BIG LOCK and NESTLES MILK FACTORY 1920s

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Once again Bill Eaton has been delving into the archive of material given to him by the late Frank Smith of Ravenscroft, and this time we are taking a look at the Big Lock and the Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Factory, both situated on the banks of the Trent & Mersey Canal and built during the late 19th century.

The picture above shows the lock itself which, by its very nature, does not change very much over the years, except in small details. For example, notice the lock gates nearest the camera, which are of a type not seen nowadays (in this area, at least). They appear to be of all wood construction, rather than the mixture of wood and steel used nowadays.

Behind the boat can be seen the footbridge which still links Webbs Lane with King Street via the public footpath which runs up the bank from the canal, alongside Harbutt's Field to join the main road at the foot of the bridge which takes King Street over the railway line.

On  the extreme left of the picture is the Big Lock Pub, greatly changed, but not beyond all recognition in the present day. Its distinctive doorway and part of the Dutch style roof are still very much in evidence.

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We have seen the other picture before, when we looked at the Condensed Milk Factory.

 Frank has obviously grouped these photos together because they were taken at around the same time.

 We've dated them as being taken in the 1920s, because, according to Allan Earl, the milk factory  closed in 1931 after fifty-nine years of operation before being re-opened as a silk works in 1932.

That perennial problem of the salt districts, subsidence, meant that part of the factory had had to be demolished a couple of years earlier, causing lost production and financial difficulties, both for the milk company and the many local farmers who supplied it.

Both these pictures give an impression of the factory working at full swing, so were probably taken a few years before these problems emerged.

The tall building which dominates the left hand side of the top picture is the same one which can be seen on the extreme left of the lower one.

SEE ALSO: RE-OPENING OF THE BIG LOCK 2012

First published 7th January 2013

Re-formatted and re-published 8th January 2018

Re-published 2nd June 2020

BRITAIN FROM ABOVE (MIDDLEWICH) - FINNEY'S LANE & THE BIG LOCK

Aerial View: Britain From Above/English Heritage

 by Dave Roberts,

Today we're returning to our 'core business' to indulge in what was recently and very memorably, referred to as '...the regurgitating of random, boring, local facts' as we take a look at one of the aerial photographs of our town now made available by English Heritage on the site britainfromabove.org.uk.
The 'Britain From Above' collection contains hundreds of high definition photographs taken between the years 1919 and 1953 and thus, in the case of Middlewich, giving us an invaluable view of our town in its salt town heyday.

What's more the site is asking everyone to help annotate the photos in the collection so that future generations will be able to identify just what it is they're looking at and enjoy them all the more. If we've missed anything out of our interpretation of this, or any of the photos we'll be featuring in this series, please let us know.
Our own notes on the photo above are appended to the version below, and we would as always be pleased to have any additional information and/or corrections.

We're starting with this excellent view of the area around the still-thriving Big Lock pub (and, of course, the lock it is named for) as it was (we estimate) some time in the early 1920s. We've given the open pan works in the top left hand corner of the picture its original name on opening in 1892, but by the time of this photograph it would be under different ownership and partly disused, as was the custom during the open pan era, when pans were opened and closed as demand for salt fluctuated.
There's an intriguing structure on the far bank of the river (right next to the little blue aeroplane). We're wondering if this has any connection with attempts to screen the salt works from the Upper Crust at Croxton Hall Farm, as mentioned here (with diagram) by Frank Smith.
The building we've circled and called a 'salt warehouse'  survived well into the early 1970s, finding various industrial uses, as discussed here. On the other side of the Trent & Mersey Canal lies the River Dane and the spot where the River Croco, running alongside the canal through the town, joins it, can also be seen.
The top right hand corner of the photo shows us Harbutt's Field, long known for its connections with the Romans and long marked on maps as Roman Station (Condate). It would be the 1980s before the fact that this modest and unassuming field had, in fact, been the  site of a fully-fledged permanent Roman military fort was confirmed by modern geophysical techniques. We are, though, dealing with the world of archaeology here, and not all is sweetness and light as the name 'Condate' for Middlewich is still disputed among academics, as, for that matter is 'Salinae'.
On the right a public footpath ran, and still runs, from bridges over the canal and River Croco to join King Street at the top right hand corner of the field. The land on the other side of this footpath, now given over to housing, was studded with brine shafts and the remains of previous salt workings.
On the opposite side of the canal from the Big Lock is the old lock-keeper's cottage, perched precariously between canal and river and  threatening  always  to subside backwards into the Croco. We discussed the sad fate of this building here.
Every year, come festival time, bands perform on the patch of ground where the cottage once stood (with the audience, somewhat unusually, standing on the other side of the lock), a use for the area which those lock-keepers of old could never have foreseen in their wildest dreams.
Taking centre stage is the impressive bulk of the Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Factory (later part of Nestle, and later still a silk and man-made fibre factory).
It goes without saying that this little corner of Middlewich has, like many others, now been covered in modern housing.
In the bottom right hand corner, along Webb's Lane, is 'Swiss Cottage', which gets its name from the fact that it was built to house the Manager of the Anglo-Swiss works.
The Milk Factory closed in 1931 and the buildings were converted for use as a silk factory which opened in 1932 and closed in the early years of the 21st Century.
Finney's Lane itself is all present and correct, although its course has changed through the years and it now takes a more direct route towards the Big Lock, where it joins Webbs Lane. 

Aerial View: Britain From Above/English Heritage

Swiss Cottage, Webbs Lane as it is today

SEE ALSO: BIG LOCK & SILK WORKS 1970s

First published 12 August 2014
Republished 3rd November 2019

STRAIGHT FROM THE HORSES MOUTH: A LETTER FROM HISTORY

by Dave Roberts

Here's a  piece of real Middlewich history, taken from our family's private collection. It pinpoints a moment in time; a moment when, for one Middlewich worker at least, it became clear that times were changing and that what had seemed like a secure and reliable job would soon be no more.
The letterhead itself is worthy of note, as it's that of the Nestle Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company. Nestle and Anglo-Swiss had been great rivals in the  nineteenth century (Middlewich's Anglo-Swiss factory having been built in 1872) but merged in 1905.

Note the telegraphic address, 'Nestanglo' and the telephone number which, as late as 1931, was 'Middlewich no. 6'

Until the 1930s the 'milk factory' was a major Middlewich employer and was supplied with milk by numerous farmers in the rural districts surrounding the town.

According to Allan Earl in Middlewich 1900-1950 (Cheshire Country Publishing 1994),on cattle auction days, which were also normal market days, the town was alive with livestock and with farmers taking churns full of milk to the Webbs Lane factory. The queues would stretch down Finneys Lane, and all the way down Webbs Lane into Pepper Street.

Relations between the factory and the farmers  were not always harmonious, though; in 1912 a dispute arose over the price the factory was prepared to pay for milk and continued for weeks, with the local tradespeople complaining that the business they normally enjoyed from the farmers was severely curtailed as they had not been coming into Middlewich to take milk to the factory.

The same thing happened again during World War I when, in 1915, the factory tried to reduce the price it was prepared to pay for the farmers' milk.

The surplus milk which the factory wouldn't buy was made into cheese which was then auctioned to help the war effort.

Then, in August 1931,  it was announced that the factory was to close.

The company had been experiencing problems with, among other things, brine subsidence, which led to a loss in production and thus profits.

You'll notice that the letter which William Shore received makes no mention of a permanent closure but talks of a temporary termination of his employment. Perhaps someone thought the situation might change? And the fact that William's address (actually in New King Street) is not given leads us to suppose that the letter was passed to him by hand at the factory. In the present day, he'd probably have been sent a text message.

Incidentally, from the perspective of 2016, it's interesting to note that quite a few companies had problems in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Among them was the Electro-Bleach Company in Cledford Lane, which was closed and demolished in 1929.

This was on the site that, after nearly becoming ERF Ltd's works in 1933,  later became the Royal Venton Pottery Works and is currently (and very controversially) about to be turned into the ANSA Waste Recycling Facility.

Naturally many local farmers were affected by the closure of the 'milk factory' (100 of them according to Allan Earl) as were 180 employees of the company, among them William Shore, who received the above letter just a week after the farmers' contracts expired at the end of September that year.

Reading about local history is always interesting, if you're that way inclined; but to read about a pivotal event in Middlewich history from a letter like this - to read it straight from the horse's mouth, just as William Shore would have done eighty-five years ago, is almost startling.

Incidentally, this is the same William Shore we heard about here.

In 1932 the Condensed Milk Factory became a silk mill.

SEE ALSO: CONDENSED MILK FACTORY FINNEY'S LANE 1920s

                   BIG LOCK AND NESTLES MILK FACTORY 1920s

                  

 With grateful acknowledgments to Allan Earl.

Facebook Feedback (2016):

Sheila Hardy I lived in Webbs Lane and my Mum worked at the factory. I remember it so well, passing it and going over the bridge (trying to peep in at the windows) on our way to play up the River Dane. Such happy days! Thanks for that!
 

CONDENSED MILK FACTORY, FINNEYS LANE 1920s

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by Dave Roberts

The Nestlé-Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Factory still  looms large in Middlewich history, despite the fact that it closed many years ago.
Now that the factory itself, which was also used as a silk mill for many years, has disappeared to be replaced by yet more housing, the only evidence that it was ever here is in the name of the former manager's house, Swiss Cottage, which stands nearby in Webb's Lane.
Our picture shows the huge bulk of the factory stretching away from the Big Lock pub, which is just beyond the large building on the  left, to run alongside the Trent & Mersey canal as it heads for Northwich. On the extreme left you may just about be able to make out the footbridge which still carries the public footpath from King Street, near the entrance to Harbutt's Field, to Webb's Lane.
Henri Nestlé was born in 1812 in Frankfurt and made his fortune in the dairy industry both on the continent and in the UK, despite competition from his arch-rivals the Page Brothers, founders of Anglo-Swiss.

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It was the merger of the two companies in 1905 which led to the establishment of the Nestlé-Anglo-Swiss company.
The Middlewich factory was the major factory in the group, which also had premises in other towns around the country. In fact the company's design department was based here and produced plans for the other factories in the group.
When I was growing up in King Street our neightbour, Dora Darlington, used to regale us with stories of riding around the town on the back of the milk cart which delivered milk and other products in the area, eating that famous local delicacy a 'conny-onny butty' (or condensed milk sandwich, to the uninitiated).
Which brings us to another peculiarity of the local dialect. Although Middlewich English uses the short form of vowels - as in 'bath' rather than 'barth' and 'conny-onny' is pronounced exactly as spelt, the longer form - i.e. 'condensed milk' (if you can have a longer form of something that's condensed) is always pronounced 'corndensed milk'.
Similarly 'concrete' is always 'corncrete'.
Just so you'll know if you ever walk into a local shop or builder's merchant and try to buy condensed milk or concrete. I wouldn't want you to get looked at askance.
It's easy to see why Middlewich should have been chosen as a place to manufacture condensed milk; despite the fact that the town was highly industrialised it does stand right in the middle of lush Cheshire dairy country There was also, at one time, a Kraft Cheese factory not too far away in Holmes Chapel Road, more or less where the Shell Garage now stands and  the Little Chef restaurant could be found until it closed in January 2012. The Little Chef has now been replaced (2014) by a Starbucks Coffee Shop and a branch of the Subway sandwich chain
The closure of the milk factory in 1931 was a blow to the local economy, and there were sighs of relief when the premises were taken over in 1932 for use as a silk factory.
It's hard to resist using the obvious phrase, so I won't: It was a case of 'from milk to silk'.
The silk mill was operated by  British Crepe Ltd, a division of the Macclesfield silk makers G H Heath & Co. The massive brick built factory was reduced in size over the years following several disastrous fires, and production at Middlewich, which by then had moved over to synthetic fibres, ended up being carried out in modern industrial units before final closure at Middlewich in 2003.
Production was then moved to Manor Lane in Holmes Chapel  and the company ceased production there in around 2005-6. Many thanks to Gina Nicholson (see Facebook feedback, below).

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SEE ALSO FINNEY'S LANE 1968
                    BIG LOCK AND CONDENSED MILK FACTORY 1920s

Facebook feedback:
Geraldine Williams: It never occurred to me why Swiss Cottage was so named. Doh!


Gina Nicholson: British Crepe closed for good in Holmes Chapel about six years ago (2005-6? -Ed). My Dad, Alan Dean, worked there for 40 years until it closed. It did move to Holmes Chapel around 2003.