FAREWELL TO WHITLEY CLOSE

by Dave Roberts

22nd October 2015

Today we bid a fond farewell to the house which has been our happy home for eighteen years.

Number 5 Whitley Close is in a quiet and attractive part of the town, just a short distance from the point where Middlewich merges into Cledford.
Although this could be termed a 'modern' part of the town, the area, like every part of our town if you bother to investigate, does have its historical links.

In the case of Whitley Close, those links are connected with the close proximity of Middlewich Manor.

MIDDLEWICH MANOR    Photo: Middlewich Guardian

The Manor, the history of which we'll be studying in more detail in future Middlewich Diary entries, was built in 1830 for the Court family, and it was one of the family's descendants, a Mr Roylance- Court, who indirectly led to the building of Whitley Close when, in 1978, he sold part of the Manor's grounds for housing development.
Just how close the present-day Whitley Close is to the Manor can be seen from this Google Earth picture:

We only managed a quick glance at the deeds to Number 5 Whitley Close, when they were on their way to our solicitor, but it appears that the area was originally to be called the 'Woodlands Estate', a name which, for reasons obvious to dyed-in-the-wool Middlewichians, might have been better reserved for the Glastonbury Drive/Malmesbury Close development off Nantwich Road which came a few years later.

There have been half-hearted attempts to call the housing developments around the Manor 'The Manor Park Estate' or simply 'The Manor Estate' but these seem to have fallen by the wayside over the years.

In this view from the front garden of Number 5, the Manor is hidden behind the tall trees on the skyline:

It's been a happy eighteen years in a lovely part of town surrounded by good neighbours, but now the time has come to move on.

Our new Middlewich Diary HQ is situated in a much older part of the town, close to the town centre, and from there we'll be continuing our researches into the history of this endlessly fascinating town, as well as promoting what's brightest and best about Middlewich today.

So, farewell to Whitley Close and hello to....

JOIN US THERE!

This was the last Middlewich Diary entry written at No. 5 Whitley Close