KING STREET/KINDERTON STREET JUNCTION 1972

The first ever entry in the Middlewich Diary featured a photo of Middlewich's most lamented building, Pool Head Farmhouse, on the junction of King Street and Kinderton Street, and this venerable building can be seen on the right of this 1972 shot, as can the high brick wall which enclosed the farmyard (the building on the extreme right is one of the stackyard buildings). The wall continued along King Street to also enclose the Mill Pool which gave the farm its name.
To the left of the combined telegraph pole/streetlamp can be seen a white line. This is, in fact, the edge of a huge advertising billboard which stood in front of the farm's garden and  faced the Station Bridge to attract the attention of motorists coming from Holmes Chapel and the M6. There was another billboard across the road at the entrance to the station, and this can be seen in the photo in this posting.
The wall on the left encloses the station yard and forecourt. The yard, according to Alan Wilkinson in Railways Across Mid-Cheshire (Foxline Publishing) 'once accomodated extensive wagon storage, at least four coal merchants, and served a wide agricultural hinterland in addition to salt and chemicals'. The entrance to the station was just about where the telegraph pole is on the left.
Dominating the scene, as it still does today, is the Masonic Lodge, which hasn't changed a lot, apart from being somewhat smartened up.
Although the scene shown in our picture may not look dramatically different to the present day scene, the junction is very much wider now, necessitating the provision of a traffic island in the middle of it.
Unfortunately, in order to make improvements to Kinderton Street and its junction with King Street, it seems the only option was to widen the road at the end of King Street, leading to the destruction of Pool Head Farmhouse.

SEE ALSO: MORETON'S FARMHOUSE 1972

Feedback from the 'Middlewich Diary' Facebook Group:

• Geraldine Williams I agree that the Farmhouse was a lovely building and it was a great shame that it had to be demolished, but if I may play devil's advocate, the footpath alongside it on King Street was a nightmare! It was so narrow and uneven (you should have tried pushing a pram along it!) and I recall that Vi Carter, who we have mentioned before, had a very bad fall there with serious ankle injuries.
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  Dave Roberts You're right, Geraldine. Sam Downing also had a fall there (I was the one who found him and ran into Moreton's farmhouse to raise the alarm). I wan't being sarcastic or ironic when I talked about the demolition of the farmhouse being 'the only option'. It literally was. The surprising thing was that the new pavement down Kinderton Street was on such a grandiose scale