MIDDLEWICH DIARY MASTHEAD: NOVEMBER 2016 AUTUMNAL MIDDLEWICH by JIM MOORES

Our Masthead for November 2016 features a photo from that master chronicler of Middlewich waterways, Jim Moores, whose Canals & Rivers of Middlewich Facebook page can be found by clicking on our 'Best Of Middlewich' link in the left hand column of this page.

Jim calls his stunning photo Autumnal Middlewich and it was taken in October 2016. during one of the most spectacular Autumn seasons in living memory.
The location had us stumped.
Is this, perhaps, a scene taken on the almost completely rural Shropshire Union Middlewich Branch Canal, heading out towards Minshull Vernon in the middle of the rich farming land to be found out that way? Or is it a scene from the Trent & Mersey Canal as it wends its way through Cheshire meadowland on its way to Northwich?
In the end, we had to ask Jim for the answer, and it's one that may surprise you, as it did us.
It's the Trent & Mersey Canal all right, but this is no rural idyll. This astonishingly beautiful scene is right in the heart of Middlewich. The Newton Brewery Inn in Webbs Lane is just out of shot to the left, and Middlewich Town Centre is a mere two or three minutes walk from here.
This is an area once dominated by the old open-pan salt works of Henry Seddon & Sons; a short distance away on the other side of the canal (and the River Croco) once stood Middlewich Gasworks.
An astonishing transformation which we hope to explore further with the help of Jim's amazing photographs.

FAB FESTIVAL 2014 MIDDLEWICH DIARY MASTHEAD

The Middlewich Diary's masthead for June 2014, featuring a photo by Cliff Astles

MIDDLEWICH DIARY MASTHEAD: SUMMER 2013 , CANAL IDYLL

Our masthead for Summer 2013 featured a photograph by local photographer Bill Armsden taken on the Middlewich Branch of the Shropshire Union Canal.
The bridge, one of many of this style in the district is, unusually, not whitewashed like most such structures. It carries the back road, Coal Pit Lane, which runs from Chester Road to Stanthorne Crossroads near Wimboldsley.
Many people have remarked on the beauty of Britain's canals in modern times and the contrast between their appearance during the industrial era and in the present day.
But in fact, the SUC Middlewich Branch has always been almost completely rural in character. It was built to link the Shropshire Union and Trent & Mersey canals together  (the link , of course, only being properly completed in 1829 with the building of the Wardle Canal at the Middlewich end).
The only industry we can think of on the banks of the branch canal is the tannery in Sutton Lane which later became home to Sutton Lane Engineering and is now the site of Waterside Mews, and it is doubtful if this made much, if any, use of the canal.

Here's the original photograph, courtesy of Bill:

MIDDLEWICH DIARY MASTHEAD: JULY 2016 DOUBLE RAINBOW

Our masthead for July 2016 features one of those 'once in a lifetime' photos as a double rainbow over Middlewich is captured by Jennifer Jane Snelson.

A typical English summer evening, the 1st of  July, and the usual  combination of driving rain and sunny intervals brought the familiar phenomenon about. 

Jennifer Jane was in the right place at the right time and managed to capture the rainbows arching over the  Parish Church in the leaden  Middlewich skies, while evening sunshine bathes the town centre in light.