DAD AT WORK AT CEREBOS (LATE 40s/EARLY 50s)

by Dave Roberts


This photo first appeared on Facebook, not as part of the regular 'Middlewich' series, but on Father's Day 2011 as a tribute to my Dad, Arthur Roberts, who was a foreman electrician at Cerebos Salt Ltd (later to become part of RHM Foods) from the late 30s until his retirement through ill health around 1969. Dad is pictured here in the generator room at Cerebos in (we think) the late 40s/early 50s. He had an encyclopaedic knowledge of the generator plant and its controls and, when he had to retire, was retained as a consultant and driven up to the works at weekends by Percy Wrench in the works van to check that everything was OK. The Cerebos generating plant was very efficient for its day, as the steam used to run the generators was not released into the atmosphere but recycled to provide heating and hot water for the whole factory, as well as for a very unusual salt pan which can best be described as a giant 'electric kettle'. The steam heated a giant element in the pan which, unlike the coal fired pans at Seddons and Murgatroyds, could be kept going for days and weeks on end, making it far more productive than most salt pans. A lot of the power produced, went to run the vacuum salt plant, fore-runner of the one now in use at British Salt which produces the over half  of the country's salt requirements.

Salt plants and electrical generators are, of course, run with the help of computers these days, but in Dad's day, all the knowledge was, literally, in his head. He taught himself electrical engineering in his spare time by correspondence course.




see also QUEEN MUM


First published on Facebook, Father's Day, July 11th 2011

Republished June 15th (Fathers Day) 2014

Republished June 19th (Fathers Day) 2016

Republished June 18th (Fathers Day) 2017

Also June 17th (Father's Day) 2018

June 16th (Father's Day) 2019

June 21st (Father's Day) 2020

June 20th (Father's Day) 2021

June 19th (Father's Day) 2022

June 18th (Father's Day) 2023

June 16th (Father's Day) 2024

June 14th (Father's Day) 2025

June 21st (Father's Day) 2026

FESTIVAL MEMORIES 1

 

by Dave Roberts

In the run up to the very first MIDSUMMER MIDDLEWICH FESTIVAL over the weekend of June 18th - 21st, we thought it might be nice to take a look back at some  of the classic Folk & Boat Festival photos taken over the years by photographers such as the late and still much-missed CLIFF ASTLES.

We start with this justly famous shot by Cliff from 2011 showing  the Town Wharf and Salinae Field at Festival time.

Sadly the Wharf can no longer be used on such occasions because of Health & Safety concerns, but the Salinae Field will be very much a part of the weekend.

And that bird, so enthusiastically joining in the festivities, wasn't photoshopped, but took the opportunity to get in the picture just as Cliff pressed the shutter release.

What may come as a surprise in this well-known photo is the amount of greenery on the field, which is now .given over mostly to lawns.

An even bigger surprise, to those relatively new to the town at least, is this view of the area as it was before the old Seddons Wych House Lane Works closed in 1967.

The salt pans looming over the Trent & Mersey Canal to the right are situated where the lush greenery of Salinae is in Cliff's 2011 photo.

On the skyline, beyond the canal lock, is one of two other works (the third being Pepper Street) belonging to Henry Seddon & Sons. All three closed in 1967. 
Close to the Brooks Lane works was a fourth open pan works belonging to Murgatroyd's. The associated brine pump has now been preserved by Middlewich Heritage Trust, which is currently in the process of restoring the pumps to working order and also building a medieval salt hearth to demonstrate the ancient craft of open pan salt making.

To the right, on the waste ground between the lock and the end of the salt works, where Wych House Lane (formerly Wych House Street) runs down to the canal from Lewin Street, is Andersen's Boatyard.

This photo will feature in a future edition of GO LOCAL as part of 'Middlewich Memories'.

Find out more about MIDSUMMER MIDDLEWICH here.

WHY MIDSUMMER MIDDLEWICH?

 

18th - 21st JUNE 2026

This was originally a reply to a post on the Middlewich Community Facebook Group. I thought it might deserve a wider audience, as it explains just why Midsummer Middlewich came about and fills in a lot of gaps. DGR

To begin with, the Folk & Boat Festival has NOT changed its name. MIDSUMMER MIDDLEWICH is completely independent of the Folk & Boat Festival, which has been cancelled for this year. The name was chosen very deliberately to make sure there was no confusion with the Folk & Boat Festival, and particularly with the current organisers of that event.

 I was one of the founders of the Folk & Boat Festival, I was its first publicity officer and I was its first MC. In fact I've always been inordinately and inexplicably proud of the fact that I spoke the very first words at the very first Festival:

'Hello! Welcome to the first Middlewich Folk & Boat Festival!' 

Not exactly Shakespeare, but what else would you say? I also founded the Salt Town Poets, who were an integral part of the Folk & Boat Festival for many years and also ran Poets & Pints and Open Mike nights at the Bore's Yed for many years.

Like all Festivals the Folk & Boat struggled for years. It never made any money and was very reliant on grants and sponsorship, neither of which were always forthcoming. Eventually, in 2011, after bailing the Festival out twice, Middlewich Town Council took over its running and continued to run it at a loss - this time to the council tax payers of Middlewich. These losses were brushed under the carpet for many years.The event was cancelled because of Covid in 2020 and 2021. And then, in 2022, having made its Events Manager redundant, MTC made the disastrous decision to 'go it alone' and tried to run 'the FAB Festival' itself, with help from 'contractors'. The final losses have yet to be calculated, but a reliable source tells me the total is approaching £250,000. The Festival went bankrupt and so, very nearly, did the council. Then, in 2023 a group of people claimed to have 'registered' the name 'Middlewich Folk & Boat Festival', thus gaining 'exclusive' rights to use the name. In fact, what they had done is create a limited company, 'Middlewich FAB Festival Ltd'.

This is where, being a 'silly old man' I fell for the lies and deception. I was told that the company's aim was to 'save' the Folk & Boat for the people of Middlewich and I fell for it, hook, line and sinker! No matter that there was little or no actual folk music any more. At least the festival was 'saved'. 

I had a muddled idea that we could re-introduce the folk music later.

There were token attempts to run the festival in 2023 and 2024 (the limited company was dissolved in the latter year after one of the partners, realising what was happening, bailed out).

I'm not immune to making disastrous mistakes myself and I tried to produce a version of the long-running 'Cheshire Folk Radio Show' including some of the tribute bands and rock and pop bands at the 2024 Festival.
Bad mistake. Arthur Marshall, and others, picked up on it straight away and, quite rightly, gave me hell for even trying it.

The same year I did try to convince the 'organisers' that they should have a folk stage at what was, after all, called the 'Folk & Boat' Festival. What saved us that year was the management and staff of Middlewich Town Football Club, where the John McAteer Folk Stage was located. They made us welcome and did everything they could to help. Also the enthusiasm and sheer persistence of The Leaping Frogs (making their debut), Kissing the Flint, Jasmine Allen Estate and others, triumphing over an inadequate PA and a basically unsuitable venue helped us a lot.

No such luck in 2025, after the infamous 'move to Kinderton' (which I enthusiastically promoted, after being told another lot of lies by 'organisers'). 

Our 'stage' was even smaller than the year before, placed right next to the already excessively loud main stage, and had an even worse PA system.

Again, our gallant perforrmers came to our rescue, fiddling about with cheap mikes and clapped out cables on a stage no bigger than the proverbial postage stamp.

I'd had enough. I informed the organisers that my involvement with their festival was now at an end. This was after they presented me with an inscribed glass tankard naming me as a 'patron' of the festival. They're not getting it back, either. A tankard is a tankard.

So this year, I decided that, as the FAB organisers had declared that they were 'not interested' in what used to be the festival fringe, it might be an idea to put the Johnny Mac Folk Stage at the Newton Brewery Inn in Webbs Lane.

We couldn't, and didn't want to, use the name 'Folk & Boat Festival (well, actually, we could have, but I don't think we would have even if we'd realised this).

The Newton readily agreed to the idea and soon word got around. The Kings Lock expressed an interest in getting involved and, in no time, nearly every  pub and club in Middlewich wanted to be a part of what we're calling 'Midsummer Middlewich'.

The rest of the story can be picked up by reading the  posts on various Facebook groups, in particular the MIDSUMMER MIDDLEWICH and MIDDLEWICH COMMUNITY groups.

But let me make this crystal clear. MsM is NOT the Folk & Boat Festival under another name

In fact we've tried to make it very clear indeed  that we have no connection whatsoever with the now discredited organisers of that event.

Of course people will make comparisons and assumptions. It would be too much to hope for that they wouldn't. But I sincerely hope that no one doubts our sincerity.

Our aim is to bring back just a little bit of the magic that used to be Middlewich in June. We may not succeed, but it won't be because we haven't put our hearts and souls into it.

No one can bring back the Folk & Boat Festival the way it used to be. 

But I'd like to think that, if we only come close, it will have been worthwhile.

We welcome corrections and amendments to this Diary entry.

Dave Roberts

Midsummer Middlewich
11th May 2026

QUEEN MUM 1936

by Dave Roberts
I'm sure most people won't object to a little self-indulgence today of all days. 
This picture first appeared on the Middlewich Diary on Mother's Day 2012 and has appeared every Mother's Day since.

Dad, incidentally, made his first appearance here on Father's Day 2011. 

DAD AT WORK

And Mum, like Dad, played her part in Middlewich history at the height of our salt town days.
Mum was born in 1919 in neighbouring Moston and went to school in Elworth which she always said was  'a lovely place until Fodens ruined it'.
Her Mother, our Grandma Hodgkinson, was at one time in service with the Foden family.
Mum lived all her adult life in Middlewich and, like so many young women in the town, worked at Cerebos.
In 1936, when she was 17, she was crowned 'Salt Queen of Cheshire'* and our picture shows her wearing the beautiful dress which was specially made for the occasion and which, amazingly, still survives in the possession of the family.

* That was the title we were always told Mum held all those years ago, although there do not seem to be any records of any 'Cheshire Salt Queen' event. The 'Salt Queen of Middlewich' has proved equally elusive, although the local press has carried reports about a proposed revival of the 'Salt Queen of Winsford' title. Could that be the title that Mum held all those years ago?.

Whatever the truth of the matter, and whatever her actual Regal title was all those years ago, Mum, like all Mums, was a true Queen.

Mum passed away on Easter Sunday, April 16th 2006.


Mothers Day 2012


First published Mothers Day 2012. Republished Mothers Day 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026