Thursday 25 May 2017

MIDDLEWICH MAKERS MARKET 2017 (ARCHIVED)







THE FINAL
MAKERS MARKET:


SATURDAY 27th MAY 
10am - 3pm

It's farewell to the Makers market
after five years in Middlewich.

The Makers Market writes...


This Saturday 27th of May we have the final Middlewich Makers Market showcasing a fabulous selection of food, drink, art, design and street food. We are delighted to be joined by the Annual Middlewich Town Crier competition, from 11am, where Town Criers from across the country will battle it out to be crowned champ. There will also be a junior championship in the afternoon, so get your vocal cords ready kids.
Join us this Saturday for a lovely day in Middlewich. Here is our talented stall holder lineup-
Angel and The Bee
Hey Presto
Truly A Sweets
Flank & Hock
Ghin Kow
V & S Home Decor
Marts craft beer
L G Art
Bagzii
Shams Asian Foods
Petes Wood
Indigo Upholstery
Cupcake
Middlewich Butcher
Bebi G's Bakery
Bridge Park Candle Co
Cheshire cheesecakes
Alessioserra
Greek Kitchen
Flying Teaspoons
Just Waffle
Born on the Waves
Paws and Hounds
Elle Bee Creations
Cheshire pie
Israeli Food
Pudding and Pie
Coffee Food and Wine
Cheshire Cheese Company
Pop corn
Cheshire Roasts
Middlewich Makers Market, 10-3pm, Wheelock Street, CW10 9AB

Middlewich FAB Festival writes...
Heading down to the The Makers Market this Saturday? Keep an eye out forHero RenewablesFacebook Live Giveaway of 2 VIP Tickets to this year’s FAB Festival! All you have to do is find the secret location, pull the #FABFEST pose and you’ll be off to see the Ian Broudie and the Lightning Seeds and more amazing live music. #BETHERE#BEFAB


_______________________________________

Aiden J Devaney, award-winning butcher of Wheelock Street, has supported the Makers Market, and the Artisan Market before it, ever since the beginning.
Photo: MIDDLEWICH GUARDIAN




Willow Bell writes...
It's a beautiful day for Middlewich Makers Market today 🌞😎
As well as our beautiful hand decaled Staffordshire Fine Bone China, we're stocked up on The Thomas-Coles Room Defusers and Shower Steamers also Naked Candle Co Candles and Room Defusers.
We are your Artisan Shop on the High Street

We're also outside again 🤗

Pop down and say hello 👋
We have fabulous gifts 🎁
Come and have a look 👀

The final market coincides with this great  Middlewich event...


Middlewich Town Council
Courtesy of DEVLIN HOBSON, Middlewich Town Crier






Published 8th January
28th January
25th February
25th March
29th April
and 27th May 2017


Editor's Note:
Although the Makers Market of 27th May was the last, all is not lost. The principle of closing Wheelock Street to traffic once a month has become well established over the years, and it is easy to envisage that some kind of monthly market will be able to continue here, either as part of another market 'chain' or as an independent local market, possibly run 'in house' by the Town Council, giving that body much more scope and control over the number and type of traders at each market. Whatever happens, we wish Middlewich's monthly market the very best for the future. DGR

GHOSTS OF MIDDLEWICH STATION


I take my place on the cold platform
'Tis nothing new, it's quite the norm.
Facing South, I watch and wait;
Should've been here by half past eight.

I stand and wait to see my boy.
When he arrives I'll jump for joy.
They let him out at dawn today
For misdemeanours he did pay.

The stationmaster locks his door,
This starry night he'll work no more.
Bids me goodnight, it's oh so late,
Says, 'when you go, please close the gate'.

'I will, kind sir, see you tomorrow',
He looks at me with such deep sorrow,
For he'll be back same time next night.
A slow train stops. No one alights.

A fast train roars through without a hitch.
For trains stop no more at Middlewich.
The station-master, he's mine host
But, alas, like me, also a ghost...

© Trevor Burton


Lewis Battersby, Middlewich Stationmaster 1920
Photo: David Broughton
This atmospheric poem was written by author Trevor Burton, who was born in Manchester and has lived in Middlewich since 1998. Trevor is, perhaps, better known for his detective fiction.

 Here's a link to his blog, containing  further links to his novels, which are available through Amazon.

Trevor Burton, Author

Tuesday 23 May 2017

MIDDLEWICH TOWN CRIER COMPETITION 2017

Middlewich Town Council
...and who better to tell us all about it than our own distinguished Middlewich Town Crier, Devlin Hobson?



IN CONJUNCTION WITH

Last one this Saturday!

ITINERARY



Monday 15 May 2017

KINDERTON STREET ROAD SIGN 1973 and WHEN CHARLIE CRABBE MET TOM JONES


by Dave Roberts

It's 1973 and we're in Kinderton Street just to look at this road sign, a relic of motoring days gone by. There is no mention of the M6, although Junction 18 had opened a decade earlier in 1963. There were plenty of other signs to direct people to the motorway and this relic of times past was left in situ until the buildings were demolished after which it was, presumably, scrapped. The white, slightly askew, sign further up the road is a local sign directing people to Holmes Chapel. Most of this row of buildings was ready for demolition at this point, but Costello's, the shop nearest to the camera sporting the Lyon's Maid Ice Cream sign, lingered on until the bitter end. Here are a couple of other shots taken at around the same time, showing just what a deplorable state the shop had been allowed to get into.

When Charlie Crabbe Met Tom Jones


Talking of the M6, there's a story told of Charlie Crabbe, former landlord of the White Bear.
One day, some time in the late 1960s, the pop singer Tom Jones happened to come into town with his entourage, en route to a gig (this was in the days before Middlewich became the Entertainment Capital of the North-West).
Everyone was stunned to see this sixties icon in their local pub, except Charlie who wouldn't have known him from Adam.
Tom grinned at him and gave him that, 'yes, it's me! Aren't you lucky to have me here?' look which famous people always use.
Charlie gave him a blank look.
Tom walked over to the juke-box and selected It's Not Unusual.
Charlie looked at him again with the light of dawning recognition in his eyes.
'Blimey!' he said, 'I didn't recognise you at first!'
Tom gave him the standard, self-deprecating pop star smile.
'It's a while since I saw you,' went on Charlie, 'you were in that gang that worked on the M6 and you used to come in here every day for your dinner!
'How are the rest of the lads?'


I don't know if it's a true story. I hope so.


Originally published on Facebook 13th May 2011

First published on the Middlewich Diary 21st July 2011

Expanded and re-published 16th May 2017





























MUSIC IN MIDDLEWICH: CHESHIRE FOLK CLUB AT THE BOAR'S HEAD




SUNDAY JUNE 4th 2017
at The Boar's Head
Kinderton Street
Middlewich
8-30-ish


Saturday 6 May 2017

SEABANK - EARLY/MID 1970s


Mike Jennings recently sent us this photograph of Seabank in the 1970s. It's one that we can't recall having seen before, and Mike says he has little or no information on it, or where it came from.
We think, however, that we can date it to around 1975, by reference to the colour slide below, taken by Jack Stanier in 1975 and often referred to here on the Middlewich Diary. In the background, beyond the River Croco and the Trent & Mersey Canal can be seen those large  buildings in Lewin Street  which we have seen so often in our Middlewich Diary travels - on the extreme left the Wesleyan Methodist Church and, centre left, the C of E Infants School. The buildings to the right around the town wharf still exist, waiting, like so much of our town, for better days, and beyond them can be seen the buildings on Hightown adjacent to the churchyard, including the white-painted Kings Arms Hotel at the bottom of Queen Street (not to be confused with the Wharf cottage, also white-washed, next to the Town Bridge).



And when we  compare Mike's photo with this old Middlewich Diary favourite, we can get a few clues as to the date of the Seabank photo. Look, in particular, at the shrubbery next to the old red GPO phonebox. Doesn't that look like the shrubbery to the right of Mike's photo? The Seabank car park at that time was being used  as a base for Ashley's contractors, who were re-shaping Kinderton Street to provide better facilities for traffic to and from the M6 (and, eventually, via the Town bridge, to St Michael's Way). The long-demolished cottages on the right hand side of Seabank, seen in Mike's photo, can also be seen on the extreme right of Jack's photo.