was.

In those days, just a short distance into the tunnel (both these aqueducts are more like short tunnels,burrowing into the canal embankment, than bridges) on the Wimboldsley side was what looked very much like an abandoned boat.

Another of our ambitions was to rescue this boat, repair it, and go sailing all around the canals and rivers of Middlewich,like our heroes the Swallows and Amazons.

That never happened either.

Jim's third photograph shows the River Wheelock flowing on from the aqueduct and heading off towards its meeting with the River Dane at Croxton.

See also RIVER WHEELOCK EARLY 1970s

* Shropshire Union Canal (Middlewich Branch)

Note: This entry started a discussion in the 'comments' section (see below) of a tunnel under the canal in or near Norman's wood. Chris Moore's Canals & Rivers of Middlewich' Facebook page has photos.

BANK HOLIDAY (1937)

2012-02-17T00:07:00.004Z

Here's a direct Youtube link to part one of 'Bank Holiday', made by the Mid-Cheshire Amateur Cinematography Society in the late thirties around Middlewich, Bostock and Beeston Castle. The film was written by Bill Oakes and features, among others, Arthur Roberts, Evelyn Ridgway, Bill Oakes and Winifred Oakes.
Part one is justly famous because it features a few fleeting seconds of Middlewich Railway Station in all its 1937 glory.
Beeston Castle & Tarporley Station also features in the film, as do many local beauty spots (and pubs) in the area. The large house at the beginning of the film is not in Middlewich but in Wheelock, and still looks pretty much the same today.
The original film is now in the safe keeping of the North-West Film Archive in Manchester. This is the official, authorised Salt Town Productions version of the film, complete with the STP logo. As yet there is no soundtrack, but suitable music will be added in due course.
The film is dedicated to the memory of my Dad, Arthur, who plays the drunk with the bike and the fishing tackle. That's him in the opening scene, throwing stones at someone's bedroom window.

Part two of 'Bank Holiday'

Watch out in part two for the scene in which our weary revellers are picked up and given a lift by a gentleman with a horse and cart. This was completely unscripted and happened when the horse and cart chanced to be travelling along the country lane where filming was taking place. The scene where those same revellers stop to take their boots off and rest their sore feet was filmed at Bostock. That old-fashioned mile-post is still there, exactly as it was 75 years ago. Dave Roberts

LEWIN STREET 1950s

2012-02-16T20:49:00.017Z

We believe this image to be out of copyright. if you own the copyright, or know who does, please let us know

by Dave Roberts
One recurring theme in our Middlewich Diary is the fact that although the streets of Middlewich have changed over the years, they have not changed so much as to be unrecognisable. And here's a case in point from the Paul Hough Collection.

This photograph must be getting on for sixty years old and yet if you were to stand in the same place today with a camera you could take a photograph which would be almost startlingly similar to this one.

To the right is the Cheshire Cheese, now extended somewhat to encompass the little cottage to the right of it, but basically the same place. Is that a Ford Prefect standing outside?

How many people remember the shop next door, now just a terraced house like all the rest in the row?
In fact Lewin Street was never a shopping street in the way that Wheelock Street was (and is); it was always a mixture of houses, shops, pubs, churches and public buildings.
Most of the shops were found further down the street towards the town centre in the area where the Winsford Co-Op dominatad, but in this part of Lewin Street, around the British Legion Club (out of shot to the left and at this date occupying its old premises - the present club was built in the early 1960s) were a few shops including 'Lil Brock's' Newsagents (behind and to the left of the camera, and now part of Cash's Garage) and Horace's barber's shop in the row of houses on the left (now replaced by Larry's, just across the road from the camera and out of shot).
Then there was Annie Blackburn's fruit shop (relocated at some point from further down the street) and Cy Gillett's grocery shop, both in the middle distance, round about where the van is.
But I think that most, if not all, of these were in the future when this photograph was taken.
I'm sure that people will come forward with a few (approximate) dates.
Just above the black car on the left is the location of one of Mike Jennings' Guard Stones, at the end of what is now a pathway which runs from Lewin Street alongside Bembridge Court and connects onto Bembridge Drive. This little passageway appears to have no name and is not marked on any maps (we've marked it in red on the OS map below).
The top end of this passageway would probably not have existed at the time of our photo (although the bottom part of it would, of course, have given access to the rear of the houses on either side of it) and would not have had anything to connect with anyway, except, perhaps, Derbyshire's orchards..

Oddly Bembridge Drive, although it is shown on the map, is not given a name either, though this is probably just an omission by the printers..
We welcome your memories of Lewin Street

MIDDLEWICH OPEN MIKE NIGHTS

2012-02-16T00:00:00.002Z

THE WAYWARD OFFSPRING OF THE LEGENDARY 'POETRY & PINTS'

Singers, Musicians, Poets, Storytellers and Performers of every kind always more than welcome

AT THE BOAR'S HEAD IN KINDERTON STREET, MIDDLEWICH,

ON THE THIRD WEDNESDAY OF EVERY MONTH

All Enquiries to: MIKE PARSONS on

01606 834942

NEXT SESSION: WED 21st MARCH
at 8.30pm

LOADING SALT AT SEDDON'S BROOKS LANE 1920s

2012-02-14T21:01:00.019Z

We believe this image to be out of copyright. If you own the copyright, or know who does, please let us know.

This photograph, which was originally titled 'loading block salt', actually shows two types of salt - block salt and common salt - being loaded at Seddon's loading bay in Brooks Lane, a facility which we were able to see the (much altered) last remains of here in 1974.
Practically nothing is left in the present day.
The picture has all the hallmarks of a specially posed publicity picture.
Everything is simple, clean, neat and tidy and quite a lot of airbrushing has been going on, particularly in the background where, on the other side of the railway, the countryside has been doctored to look more like the rolling downs of Sussex than Cheshire meadowland.
For example, surely there would have been far more barrows full of block salt waiting to be loaded into that box wagon, and far more people doing the loading?
Similarly, there would have been an army of workers loading the common salt into open wagons from those little tramway trucks.
The whole loading area would have been cluttered and slightly chaotic, as anyone who has ever worked in such an environment could tell you.
Notice that the block salt appears to be being loaded into an ordinary box wagon with a curved roof rather than the specialised 'cottage tops' which the Middlewich Salt Company used, as seen here. Seddon's did use 'cottage tops' too, as shown below:

Seddon's Salt Wagon. Notice the distinctive shaded lettering in Seddon's house style, as also seen on the brine tanks at the Brooks Lane, Pepper Street and Wych House Lane works. The wagons in the photo above would also have been painted in these Seddon's 'red lead' colours with the characteristic black and white lettering. Simpson's, who shared part of the site with Seddon's, and packed salt there (they also had premises in Nottingham and described themselves as 'salt-refiners') also had trucks of this kind , but painted a brighter shade of red.

The tramway is also of interest; at various times there were tramways all over this site (see page 38 of Wych & Water (Middlewich Vision 2009) and one extended from the main entrance of the works and across Brooks Lane to a loading bay on a short spur off the Trent & Mersey Canal.
That loading bay is now Middlewich Dry Dock.
Seddon's on Brooks Lane, along with the adjacent Murgatroyd's, had the luxury of its own loading facilities connecting directly with the Sandbach-Middlewich-Northwich branch of the LNWR (later LMS) via the salt siding, but the Seddon's works in Pepper Street, although it lay on the Trent & Mersey Canal, had no direct rail facilities.
Salt from there was taken by horse and cart to Middlewich Station and loaded into the same vans and open wagons.
We have dated this photograph as '1920s' because of its style and presentation but, as with every Middlewich Diary entry, we are open to corrections and additional information and look forward to hearing from you if you can tell us more about this picture.

CROXTON FLINT MILL, CROXTON HALL FARM AND THE D&D SALT WORKS

2012-02-13T02:39:00.010Z

Following on from our deliberations on the weir (or 'water fall') at Croxton, here's a section from an old Ordnance Survey map of 1909 (with additions to 1938), showing the location of the flint mill adjacent to the aqueduct where the Trent & Mersey canal crosses over the River Dane.

It is, of course, just our luck that the weir itself is a matter of millimetres off the map, as are the buildings we are trying to identify - in particular that large house which appears to have stood on the river bank close to the weir.

Our problem being, of course, that the house in the photo appears to be too close to the river bank to be Croxton Hall Farm.
Is it just a foreshortening effect?
It's certainly not the farm which is there now.
But, in the end, we have to conclude that the large house shown here must be the original Croxton Hall Farm. What else could it be?
This entry contains information which may help clear up the mystery

The original purpose of Frank's diagram was to explain the large mound still to be seen (from the Croxton Lane Bridge) in the field next to the river.

At one time there was an ornamental pool close to this mound, stocked with fish and fed from the River Dane, as shown.

Frank's theory was that the well-to-do inhabitants of Croxton Hall Farm would sit on the mound on warm summer evenings and enjoy the sight of the pool and the surrounding countryside.

The mound was made up of the earth excavated to make the pool, which was filled in during the 1950s by silt from 'the ICI reservoir'.

A row of poplar trees was planted along the river's edge to screen the salt works (marked here as 'D & D' salt works) from view.

The 'D& D' Salt Works, by the way, is the 'Dairy & Domestic' Salt Works, which was adjacent to the Condensed Milk Factory alongside the Trent & Mersey canal. It was at its most extensive in the late 19th century, and we looked at the last remnants of it here.

Waterside Way and adjacent developments have now obliterated all traces of it.

LINK: THE CANALS AND RIVERS OF MIDDLEWICH (FACEBOOK PAGE)

2012-02-12T23:56:00.005Z

Croxton Lane Bridge

This recent photograph is by Jim Moores and is just one of many superb photographs and videos on Jim's new Facebook page The Canals And Rivers Of Middlewich. Well worth looking at and subscribing to.

THE CANALS AND RIVERS OF MIDDLEWICH

UPDATE: We've now added a permanent link to Jim's page. It's at the top of the list of links on the

right hand side of this page. -Ed

SAXA SALT WAGON - THE REAL THING

2012-02-12T12:43:00.008Z

Following our entry showing a Hornby Dublo model of a Saxa Salt railway wagon, here's the real thing, as photographed by Chris Beard, who discovered it in a Scottish museum some years ago.
This picture shows one of these wagons as it would have looked prior to 1948, as evidenced by the fact that the return location for the empty vehicle is shown as MIDDLEWICH LMS (LNW).
The inscription above that indicates that the wagon is the property of THE MIDDLEWICH SALT Co Ltd (as, of course, does the SAXA SALT lettering emblazoned across the side).
It will be noted that the SAXA SALT lettering shown here is actually different from the lettering on the Hornby model. The 'S', in particular, appears to be in a completely different typeface.

Further evidence of the wagon's private owner status is in the words NON-POOL on the left, designed to prevent some railway yard foreman somewhere appropriating it for another use.
This would seem to be unlikely to happen anyway, due to the vehicle's high-profile yellow and red livery.
The Middlewich Salt Company features in this entry, which has proved to be one of our most popular diary entries, with the second highest number of 'hits' since we started in June 2011.
Many thanks to Chris for sending us the photo and for going to the trouble of tracking down the name of the museum where this restored wagon can be found. Here's a link.

SEDDON'S SALT PACKERS AT PEPPER STREET

2012-02-12T00:09:00.008Z

We believe this photograph to be out of copyright. If you own the copyright, or know who does, please let us know

Today, from the Carole Hughes collection, we feature a remarkable photograph of women workers (and one gentleman) at Seddon's Salt Works in Pepper Street, probably in the 1930s or 1940s. We have no information on this photograph, so we're assuming that they were salt packers. If you know differently, and/or can put names to some of these ladies, we'd be interested to hear from you.

We're placing this photo as no later than the 1940s, because of the Middlewich Gas Works, which can be seen in the background.

Most of the works, as seen here, including the tall chimney, had disappeared by the end of the 1950s but, as we know, that bridge carrying the gas over the Trent & Mersey canal and into the town survived until the early 1970s.

In fact we have seen this little corner of Seddon's works before in 'A Middlewich Diary', and below are the two photographs together for comparison.

The works, in common with all traditional open pan works, looked almost as dilapidated when it was in full production as it did just before demolition.

Carole Hughes Collection/Salt Town Productions

Facebook feedback:

Robert Sheckleston I think a couple of those ladies moved on and worked ont he salt floor at Cerebos/RHM on Booth Lane

Liza Cornall Are two of those ladies twins?

Robert Sheckleston No, I don't think so.

MIDDLEWICH HISTORY IN MINIATURE

2012-02-11T19:40:00.005Z

Illustration: Vintage Model Trains

There was a time when no model railway layout was complete without at least one of these.
It is, of course, a Hornby-Dublo Saxa Salt wagon, with its distinctive peaked roof.
Saxa Salt is still the country's leading brand of salt (although these days, the brand is part of Premier Foods and its actual place of origin is never made clear).
Saxa was launched in 1907 by the Cerebos Salt Company and soon became their core brand.
Nowadays, as explained on the Premier Foods website (link below), people asking for 'Saxa' are just as likely to be after sea salt, or rock salt or even 'low-salt' salt as ordinary table salt.
The younger element were always fascinated by the Saxa Salt railway wagons (Murgatroyd's and other salt companies used them too) as they did, little 'houses' on wheels.
In fact, railway workers habitually referred to them as 'cottage tops'.
The 'house style' roof was there for a very good, and quite obvious, reason.
Salt had to be kept dry and the sloping roof was intended, just as a house roof is, to keep off the driving rain.
The wagons' roofs were covered in roofing felt, giving them even more of a look of a yellow garden shed on wheels.
Although these vehicles were very common in this and other salt districts, they were not unique to the trade.
They were also used for carrying lime and other powdered chemicals which needed to be kept dry.

PREMIER FOODS - SAXA

P.S. The illustration above is borrowed from e-bay. A piece of Miniature Middlewich history could be yours for less than a tenner, if you're quick.

A photo of the real thing can be seen here

MIDDLEWICH GUARD STONES

2012-02-10T10:25:00.014Z

Mike Jennings writes:

I was asked how many mounting stones were left in the town?

I have had a look around and found two. One at Brooks Lane bridge (above), which used to be against Hamnett's Bakery.

The other is against the entry to the Red Lion yard (below)

There may be more, but I have not seen them. My father tells me that there were mounting stones at The Boar's Head, The Kinderton Arms, The Golden Lion, The Crown (now The Narrowboat -Ed), The Kings Arms, The White Bear and The Big Lock. Would all these places have had stabling facilities?

I'm sure there will have been more of these stones around the town. I'm not sure they were all mounting stones, but may have been there to protect corners of buildings from wheels?

Many thanks to Mike for the photographs. I think that the vast majority of these stones were guard stones, rather than mounting stones, although one or two of them were high enough to have been used for both purposes.

Most mounting stones, though, have a little flight of stone steps leading up to them.

The purpose of a guard stone is self-explanatory. They were placed near walls, usually near gateways, to prevent the metal-tyred wheels of carriages and waggons causing damage to the brickwork, a precaution made necessary by the fact that the drivers of such vehicles were not always aware of the turning radius required to negotiate corners, situated as they were (particularly in the case of carriages and stage-coaches) quite a distance from the actual wheels of their vehicles.

Added to this was the fact that the wheels of horse-drawn vehicles often had iron hubs which protruded quite a distance from the actual wheel and could cause additional damage to property.

And there are many variations on the theme - some buildings have metal cladding wrapped around their corners; others have an entirely separate iron post for the purpose.

Nor is the idea entirely a thing of the past.

Some modern shops, for example, have such metal guards to prevent damage from pushchairs.

We welcome reports, and photographs, of other guard stones around Middlewich. Below are close up views of the stones Mike has seen.

Nantwich Road

Brooks Lane

Facebook comments:

Colin Dutton The guard stone at the Red Lion was to protect the hay barn as it was a coach house and is over 3 ft deep as the gas board had to dig around it to supply gas to the house.

Ash Powell There's one at the end of the alleyway opposite Daves Of Middlewich (in Lewin Street - Ed)

MIDDLEWICH ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY IN KING STREET 1968

2012-02-09T20:27:00.006Z

by Dave Roberts

On a warm afternoon in the Summer of 1968 members of the Middlewich Archaeological Society work on one of the Society's digs in King Street.

This particular site, long since built over, was at the very top of the public footpath, known to us all in those days as 'Bill Hewitt's', which ran, and still runs, from King Street past the 'Stone Houses' and along the River Croco to a point just on the south-west corner of Harbutt's field where two footbridges take it, and the other footpath from King Street, across the river and canal at the Big Lock.

The existence of the Roman Fort at Harbutt's Field was not officially confirmed until 1993, when modern geophysical methods were brought into play, but was long suspected, not least by members of the Archaeological Society, of which my Dad was a founder member.

Excavations were made on the field in the early 1920s aimed at establishing the existence of a permanent Roman fort, which had been the subject of speculation for many years previously, but no evidence of the fort was found.

The excavations the Society made in the years 1964-1969, under the direction of one John D Bestwick, centred around the King Street area and discovered much evidence of salt, iron and leather manufacturing as well as Roman pottery and coins.

The point was, as my Dad used to tell us frequently, if there was not a major military Roman presence in the area, what was all that industry doing there? Who was it serving?

Several members of the Archaeological Society are pictured above, hard at work.

I suppose it might have been a good idea to line them up and take a proper picture of them for posterity, but they were a little bit touchy about being disturbed during their endeavours.

At least two of them are, it will be noticed, sporting the sleeveless pullover and shirtsleeves look as worn by Percy Thrower on Gardening Club during this period.

The gentleman in the light coloured jumper to the right of the trench is my Dad, Arthur Roberts, and also present on the day, among others, were Middlewich UDC surveyor Donald Stubbs and local schoolteacher Ken Laundon, who lived just across the road from this particular dig.

Behind the camera is the path leading 'down Bill Hewitt's' and the greenery just visible top left is part of the then unspoilt farmers' fields leading up to Harbutt's Field itself.

NEW MIDDLEWICH RAIL LINK CAMPAIGN BANNER FEBRUARY 2012

2012-02-08T11:03:00.012Z

Coming to an event near you this summer is this brand new banner bearing a simple but heartfelt message, as the campaign to re-introduce passenger trains on the Sandbach-Middlewich-Northwich Railway continues unabated.

The banner was commissioned by the Middlewich Rail Link Campaign (MRLC) and funded by Mid-Cheshire Rail Users' Association (MCRUA) and will be displayed at such local events as the Middlewich Transport Festival and the Middlewich FAB Festival.

Several colour schemes were suggested by MRLC committee members for the banner, some of them bearing a striking (but purely coincidental) resemblance to favourite football team colours, but in the end this black and yellow livery (to use railway parlance) was selected.

Thanks are due to Dave Thompson at Middlewich Town Council for helping get the banner made.

The new website address shown on the banner will be going live in the next few days.

In the meantime, if you're interested in MRLC's plans for a new Middlewich Station, you might like to join the campaign's Facebook group (link below).

Lovers of correct English usage will be pleased to see that the banner refers to MIDDLEWICH RAILWAY STATION rather than MIDDLEWICH TRAIN STATION.

MRLC FACEBOOK GROUP

MID-CHESHIRE RAIL USERS' ASSOCIATION WEBSITE

2012 DIARY DATES: MIDDLEWICH FAB FESTIVAL

2012-02-07T20:20:00.003Z

Looking ahead to the warm days of summer, here's advance notice of the Middlewich FAB Festival dates for this year.
Further details will be available from the festival's website (which, please note, has the suffix .uk) as the weekend draws nearer.

MIDDLEWICH FAB FESTIVAL WEBSITE

MIDDLEWICH FAB FESTIVAL FACEBOOK GROUP

A FOGGY DAY...

2012-02-06T21:47:00.013Z

Photos by Paul Greenwood Descriptions by Dave Roberts

A foggy day in old Middlewich town in February 2012, captured in this beautifully atmospheric shot by Paul Greenwood. The Church of St Michael & All Angels can just be glimpsed in the background and, to the left, the lights of the amphitheatre glow fitfully through the gloom.

As ever cars jostle for position outside the Tesco Express and, a little further up Hightown on the right, we can just make out the outline of the former Fitton's/Vernons butchers shop, now home to the Balti Spice takeaway.

In the foreground is evidence of the work being done by National Grid all along Wheelock Street to replace ageing metal gas pipes with plastic ones.

Looking, if anything, even more out of place than usual, on the right, is one of those ghastly street lamps dubbed 'glorified patio heaters' (probably by me) which so disfigure our town centre with their plasticky cheapness.

Let's hope they prove to be as temporary as the road works.

A short distance away, in Wheelock Street, further evidence of the National Grid's endeavours can be seen on the right and, to the left, the lights of Reed Rains Estate Agency and Bargain Booze glow almost eerily through the fog. Also on the left can be seen the Alhambra, the town's second cinema, built in the 1920s, with its ornate facade, and its name, thankfully preserved. The building is now enjoying a new lease of life after being a cinema, bingo hall and amusement arcade in its time.

The amusement arcade, it will be remembered, was, like most things associated with the youth of the town, going to bring hellfire and damnation down on us all, and mean the end of civilisation as we know it.

Strangely, it never happened and now it's a Chinese restaurant - probably the only Chinese restaurant in the country named after a Moorish palace in Spain.

It's almost possible, looking at this picture, to imagine oneself back in the Middlewich of a hundred years ago.

Despite all the changes over the years, Wheelock Street is still recognisably the same place we see in pictures from 1912 and even earlier.

The fog, and the black and white photography, lend a timeless quality to the scene and, on days like this, all our Middlewich ghosts come back to haunt us.

Facebook feedback:

Paul Greenwood WOW!!! Thanks ever so much mate - I'm on the cover of Salt Town Productions. :)

Dave Roberts Very prestigious indeed. Talent will out, though. There aren't many people who could have taken those pictures, you know.

Geraldine Williams Terrific pic Paul, very atmospheric. All it needs is a couple of hansom cabs and Jack the Ripper lurking in Vernon's doorway.........!!

Helen Kerr Wow what a fab pic x

Dawn Lee Cracking piccie Paul... I love black 'n' whites. If the modern road works weren't there... it cuddav gotten away with looking like a really old picture... xxx

Julie Westray I was just thinking the same thing

SINGER WANTED BY MIDDLEWICH GUITARIST/SONGWRITER

2012-02-05T11:55:00.003Z

Sample tracks: SOUND ADVICE - Paul Farrington (Soundcloud)
NATURAL HIGH - Paul Farrington (Soundcloud)

NEW RADIO MAST ON THE MIDDLEWICH BRANCH LINE

2012-02-03T23:17:00.005Z

This photograph taken from Prosperity Way, the access road to Middlewich's Sewage Treatment plant, on Friday 3rd February 2012, shows another new addition to the assorted trackside paraphernalia which adorns the Sandbach, Middlewich & Northwich Railway in the modern age.
It's Network Rail's new GSM-R mast (Global System for Mobile communications - Railway, since you asked).
Network Rail are erecting these masts along every railway line in the country - one every four or five miles - and in many places they are causing controversy, particularly in 'areas of outstanding natural beauty'.
Brooks Lane, Middlewich, does not, unsurprisingly, fall into that category.
Because the masts are on railway property NR do not have to ask for planning permission to put them up. They did, however, inform Cheshire East Council, Middlewich Town Council and other interested parties, including the Middlewich Rail Link Campaign, of their intention of siting the mast in the town.
MRLC did not object to the mast being erected, but pointed out that the site chosen is perilously close to the site of the proposed platform for the new Middlewich Station.
Local Authorities have told Network Rail officials that they must be prepared to move the mast if it is found to interfere with the building of the new platform.
It's interesting to note that with all the new signalling and communications apparatus needed to run railways these days, the trackside in Middlewich is now more cluttered with signals, equipment boxes and safety fences than ever before.
However, this has had the beneficial side effect of making the area more secure and a lot tidier than it was.
Incidentally, an inspection of the track made at the same time the photograph was taken shows that the rails are nice and shiny - always a sign that the line is being well used.
All the railway scene in Middlewich needs now is that station. And some passenger trains, of course.

LINK: PAUL HURLEY

2012-02-03T19:35:00.001Z

Illustration: Tempus Publishing 2005

Paul is the author, with the late J Brian Curzon, of Middlewich, a book in the 'Images of England' Series published by Tempus Publishing. Details of some of Paul's other books and stories can be found on his website.

PAUL HURLEY WEBSITE

LINK: MIDDLEWICH CLEAN TEAM

2012-02-03T00:22:00.004Z

MIDDLEWICH CLEAN TEAM

WELCOME BACK!

2012-02-01T23:07:00.010Z

Hello again! Apologies if you've been trying to access our Middlewich Diary over the last few days and been getting nowhere.
We've been making a subtle change to our website address, which is now simply 'middlewichdiary.com', a domain which is our property, meaning that all the content on A Middlewich Diary belongs to Salt Town Productions and, by extension, to the town of Middlewich and can be preserved for posterity (as long, that is, as someone who cares about our town owns the domain name).
If, like me, you automatically type 'www' in front of every web address, that's fine too, as www.middlewichdiary.com will also find us.
None of this will make any difference at all to most people, particularly those of you who pick up new entries on the Middlewich Diary through the links we post on Facebook.
All the old entries, going back to last June, are still available as are the prototype Middlewich Diary pages on The Salt Town Site.
We're sorry for the inconvenience while the mysterious machinery of the internet (and believe me, you probably know as much about it as I do) has been grinding away in the background to bring about this change, but it's done now.
Normal service resumes tomorrow.
Thank you for your time.
Dave Roberts, Editor

VERNON'S BUTCHER'S BILL 1970

2012-01-30T22:24:00.009Z

by Dave Roberts

From Carole Hughes' collection of Middlewich memorabilia comes this reminder of the time when our town had one of the finest butcher's shops in the area, before the march of progress and some heartbreaking vandalism wrecked it forever in the 1980s.

The story of the unfortunate end of this Middlewich institution is told in The Butchered Butchers Shop, but here is a reminder of happier times, just prior to decimalisation of the currency, when Vernons were keeping up the old standards and traditions of the former Fittons butchers shop on Hightown.

Even the bills had a pleasingly old-fashioned air about them, with assurances such as

All our Meat kept in Cold air Stores during hot weather,

the promise of

Free delivery to all parts daily

and the delightful plea:

It will be esteemed a favour if Customers would send Luncheon orders the previous day

- beautifully phrased, and typical of the old-world courtesy observed by shopkeepers until rampant consumerism started to get the better of us all, not too long after this bill was issued.

The weights of the goods sold are, of course, resolutely shown in pounds and ounces (as, remarkably, they still are today. The British swallowed decimalisation with scarcely a murmur, but it was a different matter when it came to weights and measures. Officialdom seems to have just about given up on the issue and, though we tolerate all those litres and kilos and so on, we still insist on having our weights and measures displayed properly as well).

Having shown myself in past Diary entries to be no great shakes at deciphering these old bills, I'll declare myself open to correction on the details of the goods Mr Sant (or, more likely, Mrs Sant) bought forty-two years ago,but here's what I think they were:

A leg of lamb (2lb 8 1/2 ozs) at 15s 4d

1lb liver at 2s

2oz sausages at 2s

and 10 oz ham at 3s 10d

And isn't it amazing how those of us who remember the old pre-decimal currency can still add up in 'old money'and still do so whenever we see a bill like this...

So it's 10d, add 4d, add another 10d that's 24d - that's 2s, so carry over into the next column. 2s add 3s, add, 2s, add another 2s, add 15s, add 7s - that's 31s, so put down the 11s and carry over the pound.

That'll be £1 11s 0d. Thank you.

COSTELLO'S SHOP, KINDERTON STREET, circa 1973

2012-01-28T17:35:00.006Z

Looking very much stricken with age and seeming to be almost begging for someone to pull it down before it falls down is Costello's grocery shop in Kinderton Street in the early to Mid 1970s.
In fact it's astonishing that a shop selling food should be allowed to stay open in such an appalling state.
This photograph was taken around the same time as this one (slightly earlier, in fact. Note that the Typhoo Tea sign on the left [or at least the 'hoo Tea' part of it] is still intact here, whereas in the colour shot with Mary Costello, the sign has been broken).
To the left of the shop can be seen the little 'privy' which also features here and, behind it, the old outbuilding, the remains of which we featured here.
Next door but one to the shop, beyond the little cottage, is another long vanished Kinderton Street establishment, Whittaker's shop.
This photo was taken from the corner of Brooks Lane and Kinderton Street, immediately next to the Boar's Head Hotel.

NOTES & QUERIES - CARPET SHOP ON HIGHTOWN

2012-01-28T00:09:00.006Z

CARPET SHOP ON HIGHTOWN

Middlewich Carpets & Flooring Photo: Local Data Search

Gemma Blower writes:

Really enjoy reading your blogs on Middlewich. Have you any idea what the carpet shop on Hightown used to be? Some say it was a bank and some say it was a job centre and where you went to collect your dole. Also have you any pics?
Gemma

Gemma originally raised this query as part of another Middlewich Diary topic, and, as it provoked quite a bit of interest, we thought it should be given its own entry.
The shop in question, now home, as can be seen, to Middlewich Carpets & Flooring is quite an attractive building and, in common with a lot of Middlewich's older property, has been all kinds of things in its day.
We welcome your recollections of the shop in its various guises over the years, and would particularly be interested in any old photographs anyone might be able to lend us.

Here's the feedback we've had so far:

Dave Roberts I remember there being a branch of the Trustees Savings Bank on Hightown, but I've an idea that was at the shop which is now Jennie Edwards.

Paul Greenwood I always thought the dole office was down that little alley between the betting shop and New You. It was a door on the right hand side which opened into a small room.

Geraldine Williams We think the carpet shop was the Labour Exchange/Dole Office and the TSB was to the left of the Post Office in Wheelock Street.

Andrew Tomlinson Mother called at 9.30pm last night - very late for her - to tell me that the TSB was where Jennie Edwards is now,and before that it was 'Putty' Bailey's paint shop. It later became Swinton's.
The carpet shop used to be Gater's Cake Shop (companion to the one in Wheelock Street) and No 28 (now St Michael's Drop-in centre - Ed.) used to be the Co-op furniture shop. I do seem to remember the Dole Office being there, but that will have been between the time my Mother's referring to and the present day. Hope this helps.
P.S. - Paul, you are correct about the Dole Office in Wheelock Street - it was a small, dark, smoke-filled room.

Bill Eaton (via e-mail) I recall Jennie Edwards as the TSB Savings Bank and the carpet shop as the dole office. The salon next door was at one time Reg Gater's shop. He had another one in Davenham besides the shop/bakehouse on Wheelock Street. The premises currently used by the Church was Harold Woodbine's electrical/television store. Prior to that it was Winsford Co-op's hardware department.

WEBBS LANE 1969

2012-01-27T10:26:00.019Z

by Dave Roberts

Usually, when looking back on the colour slides I took of Middlewich in the late 60s to mid 70s, I have a pretty good idea why each one was taken.

It was a time of great change in the town as the old salt works closed down and were demolished to make way first for weed and rubble strewn waste grounds and then, slowly but surely, for new developments such as The Moorings.

Information about what was going to happen, which buildings were going to be demolished and which long-standing Middlewich scenes lost for ever to new road schemes and so on, was hard to come by in those days before the internet.

Our sole source of information was the local press which, then as now, seemed more interested in telling us about events in neighbouring towns than in what was happening here.

But most of the time, it was quite easy to work out what to photograph.

Once we knew that the old open pan works were going to be knocked down; that Kinderton Street was going to be radically altered, and that, most dramatically of all, St Michael's Way was going to be ploughing its way through the town from Chester Road to Town Bridge, the list of things to be photographed was written for us.

A similar period in our town's history is approaching now as the Supermarket Wars break out all around us. It's unclear at the moment what the outcome will be but big changes are coming and we're in the fortunate position of being able to chronicle those changes for posterity almost as they happen.

All of which is what my old English teacher rightly referred to as 'waffle', pure filler inserted here so that I can put off the inevitable moment when I have to come clean and tell you that I have no idea why I took the above photo of Webb's Lane forty-three years ago.

The houses shown here were not being threatened by any road schemes; no supermarkets were planned to take their place and, as far as I know, no one was proposing to bulldoze them in order to build a new leisure complex/bowling alley/multi-screen cinema.

I haven't checked recently but I think this row of semis is still more or less the same now as it was then, barring the odd replacement window or new front door (not that you can even see any front doors in this shot ,of course) and the only claim to fame they have is that one of them is now home to Michael 'Trampas' Woodbine.

The interesting houses are way off in the distance, centre right. Yoxall's Row, owned by Mrs Yoxall and Mr Henshall, was a terrace of rented houses which the Middlewich UDC took over round about the time of this photo, making the people living there instant council tenants.

It was my job, as the council's very young (17) stand-in rent collector, to go round there armed with Kalamazoo Rent Collecting System clipboard and leather money bag to collect their very first week's rent, only to be met with a lot of disgruntled tenants complaining about their rent 'shooting up' to 10/- per week. They didn't know how lucky they were.

Once the council's improvements had been carried out (involving, among other things, the removal of those tall chimneys) their rent 'shot up' once more and they had to pay 19/6d a week.

But Yoxall's Row, quite obviously, was not the reason for my taking this slide.

The most likely explanation is that this was the last shot on the reel (or, in the case of Instamatic photography, cartridge) and I wanted to get the film off to Kodak for processing and so took this gratuitous shot to make up the numbers.

Professional photographers, many of whom used 35mm Kodachrome almost exclusively for colour, would get the few shots they wanted and then wind the expensive film through the camera, wasting up to about 80% of it.

But then, most of them probably weren't paying for the film as I was.

For we mere amateurs film was expensive, every exposure counted, and this sort of picture was the nearest we got to a 'throwaway shot'.

Facebook Feedback:

Geraldine Williams I love this clever pic. I presume it's an early morning shot from the shadows, and the solitary figure and absence of cars and mist in the distance makes it very atmospheric. Using up the film....ha! I think Phil and Dennis Hambley would still have been living in one of those houses on the left, and just out of shot is the bungalow owned by Mrs Horsfield. The house at the far end of Yoxall's Row used to be tenanted by the Gallimore family. He was an RAC motorcycle patrolman and also a cousin of my Grandmother's (she of postcard fame).
On the opposite side of Webb's Lane, towards Lawrence Gardens, lived a lady (Noden?) who delivered milk on a tricycle with a lidded container on the front, similar to those once used by ice-cream sellers.
Michael Tully Looks to me like a view from the Big Lock end with Johnny Fahy's place to your right. That can only mean it was before Trampas moved in just to the left hand side. You were probably photographing a neighbourhood that had to get used to some raucous Penny Whistling in the depths of the night. I'd entitle it "The calm before the......"

Kieran Tully ‎"The storm" that included him knifing my brand new red Wembley football in the late 70s! I thanked him for it in the late 80s in the Narrow Boat!

CHAIRMAN'S SUNDAY 1948 - MIDDLEWICH GUIDES IN CHESTER ROAD

2012-01-26T23:22:00.004Z

With thanks to Kerry Fletcher and Dave Thompson at Middlewich Town Council

It's the girls' turn in the spotlight this time as we take another look at the Chairman's Sunday procession in 1948.
Once again, in the right background, we can see the Boosey's Nurseries building and part of the Middlewich Motors premises.
The procession appears to be making its way out of the Nurseries' grounds, prompting further speculation about its itinerary for the day.
It would be useful to know who the MUDC Chairman was that year.
The wonderful lady on the extreme left appears to be marshalling her 'troops' and making sure they are all present and correct ready for the walk back into Chester Road and Wheelock Street (if that was, indeed, the route taken).
Can someone put a name to her? She's certainly every inch the archetypal scoutmistress, and has something of the look of one of Bertie Wooster's Aunts.
Behind her is the Golden Lion, at that time the haunt of professional men like the local doctors and solicitors and lacking the pub's present day...er....shall we say, flamboyance?
Some of the pub's customers have come out onto the street to watch the procession go by.

THE WOODLANDS, NANTWICH ROAD 1960s

2012-01-25T02:02:00.011Z

Nantwich Road in the 1960s (or possibly early 1970s) and treble Green Shield Stamps are being given away with petrol at 'The Woodlands', situated where, in modern-day Middlewich, we find Glastonbury Drive, Malmesbury Close, Lindisfarne Close, Tewkesbury Close, Fountains Close, Westminster Close, Welbeck Close and Buckfast Way, all modern developments built mostly on the site of the former Boosey's Nurseries as mentioned here.
Glastonbury Drive is the main estate road, off which the others branch and replaces the access road running alongside the houses on the far right of the picture. Malmesbury Close, which is the first road to branch off it to the left, runs parallel to Nantwich Road, approximately where the line of petrol pumps is in our picture.

Lurking alongside the building, on the left, is what looks very much like a breakdown truck.
Fortunately for the modern day motorist's peace of mind, this picture was taken long before large signs stating the price per litre of the petrol on sale came into vogue, so we'll never know just how heartbreakingly cheap it was at the time*
* Not so, regrettably. Ignorance is bliss, but Geraldine Williams spills the beans below.
The ubiquitous squeaky Castrol sign is, however, present and correct.
The Woodlands was one of my earliest memories, for the very good reason that it stood directly opposite my home at 53 Nantwich Road.
Despite that, I find I know surprisingly little about it.

But here, riding to the rescue, comes Geraldine Williams:

'...The Woodlands used to be a guest house/hotel and was also used to billet American officers during the American occupation of Cranage(!) and the filling station was always known as Blease's.
My Dad used to top up our car with petrol there - four shots and four gallons for £1. The shots were (apparently) REDeX - an upper cylinder lubricant which was pumped into the petrol tank when filling up with a corresponding number of gallons of fuel and allegedly made the pistons work more smoothly.

(REDeX is still very much with us, and a source of endless discussion among motoring enthusiasts, who will spend hours discussing its pros and cons rather than talking about sensible things such as the relative merits of the Sony ECM 99 mike and the smaller F99A for field recording work, as normal people do -Ed)

Joan Pierpoint used to hold ballroom dancing classes (which I attended) in the big left-hand front room, and I owe all my Foxtrot skills to her. Ha ha!'

For a first hand account of late-night working at the Woodlands petrol station

see WORKING AT THE WOODLANDS by Carol Jennings

Facebook feedback:

Andrew Tomlinson Didn't this garage later become Jelliman's?

Geraldine Williams Yes, I think it did.

RHM SPORTS PAVILION 2007

2012-01-24T17:23:00.013Z

Mike Jennings writes:

I took this photo of the sports pavilion on the RHM Football Ground in July 2007. At that point it was in a poor state of disrepair and Townsend United, who were the last team to play there, were in the same state as the building - on their way out!

I have Townsend stories and records going back to their formation in 1971, when they were run from the Cheshire Cheese.

In the summer of that year the Cheshire Cheese formed a football team. At the time they had enough players to make two teams, but only one was registered with the WInsford Sunday Football League. The Crown also entered a team at the same time, but at the last minute had to withdraw.

The League asked my father, John Jennings, Cheshire Cheese FC Manager, if he could find an extra team.

He suggested it should be called Cheshire Cheese B, but the League rejected this, so he entered them as Townsend United, as the Cheshire Cheese is situated at what was known as the 'Town End' area of Middlewich.

I hope this information is of interest, and I will be able to dig out more about amateur football in Middlewich since the early 1970s.

Editor's note:

Many thanks to Mike. We look forward to more from the Mike Jennings Classic Collection in future Diary entries

Mike's mention of the Winsford Sunday Football League brought back memories for me because, many years ago, I was myself involved in local football administration.

The Kings Arms Hotel had a team in the Winsford League in the 1970s, given the rather grandiose title of 'Red Star Kings Arms FC', and, for some reason which I can't, after all these years, remember, I was first their treasurer and later their secretary. We were forever being threatened with expulsion from the League, mostly because certain members of our team were prone to settling disputes with fists (and the occasional boot) rather than reasoned discussion.

Our manager was Reg Bunn and he and I made many trips to Winsford to plead with League administrators and Highly Important County Officials not to chuck us out following some transgression or other.

We even managed to get one of these crisis meetings scheduled for an evening when Liverpool were playing at home in some very important cup clash or other, and officials sat and fumed while we put our case for leniency forward and the minutes of precious match play ticked away.

You can imagine how popular that made us in Winsford, but we lived to tell the tale.

What I'm trying to work out is, given that I have no interest whatsoever in football (or sport of any kind), what I was doing there in the first place.

Dave Roberts, Editor.

Michael Tully Says:

Remember it well. Played there on Sundays and trained there in the week.

Only one shower was any good. We had that as the home dressing room/ Great memories of great football people. Peter Mc, Ken Metcalfe and alike Andean to name a few.

Ken was diagnosed a broken ankle as a twisted knee! Genuine people who turned up rain, sleet or snow. Played with some good lads up there too. Ginge, Kevin Penny, Tank, Kip, Torch, Buzzer, Doddy, Mylsey, Neil Mc, Zues, the other two Buzzers, Wilf, Cleese, our kid, Ged, Rhino and many more.

Didn't realise what great nicknames they had. Played against soem great teams and lads too, and then into RHM Club for a good laugh. Whenever I go past I remember them all fondly. Great days.

Kieran Tully I played against John Bishop on there three weeks on the spin. RHM were not a great side then, as Saxons beat us 10-0, 9-0 and 8-0. Bishop scored a bucketful, along with Mike Heywood. Happy days, though. Jake was manager at the time, with Mylsey his assistant. Great laugh!

Michael Tully No wonder he ended up in comedy!

Carolyn Nelson Do you remember Sutton Rangers? Great bunch of lads, and my brother managed them. Best team going at the time. Played their home matches down Sutton Lane.

(from the 'You Know You're From Middlewich, When....' Facebook Group)

CHAIRMAN'S SUNDAY 1948 SCOUTS AND CUBS IN CHESTER ROAD

2012-01-24T01:44:00.005Z

with thanks to Kerry Fletcher and Dave Thompson at Middlewich Town Council

In previous Middlewich Diary entries we've looked at some remarkable photographs originating in a collection owned by local photographer Phillip Shales and showing scenes from local events going back over 60 years.

This particular shot is from a file marked 'Chairman's Sunday 1948' and shows Middlewich Scouts and Cubs posing for the camera in Chester Road.
Which straight away brings up another of those anomalies we're always coming across in our travels around Middlewich and its past.

This diary entry shows the scouts, on what is said to be the same day, marching down from their Brooks Lane HQ to the Parish Church.

So why did they end up in Chester Road? Did everyone march there after the church service?
Perhaps it's not an anomaly at all. It could be that it was the usual practice for everyone to march up to Chester Road for what would be called a 'photocall' these days.
There was little room in the town centre at that time for such an activity and, given that the roads were a lot quieter then, perhaps Chester Road was considered the ideal place for such an activity.
We wouldn't recommend trying it now.
The buildings in the right background were all part of Middlewich Motors, and should be compared with the modern Middlewich Autos buildings (themselves due, we're told, for imminent demolition) shown here.
Behind the scouts on the left is the strangely evocative Boosey's Nurseries building which always looked like some kind of overgrown garden shed-cum-garage.
And just look at the faces of the scouts and cubs. Where are they all now?

CROXTON LANE CANAL BRIDGE AND CROXTON AQUEDUCT EARLY 1970s

2012-01-22T23:56:00.026Z

Today we're right on the north-western outskirts of Middlewich in the early-to-mid 1970s. The bridge over the Trent & Mersey canal in the background of the photo carries Croxton Lane on its way from Chester Road to King Street and a very utilitarian and nondescript bridge it is, with heavy steel girders in place of the more typical arched construction, making it look more like a railway bridge than anything to do with the canal network.

Quite possibly the bridge has been rebuilt and strengthened in this way at some point, although it is not clear why. Until recent years, when Croxton Lane became yet another 'rat run' traffic was fairly light.
[UPDATE: Actually, a glance at the latest Ordnance Survey maps and road atlases shows us that Croxton Lane, despite the restrictions of the T&M bridge, the narrow Dane Bridge and the railway underbridge (which is prone to flooding) and the less than perfect access at both the Chester Road and King Street ends, Croxton Lane is now the official A530 road, and the section of King Street from Holmes Chapel Road via Centurion Way to the Ravenscroft Bridge Junction the B road (the B5309). The section of route from Kinderton Street to Ravenscroft Bridge junction seems to be unclassified (according to the latest map we have, at least), possibly because of the weak railway bridge near the King Street Trading Estate.
This will, presumably, all change on that glorious day when Middlewich's Cinderella by-pass (which currently stops dead ignominiously in the middle of a field near the former ERF 'works') is completed?]
So why was this bridge built in this style? Is it the original, or a replacement? It may be that a fault developed with the original bridge, or an accident happened to it and it had to be rebuilt in what would, by that time, have become the railway age, hence the railway-style bridge.
This, however, is just speculation and if anyone knows the true facts of the matter we'd be interested to hear them.
UPDATE: In fact the real answer has been supplied by Andy Roscoe, who knows a thing or two about canals. He's added a comment which reads:

Most of the canal bridges between Croxton Lane and Northwich are built in the same way, the construction allows them to be "Jacked up" and new courses of brick added when subsidence occurs.

The use of the canal for pleasure boat traffic is by now well established, ten years after the end of most of the commercial traffic in the harsh winter of 1962/3,

Behind us is the Croxton aqueduct, seen here in a recent photo from Paul Hough's collection.
The original structure, built by James Brindley in 1777, was replaced by another aqueduct at the end of the nineteenth century, as it suffered from brine subsidence.
This second broad structure which still enabled wide boats from the River Weaver to reach Middlewich Wharf via the equally wide Big Lock (sometimes referred to as 'Middlewich Broad Lock'), was replaced by the current narrow aqueduct following disastrous flooding around 1930.
Parts of the second, blue brick, aqueduct can be seen on the banks of the Dane and, indeed, some of them have been incorporated into the newer structure.
The site of the old Croxton Flint Mill is just discernible here, and its story, along with that of the aqueduct and its predecessors, is told in the 'Tales of Wych & Water' information board (no. 10) close by.
In fact three rivers meet in the vicinity; the Dane, the Wheelock and the Croco. From here the River Dane flows on for another five miles before joining the Weaver at Northwich close to where the Friendly Floatel and the Regal Cinema once were.

Theoretically, wide boats are still able to reach this point (i.e. the Northwich side of the aqueduct) from the River Weaver via the Anderton lift, but it's doubtful if any of them ever do.
There would be little point anyway, as their only option after getting here would be to go back they way they had come.
This, of course, may change if the marina which is forever being planned for the area ever materialises.
A little further along the canal is the mysterious area where the canal widens out into 'flashes' caused by brine subsidence and where many working boats were sunk in the 1960s by British Waterways who were anxious to get them off their books.
And not too far away from this strange and remote location is Whatcroft where, in 1967, the body of Middlewich solicitor Herbert Wilkinson was found in a shallow grave. The mystery of his murder has never been officially solved, and we will be returning to the subject in a future Middlewich Diary entry.
To return to our main picture from the 1970s, on the right is the canal cottage which remained empty and abandoned for many years - mostly, it was said, because it lacked a connection to the gas supply.
This never seemed like a convincing reason why the place should be empty for so long.
There are many houses lacking a gas main and it's not usually considered an insurmountable problem.
Whatever the reason, the house had a forlorn look for many years but it is now occupied and a supply of Calor Gas laid on.
Which brings us to the question of why it was built there in the first place.
It's a very narrow building squeezed in between the canal towpath and the roadway which runs along the towpath to the council rubbish tip.
So why not build it in a more convenient place?
Quite possibly it was home to one of the lengsthmen who carried out routine maintenance on this section of the canal and so needed to be as close to the canal as possible..

Dave Thompson writes:

The cottage on Croxton lane, at the entrance to the tip, was occupied for many years by Rupert Washington- a relative of Sid Washington who started Sids Cars.

As a kid I played at the cottage with Sid's youngest son Stephen. We built bikes from bits collected from the tip and sold them to Howe`s Second Hand Shop on Lewin Street.

MIDDLEWICH AUTOS AND BOOSEY'S GARDEN CENTRE JANUARY 2012

2012-01-20T21:46:00.017Z

by Dave Roberts

Paul Greenwood has been out with his camera to capture some aspects of the present day Middlewich scene for posterity, for the very good reason that some parts of it are, by all accounts, due to disappear soon.

We're saying 'by all accounts' because it appears that matters are by no means settled.

This picture shows Chester Road as it was in mid-January 2012, with Boosey's Garden Centre and Middlewich Autos in what should be their last few weeks before demolition to make way for a new Morrison's supermarket.

According to the local press work should begin on this in March, so it should naturally follow that the removal of these buildings is imminent.

However, other sources are saying that Morrison's, despite having obtained planning permission for their new store, are 'not yet committed' to building it (see 'UPDATE', below).

The theory is that uncertainty over plans by Tesco to rebuild, and greatly enlarge, their premises in Southway are causing Morrison's to delay a decision on actually going ahead with their plans.

Can a town of this size support two major supermarkets?

If they're both built, will people travel here from out of town to shop?

What will be the effect of these developments on the shops in Wheelock Street?

Opinion is divided on this. Some say that two large supermarkets (or even one greatly enlarged one) will kill off trade in the main street.

Others, on the other hand, are saying that the increased number of shoppers in the town will give a boost to Wheelock Street trade, as people will stay in town and buy all the things they can't buy in the supermarkets from the Wheelock Street shops.

Whatever happens, this may be a momentous year for Middlewich and large parts of the town may change forever.

Which is why, to return to the real point of this Middlewich Diary entry, Paul has gone out and about to record the 2012 Middlewich scene.

Middlewich Autos has been in business in Chester Road for over thirty years, replacing a firm with the pleasing name of Middlewich Motors (shame they couldn't keep the name).

Middlewich Motors in the 1950s

MIDDLEWICH AUTOS WEBSITE

Boosey's Nurseries, of course, is much older and pre-dates even the arrival of the Boosey family in Middlewich in the mid-nineteenth century.
William Boosey was an Essex gardener who came here in the late 1850s and took over an existing nursery business.

William Boosey and Family

According to Allan Earl in Middlewich 1900-1950 (Cheshire Country Publishing 1994) Boosey leased land in Holmes Chapel Road, Webbs Lane and Pepper Street as well as in Chester Road and Holmes Chapel.
Allan also makes an interesting point which has a bearing on this entry in the Middlewich Diary:

...' The area of woodland along the Wheelock Valley which can be seen from Coal Pit Lane and Chester Road is overgrown nursery stock which was never cleared after the 1914-18 war, partly because of the fall off in trade in the late twenties and thirties, but also because the land falls away quickly to the river and was therefore unsuitable for agricultural machinery.'

So that great profusion of trees along the river, which I had assumed to be a fairly recent phenomenon, is actually much older than I thought, and now we know why it's there.
Right up until the 1950s and 1960s Boosey's nurseries owned a lot of land in the Nantwich Road area, where Glastonbury Drive and associated developments now lie.
The extent of the nurseries even in those days can be appreciated when you consider that the driveway which runs alongside the fine old Victorian house just where Nantwich Road makes a sharp bend to run down towards the aqueduct, once led into the nursery fields.
And if you stand in the car park of the present day Boosey's premises (while you still have the chance) and look in the direction of Glastonbury Drive you can imagine how things used to be, with many acres of land given over to the cultivation of all kinds of flowers, plants, trees and shrubs.
The change of name from Boosey's Nurseries to Boosey's Garden Centre gives an indication of how the business has changed.

The coffee shop mentioned is run by Helen Ireland and is one of the town's 'hidden gems':

You can find out more about it from the Love Local Life site here

Boosey's Garden Centre would probably never win any architectural awards, but the buildings are attractive enough and it is an amenity which will be greatly missed when, as seems likely, it disappears (sooner or later) from the Middlewich scene.

Our advice is to enjoy it while you can.

Many thanks to Paul Greenwood for the photographs.
Will he be able to return in January 2013 and take more photographs of Boosey's and Middlewich Autos?

Or will a new era for shopping in Middlewich, for better or worse, have begun by then?

UPDATE: At the end of February 2012 it was announced that Morrisons' planned to start work on the site in May, and were still aiming to be open for business at Christmas 2012.
Meanwhile Tesco's original plans were also expected to be passed by Cheshire East's planning department on the 29th February.

Facebook comments:

Andrew Tomlinson with living in Croxton Lane for many years and being friendly with the Morrises I have many memories of this site. I will have to sit down and thumb through some old photos to see what I can find/remember. I do remember the garage being a petrol; station as well as car sales/repairs - owned and run by Bob Williams?

A TALE OF TWO POSTCARDS

2012-01-20T06:55:00.004Z

Or: Spot The Difference!
You could be forgiven for thinking that we had already shown you this classic Middlewich postcard here, but close inspection tells us that this is not the case. The lady in Edwardian dress we saw earlier is nowhere to be seen and a young gentleman carrying a large bundle of some kind (perhaps it's his washing?) is standing in the road eyeing the camera rather suspiciously.
Here, to save you the trouble of flicking back and forth, are the two postcards side by side:

The two versions were obviously taken on different occasions but within a few years, or even months, of each other as there is very little difference between the two, except in small details.
The viewpoint in the second version has been shifted slightly to the left, so that we see the left hand parapet wall of the Town Bridge, rather than the opposite one.
The shop in the centre of both photos, and next to the Churchyard gate, has become festooned in advertisements (or had said advertisements removed, of course, depending on which order the pictures were taken in) and there are some differences to the windows of that strange house with the parapet frontage which we talked about in the first entry. In fact the windows shown here may have been drawn in to make them stand out, so suspiciously white are they. Re-touching, as it was called, was common practice at the time - a kind of early and very primitive version of Photoshop.
The two pictures were also taken at different times of the day, judging by the shadows, and at different times of the year. In the first version, the Town Hall can just be glimpsed through the trees on the right, but in the second it is hidden behind thick vegetation.
And this gives us a chance to answer an outstanding query from Geraldine Williams about the strange, spidery shadow on the wall of the house on the right in the Paul Hough version. Geraldine is wondering if it could possibly be the shadow of a telegraph pole, and I think that's precisely what it is.
The telegraph system had been in operation for quite a few years when the photograph was taken and required many copper wires (far more than a modern telephone line). And, of course, even if we assume the photo to have been taken before the first war, telephones too were becoming increasingly common at that time, adding to the jumble of wires running through the streets.
If you take a look at this aerial view of the area at the time you can see several tall telegraph poles with multiple cross bars on them.

MURGATROYD'S SALT STORE-ROOM c 1914

2012-01-19T20:07:00.006Z

We believe this image to be out of copyright. if you own the copyright, or know who does, please let us know

Geraldine Williams makes a good point when she writes to say:

'Loved this morning's Sunset post but wondered if you have any pics which show what life and conditions were really like for the salt wallers when salt, and Seddon's, was king in Middlewich? I know there's a Murgie's Lumproom postcard in Granny Twiss' collection but that doesn't show the horror of working in the brine pans like my Grandad Lannon did, conditions which were possibly only second to working in the steelworks in Sheffield! Not to mention Middlewich reverberating to the 'knocking out' of the pans on Monday mornings and the soil in everyone's gardens being jet-black from the soot from Seddon's'.

Well to start with here's the postcard mentioned above which comes from the collection kindly loaned to us by Geraldine.
We've dated it circa 1914 because that's the year on the postmark, but it will in all likelihood be from a few years earlier.
Lump salt is being passed through a trapdoor from the drying area below into the lump salt store by men known as 'lofters' - the salt store itself being the 'loft' (in other works the salt store might be in a warehouse at ground level, but transporting the salt there was still 'lofting').
Note how the tapering lumps of salt are being neatly stacked  'thick end to thin end'.
These lumps would either be sawn into smaller pieces and sold as 'cut lump salt', wrapped in grease-proof paper (the Seddon's version of this was called 'A1 Cut Lump Salt' and, after the works closed, my Grandmother was giving a huge wad of the greaseproof sheets to use for wrapping her home made bread. As you can imagine, I rather wish I'd asked her for a few of them) or put into a crushing machine to make fine table salt.
Lump men were experts in the field of open pan salt making and an excellent description of the art can be found on page 36 of Wych & Water (Middlewich Vision Canal & Salt Town Project 2009).
Making common salt was a less exacting process and the men who did this work were called 'wallers'. Common salt was not put into tubs, but simply dumped onto the floorboards (hurdles) and left to dry before being loaded onto barrels and taken to the common salt warehouse.
We'll be returning to the subject of the salt workers of Murgatroyd's in later diary entries.
A word about the postcard: Our attempt to improve the contrast on the sepia original has, unfortunately, resulted in the white lettering at the bottom getting slightly lost.
Given that this is a commercial postcard, some of this is slightly puzzling. What are we to make of the '120 FT X 50 FT' (If that's what it says)? Are these the actual dimensions of the salt store? If so, why would anyone want to put them on the front of a postcard? If not, what do the figures represent?
For the record, the whole of the inscription reads:
STORE ROOM FOR LUMP SALT.   120 FT X 50FT*
MURGATROYD'S SALT WORKS                              MIDDLEWICH              NEIL. PHOTO
*I think that's what it says - it might be 120PT X 50 PT, which makes even less sense.
We await enlightenment on that one.
There's a slightly clearer version of the photograph here, but it's lacking the lettering seen here on the original postcard.
Geraldine's mention of the 'knocking out' of the pans refers to the removal of scale from the pans with sledgehammers (this was done on some of the pans at Seddon's in Pepper Street on Sunday mornings, wrecking any chance of a Sunday lie-in). A very noisy but very necessary job. If the scale was left on the sides of the pans it would cause them to buckle and distort.
And the black soot and smoke was another fact of everyday Middlewich life up until the end of the 1960s.
Not only had the town's salt manufacturers never heard of smokeless fuel, they actually used the dirtiest, cheapest coal available in order to cut costs.

MORETON'S FARMYARD 1973 (2)

2012-01-18T09:00:00.004Z

This slide was taken at exactly the same time as this one, and will illustrate how a change in viewpoint can make a big difference. We're looking once again at Moreton's farmyard and the large building dominating the left hand side of this slide can also be seen on the left of that earlier slide.
Seen from this angle the farmyard looks almost tidy, but the earlier shot shows that, at the time, this was far from being the case.
St Michael & All Angels church tower can be seen just above the roof of the little lean-to centre right.
Behind and to the right of the camera was the large agricultural building where bales of hay were stored, giving the area the name of 'The Stackyard'.
For many years an ancient baling machine was stored in this building - an enormous wooden contraption of the type now seen at steam rallies with lovingly preserved and gleaming traction engines attached to them, demonstrating farm practices of long ago.
It all seems so settled and secure but evidence that change was coming can be seen in the shape of the conical bonfire on the right of the picture made up of beams and lengths of wood from the old farmyard buildings which were soon to disappear to make way for the new King Street/Kinderton Street junction.

HARRY JACKSON AT WHISTON'S

2012-01-17T16:29:00.012Z

Hot on the heels of this picture of Harry Jackson, proudly showing off Whiston's smart new TV van in the early 1960s, comes another one from the same source showing Harry outside the Radio and TV shop itself.
Again, we think this is one from the early 1960s, though it may be slightly earlier judging from the radios and the one solitary TV set on show in the right hand window. The style of that set shows us that we're well into the Granada TV era (we refuse to use the boring, generic 'ITV' label) and those windows are a perfect time-capsule of what look, at first glance, like TV and radio trade names of the past. But, strange to say, all three of the names represented here - Bush, Pye and His Masters Voice - are still in business and their trade marks still used, albeit in modified form.
The most evocative, of course is 'His Master's Voice', now masquerading as 'HMV' with a barely recognisable dog and gramophone graphic derived from the original oil painting by Francis Barraud
The dog, as any trivia fan worth his salt will know, was called Nipper. You'll note that, back in Harry Jackson's day, the Gramophone Company Ltd was still using reproductions of the original painting and the full 'His Master's Voice' title. And so they should.

Any Middlewich resident of a certain age will recognise Whiston's distinctive house style in the shop name and the fine shaded lettering used for the words Radio & TV and Cycles.
Whoever did the sign-writing was a master of the art.
Harry, of course, fits into the scene with his usual style and panache.

Facebook feedback:

Geraldine Williams I see in the later view of Whiston's the sign which you admire so much has gone and been replaced by a more modern (and boring) sign which incorporates the MOT logo. This building was also the Whiston family home and had an entrance door round the side.

Dave Roberts Yes, the whole place ended up festooned with FORD dealership signs and lost its quirky individuality. I hate bland corporate images like that. 'ITV' in case you haven't noticed, is one of my least favourites. An excellent regional TV network wrecked in pursuit of profit.

MIDDLEWICH SHOW 1937 FILM

2012-01-15T22:36:00.002Z

Here's a direct YouTube link to a short (15 minutes) film of the Middlewich Agriculture Show in 1937. The film was produced by members of MCACS (the Mid-Cheshire Amateur Cinematography Society) and the original is now in the North-West Film Archive at Manchester University, as part of the Roberts Collection. Various bootleg copies of this film are in circulation on DVD, but this is the official Salt Town Productions version, complete with restored opening titles. The copyright is held by me.
We hope during the course of this year to be able to present the rest of the films in the Roberts Collection on 'A Middlewich Diary', along with some of the audio presentations we have produced for Middlewich Town Council. Dave Roberts, Editor

WHISTON'S TV VAN EARLY 1960s

2012-01-13T22:34:00.015Z

Now here's a real find. This photo was sent to us by Stuart Warren Twigg, grandson of Harry Jackson who is seen here at the wheel of Whiston's TV van in the early 1960s. Stuart sent the photograph after seeing this entry in the Middlewich Diary, in which we talked about Whiston's Garage which once stood where Wheelock Street, Chester Road and Nantwich Road all meet. In the course of the ensuing discussion Geraldine Williams remembered Whiston's radio department which was behind the camera. We think, from the look of the van and the TV set next to it, that this picture comes from the early 1960s when TV rather than radio was the dominant form of home entertainment.
The van driver is Harry Jackson, Stuart's grandfather. As Geraldine mentioned in our earlier discussion the radio department was run by Harry , who later moved just a short distance down the road to Douglas Williams and Co which was based at the shop now occupied by the Easy Tan Tanning Salon. Another one of nature's gentlemen, Harry was the epitome of old-fashioned courtesy and customer service.
The buildings just visible on the extreme right are the Crosville Garage (now the MoCoCo cafe) and Gater's Bakery, the front part of which has been empty for many years.
The Whiston's building seen here, bearing that enigmatic word SHELLUBRICATION which was seen everywhere in those days, disappeared long ago and all that can be seen on the site in the present day is some shrubbery separating the bus lay-by in St Michael's Way from Red Cow Court.
The main Whiston's buildings, i.e. the Garage and radio and TV shop, were further down the road opposite the end of Nantwich road, as can be seen in that earlier Diary entry.
Also long gone, presumably, is that immaculate Ford Popular van bearing the two-digit local telephone number, which you could obtain by lifting your receiver and saying, 'can you put me through to number 97 please?'
It all sounds rather like a scene from 'The Prisoner'.
The smart looking TV set would enable you to watch BBC Television on Channel 2 or Granada TV/ABC on Channel 9. It was, presumably, made by Pye of Cambridge.

Harry Jackson can also be seen here

Facebook feedback:

Geraldine Williams: We had one of the early TV sets from Whiston's in the 1950s - I think it was in time for the Coronation in 1953 and I seem to remember our sitting room being full of neighbours and relatives who came to watch the ceremony. This also happened for the Cup Final! The TV was a console model with a 9" screen. My father eventually bought a magnifying screen on a stand which was supposed to enlarge the picture and also prevent light reflection. By the look of this picture the business, and the TVs seem to have progressed a lot and I suspect this van is a new addition. Harry looks very pleased with himself!

Michael Tully: Harry Jackson was one of the nicest guys ever. Absolutely great photo of a great man. Hilda, his wife, was fantastic too.

Dave Roberts: You're right, Michael.

MILL POOL AND MORETON'S FARMYARD 1973

2012-01-12T19:41:00.007Z

In the foreground of this Kodachrome slide from 1973 is the sad sight of the Mill Pool in King Street. A pool no longer, it looks very forlorn having been filled in with all kinds of rubble, scrap metal and junk to form another piece of building land.
The pool once powered the Corn Mill in Mill Lane off Kinderton Street, a 17th Century building said by some to be the oldest brick building in the town. The Mill building was (and is) out of shot to the right. About fifty yards out of shot, actually.
Mill Pool was fed by a mill stream which as descibed here (in the first Middlewich photo we ever posted on Facebook) supplied water to the water tower at Middlewich station before running into a small pond on the other side of King Street, where we all fished for sticklebacks as children, and then through a culvert under the road into the Mill Pool. The water from the pool, after powering the mill, drained into our old friend the River Croco.
Presumably that stream still runs underneath the filled-in pool in a culvert which still drains into the River Croco close to Town Bridge Motors. Another investigation is called for when the warmer weather arrives.
Town Bridge Motors now occupy the old Corn Mill (Though my brain will insist that it's called 'Old Mill Motors'. Was the firm ever called that? Is there another firm somewhere called that? Or is it just such a good name for a car repair business that my brain won't let go of it?).
In the background is the also less than photogenic farmyard belonging to Pool Head Farm (the buildings to the left, nearest the road, always being referred to as the 'stack yard'.
The Mill Pool was, at one time, separated from the road and footpath by a high brick wall which ran all the way down to the end of King Street and round the corner into Kinderton Street.
Modern houses have been built on the site of the pool and people can be forgiven for not realising that it ever existed. Only the name of the adjacent Pool Head Farm commemorates Middlewich's lost mill pool.
The whole area is a lot tidier now, certainly than it was when this picture was taken (although, as we said here, Moreton's farmyard now more closely resembles an industrial estate than a farmyard) but it has lost a lot of its semi-rural charm and character.

MANOR LODGE EARLY 20th CENTURY

2012-01-11T18:34:00.009Z

Here's Manor Lodge when it was just that - the lodge at the start of the carriage drive which led from Nantwich Road to the Manor about half a mile away and shown here in a postcard from the 'Perfection' series we estimate to be getting on for a hundred years old.
A 'lodge' in this context is usually described as a small house or cottage at the gates of, or in the grounds of, a large house. It may be occupied by someone specially employed as a gatekeeper or, perhaps, someone who combined that function with the job of gardener or estate manager.
At the time the photograph was taken the lodge really did look as though it was a part of the Manor estate and one can easily imagine being stopped by someone and asked what one's business was at the Manor.
On either side of the impressive gate are well built stone walls which add to the feeling of solidity. Approaching the Manor from this direction in those days must have been quite intimidating.
Note what looks like a lawned area to the right of the gate marked out with white posts. Presumably this was some form of early traffic control measure preventing carriages from making too hasty a descent from the driveway down onto Nantwich Road.
And right in front of the lodge's front door is that stone gatepost, minding its own business and little suspecting that a hundred years later, having had its top portion, complete with ball, resurrected after years of lying in the undergrowth only a short time before, it would be knocked flat by a speeding motor-car.
Assuming that the lodge was built at the same time as the Manor would make it an early 19th Century building dating back to around 1830 (some accounts date it even earlier at 1800).
In this photo it looks very much as if the building is faced in Ashlar Stone, as was the Manor itself (although it, i.e. the Manor, was originally of plain brick construction without stone facing), but its walls have been rendered and painted white for as long as most people can remember.
We'll be looking at Middlewich Manor itself in later Middlewich Diary postings.
SEE ALSO: NOW & THEN: MANOR LODGE
MANOR LODGE: A CHRISTMAS MEMORY

HOW TO MAKE A COMMENT ON A DIARY ENTRY

2012-01-10T02:50:00.008Z

HOW TO MAKE A COMMENT ON A DIARY ENTRY

If the 'comments' box is not already visible after an entry, click on the word'comments' in blue (there will be a number in front of it if there have been previous comments). Click on this and enter your comment in the box. On the drop down list below marked 'Comment as: Select profile' select 'Name/URL' and type your name in the top box (you do not need to enter anything in the other box). Then click on 'continue' and then 'publish'. You should get a message saying 'your comment will be visible after approval'.
All comments are moderated to prevent spam.
We have tried to make it as easy as possible to add comments, and this is as easy as Blogger allows us to make it.
You can still add comments on our Middlewich Diary Facebook Group and on any of the other groups to which we post links.

BIG LOCK AND SILK WORKS 1970s

2012-01-08T00:17:00.017Z

We believe this image to be out of copyright
If you own the copyright, or know who does, please let us know.

This is the somewhat depressing face that the Big Lock pub presented to the world (well, the canal world, at any rate) during the early 1970s.

It's a tall and potentially impressive building, but was always rather overpowered by the milk factory/silk works which, as can be seen here, rubbed shoulders with it for many years. A cobbled alleyway (actually laid with setts, which is a slightly different thing - see this posting) separated the two, and still slopes up from towpath level to the road above.

The Big Lock is what the late Brian Curzon used to call a 'stack pub', built on two levels.

Until the end of commercial canal carrying in the 1960s the establishment also operated on two levels in a different way too, with a bar at street level catering for the inabitants of Webbs Lane, and a bar for the boatmen and their families at towpath level, seen here with its arched door and window on the right hand side of the pub.

It's possible that the opening hours of the two bars were split between daytime hours for the lower bar and evening hours for the upper one, to cater for the two different types of clientele. It was also the practice, before the pub was drastically altered in the 1980s, to open the bottom bar in the depths of winter to cater for the Webbs Lane trade, saving on heating and lighting costs for the much bigger bar on the top level.

The clumsily done and lighter coloured infilled brickwork next to the bar was where the shop selling provisions to canal users was situated.

It's tempting to think of this shop as something of a makeshift affair but, in fact, it was a real shop with plate glass windows and a central door, such as could be found in any High Street.

The Big Lock today is a smart pub-restaurant and a much more attractive looking building.

with a balcony overlooking the canal and a new downstairs bar and function room.

The essential features from the old building, including the ornate terra cotta work outside the boaters bar, have been retained.

From 1990 onwards the pub was a venue for the original Folk & Boat Festival and plays a similar role in the new Middlewich FAB Festival.

For a time, after fire destroyed the large factory building on the right and it was replaced by a modern single storey building, the pub dominated the area and looked a little out of place. However, now that modern housing has been built on the site of the old silk mill, on the other side of that steep cobbled alleyway, the old look of the area has been somewhat restored. We're awaiting permission to use a recent photo which will illustrate this.

On the other side of the lock from the pub is a relatively new addition to the Middlewich scene, the much admired 'Welcome To Middlewich' sign.

Photo:Salt Town Productions

Until the early 1970s there was a lock-keeper's cottage on the other side of the lock which always seemed to lead a rather precarious existence, and you can read about it here.

The Big Lock - i.e. the canal lock - is interesting in itself. It's the only lock in the town capable of taking two boats, side by side, and the reason for this is very simple.

Originally it was possible for wide boats to come up from the River Weaver right into the centre of Middlewich to load salt at the Town Wharf, avoiding transhipment from narrow to wide boats.

However, when the aqueduct over the River Dane at Croxton was washed away by severe flooding in the 1930s, it was replaced by a narrow aqueduct capable only of taking narrow boats.

The steel lock gates, which have been in place since the 1960s, are unusual (and a little inelegant) but have stood the test of time. They're still in place, but now painted in pleasing British Waterways black and white.

Facebook Comments:

Daniel Preston: In the mid-sixties I used to go to that area with some of the lads and lasses from Webbs Lane. There was a rope swing, such as Tarzan is depicted as using, which we used to swing ourselves over the canal. I don't know what the rope was made of, but it was a stretchy material, so as you swung over the canal it stretched.

I can't remember what it was tethered to, only that it was in the area of the silk works. I think it was possible to swing across, let go and land on the other side of the canal.

Robert Shecklestone: In the late 70s I drank in the Big Lock when Freddy Dutton was the landlord.

Dave Roberts: So did I. I still see Fred and Clarice about the town. Very nice people.

CONDENSED MILK FACTORY, FINNEYS LANE 1920s

2012-01-06T18:40:00.019Z

We believe this image to be out of copyright. If you own the copyright, or know who does, please let us know

by Dave Roberts
The Nestlé-Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Factory still looms large in Middlewich history, despite the fact that it closed many years ago.
Now that the factory itself, which was also used as a silk mill for many years, has disappeared to be replaced by yet more housing, the only evidence that it was ever here is in the name of the former manager's house, Swiss Cottage, which stands nearby in Webb's Lane.
Our picture shows the huge bulk of the factory stretching away from the Big Lock pub, which is just beyond the large building on the left, to run alongside the Trent & Mersey canal as it heads for Northwich. On the extreme left you may just about be able to make out the footbridge which still carries the public footpath from King Street, near the entrance to Harbutt's Field, to Webb's Lane.
Henri Nestlé was born in 1812 in Frankfurt and made his fortune in the dairy industry both on the continent and in the UK, despite competition from his arch-rivals the Page Brothers, founders of Anglo-Swiss.

Advertisement from University of Wisconsin

It was the merger of the two companies in 1905 which led to the establishment of the Nestlé-Anglo-Swiss company.
The Middlewich factory was the major factory in the group, which also had premises in other towns around the country. In fact the company's design department was based here and produced plans for the other factories in the group.
When I was growing up in King Street our neightbour, Dora Darlington, used to regale us with stories of riding around the town on the back of the milk cart which delivered milk and other products in the area, eating that famous local delicacy a 'conny-onny butty' (or condensed milk sandwich, to the uninitiated).
Which brings us to another peculiarity of the local dialect. Although Middlewich English uses the short form of vowels - as in 'bath' rather than 'barth' and 'conny-onny' is pronounced exactly as spelt, the longer form - i.e. 'condensed milk' (if you can have a longer form of something that's condensed) is always pronounced 'corndensed milk'.
Similarly 'concrete' is always 'corncrete'.
Just so you'll know if you ever walk into a local shop or builder's merchant and try to buy condensed milk or concrete. I wouldn't want you to get looked at askance.
It's easy to see why Middlewich should have been chosen as a place to manufacture condensed milk; despite the fact that the town was highly industrialised it does stand right in the middle of lush Cheshire dairy country There was also, at one time, a Kraft Cheese factory not too far away in Holmes Chapel Road, more or less where the Shell Garage now stands, and the Little Chef restaurant could be found until it closed in January 2012.
The closure of the milk factory was a blow to the local economy, and there were sighs of relief when the premises were taken over in 1931 for use as a silk factory.
It's hard to resist using the obvious phrase, so I won't: It was a case of 'from milk to silk'.
The silk mill was operated by British Crepe Ltd, a division of the Macclesfield silk makers G H Heath & Co. The massive brick built factory was reduced in size over the years following several disastrous fires, and production at Middlewich, which by then had moved over to synthetic fibres, ended up being carried out in modern industrial units before final closure at Middlewich in 2003.
Production was then moved to Manor Lane in Holmes Chapel and the company ceased production there in around 2005-6. Many thanks to Gina Nicholson (see Facebook feedback, below).

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SEE ALSO FINNEY'S LANE 1968

Facebook feedback:
Geraldine Williams: It never occurred to me why Swiss Cottage was so named. Doh!

Gina Nicholson: British Crepe closed for good in Holmes Chapel about six years ago (2005-6? -Ed). My Dad, Alan Dean, worked there for 40 years until it closed. It did move to Holmes Chapel around 2003.

OLD BUFFERS IN KING STREET, 1975 (BUILDING THE MIDDLEWICH LOOP)

2012-01-06T01:27:00.015Z

Well, apologies if the title of this entry caught your eye and you're taking a look to see if it's anyone you might know. These are the buffers in question, lying discarded by the side of the Sandbach-Middlewich-Northwich line near King Street. Work was going on on the line to create a long 'passing loop' stretching all the way from the Holmes Chapel Road (or 'Station') Bridge to the King Street Bridge, where that road moves from one side of the line to the other. Previously, trains had crossed over onto the single line to Northwich just a few yards from the station, and the second line was merely a long siding (a 'headshunt' in railway terms) which enabled trains to gain access to the station goods yards and also get out of the way if a following train needed to overtake them for any reason by drawing forward along this siding. A very time consuming and cumbersome way of working, of course, as the trains in question would then have to reverse in order to reach the crossover onto the Northwich line.
The simple, and obvious, solution once the station yard had closed was to take out the crossover near the station and create one at the end of the long siding, which necessitated the removal of these buffers, which had been in situ for many years.
Oddly, this wasn't done as part of any resignalling scheme (resignalling with colour lights only happened five years later, in 1980), and meant that the old mechanical signalling system had to be modified, because the end of the loop was quite a distance away from the signal box, out of sight of the signalman.
The viaduct taking the line over the River Dane can be seen on the extreme right and the sign with a white 'T' on a black background signifies the end of a temporary speed restriction, in place while the work went on.

The two photographs above were taken at the same time and show the old track panels which were replaced to form the new 'Middlewich Loop'.
At this stage the points connecting the loop to the Northwich line had yet to be installed.
Remarkably, the two photographs above were replicated thirty-three years later when Robert Avery photographed the Cheshire Gardens Express in 2008

This was the first steam train to travel over the Middlewich line for forty years. The Middlewich Rail Link Campaign's parent organisation, the Mid-Cheshire Rail Users' Association, hoped to run steam trains via this route again this year (2012) but, at the time of publication, it appears doubtful that this will happen. However, given the popularity of the line for rail tours, there's always the possibility that one of the other rail tour companies may stage another steam comeback on the line before too long.
See also
STEAMING THROUGH MIDDLEWICH
and
STEAM ON THE MIDDLEWICH LINE