DAY BY DAY 7 7th JUNE 2024

 

MIDDLEWICHDIARY@AOL.COM

Just days away! The MIDDLEWICH FOLK & BOAT FESTIVAL!

Photo: GARNET MARSHALL

NEXT WEDNESDAY:

NEXT THURSDAY:

MORE Fabulous prizes to be won in the Folk & Boat Festival's twice-yearly Charity Quiz! This time around we're raising money for our sister Festival, the MIDDLEWICH ROSE FETE and CHILDREN'S FESTIVAL! 

Appearing at THE JOHN McATEER FOLK STAGE at Middlewich Town FC over the Folk & Boat Weekend, the lovely SYMONE WREN. Days and times tba shortly! Keep calling back for news of other artists at the Football Club, and how you can have YOUR chance to shine at one of our OPEN MIKE sessions!

FESTIVAL WEEKEND:

St Michael & All Angels Church are offering a fantastic Mini golf course through the weekend of the festival, Open on Saturday 11am to 4pm and Sunday 1pm to 4pm, a great little activity for the kids & Adults!

Courtesy of Lynne Massey

Lynne's photo of the Brunner Mond (later ICI) alkali works in Middlewich makes the place look almost ethereal and romantic. In its working days up until 1962, this was far from the case. Residents in nearby Booth Lane and Brooks Lane still remember the thunderous crash of limestone being crushed by the massive machinery at the works.
To get your modern day bearings, remember that the King's Lock is just out of shot to the left. Although the works has been closed for fifty-two years, its presence in Middlewich has left a long shadow. British Salt, who now own the lime beds (out of shot to the right) associated with the works, recently announced a scheme to turn the area into a haven for wildlife and exotic plants and flowers. The unusual make-up of the ground, with its high concentration of alkali and other waste products, means that flowers usually found only elsewhere in Britain cam be found here.
The lime beds' last industrial use was as a repository for salt scale from the nearby salt works in the 1980s.

Frank Smith wrote a history of the lime-beds which was published in the Middlewich Diary a couple of years ago.

THE LIME BEDS by Frank Smith