EARL'S BUILDERS YARD, KINDERTON STREET

Photograph courtesy of Joan Smith

by Dave Roberts

We're grateful once again to Bill Eaton for sending us another pair of photographs from the collection of the late Frank Smith of Ravenscroft, reproduced here by courtesy of his wife, Joan.
During our previous Middlewich Diary excursions to Kinderton Street we've occasionally been able to glance briefly at this group of buildings at the junction of Kinderton Street and King Street, just up the road from the Boar's Head Hotel:
But Frank has managed to tease me with this photo. That huge wooden building which dominates the picture, as it dominated Kinderton Street at the time, is seen in  Frank's photo from a very unusual angle.
The brick building on the left looks like an ordinary house here (although it's obvious from the whitewash on the left hand wall that part of the building has recently been demolished), but it's actually Earl's distinctive office. The unusual curved front window, as seen in our earlier entry, faces away from the camera on the other side of the building.
The building in the distance on the extreme left seems maddeningly familiar.
In fact, it's the Catholic School (now the church's community centre), a few yards away down King Street  where that well known thoroughfare meets New King Street.

The ventilator on the roof, typical of so many Victorian schools, is the giveaway.
It will be noted that, by this time (the early 1970s), Chris Earl's name was  on the building, and obviously had been for quite a few years, although the redoubtable Ernie Earl had not been forgotten.
He certainly was still in the mind of  Earl's most loyal  employee, Billy 'Cocky' Wilkinson (aka 'Billy Wilk') who lived a short distance away in Seabank and regaled me night after night in the Kings Arms with tales of the doings of the Earls while blowing evil-smelling clouds of pipe tobacco over me and everyone else within reach.
We had many a Condor moment together.
Billy was a steadfast employee of the Earls, while, at the same time, remaining firmly of the opinion that they were all 'rum buggers'.
(Billy thought, even then, that I was also  a 'rum bugger', and it's quite likely that subsequent events have proved him right.)

Note (March 2019): Billy's nephew Stephen emailed us recently with the following information, using Billy's Sunday name:

Just a note to your words on C Earl.

William Wilkinson was my uncle and I now live in the house William lived in on Seabank.
Williams best mate was a man called Reg Manley.
William was gardener to the Earls for many years.

Stephen Wilkinson 

But the real revelation comes in the note which Bill Eaton has supplied with these photographs:

'Frank's notes say the big wooden building, prior to being Ernie Earl's workshop, was a drill hall. 
It's possible that local men trained there before and during the Second World War.'

Now there's something I didn't know. Frank's second picture (below), shows what an extraordinary building that old drill hall had become just before its final demise.

I also have a sneaking suspicion that the second photo is from a later date than the first, shows the old drill hall from the opposite direction, and that the modern building on the left is the building now enjoying  great popularity as the 'Factory Shop'.

Although I am, as always, open to correction.

Many thanks to Bill Eaton and Joan Smith for letting us see these photos.

Photograph courtesy of Joan Smith

First published 25th June 2012
Amended, re-formatted and re-published 18th March 2019

EARL'S YARD REVISITED

By Dave Roberts

We're taking the opportunity to bring together three photographs of a remarkable group of buildings, one from our own collection and two from the Frank Smith collection. Chris Earl carried on the builders and builders merchants business he inherited from his father, Ernie, at the top end of the land now occupied by the Factory Shop in Kinderton Street.

You can find the original diary entry describing these photos here.

Our main photo is a Kodachrome slide taken in 1973 showing the ramshackle and life expired buildings in Kinderton Street. The white building immediately behind them is the Masonic Lodge, and the junction with King Street is immediately out of shot to the left.

It's that huge wooden building right centre which got the attention of Frank Smith, because he knew its history.

In the first of Frank's photos, taken a couple of years later, demolition of the roadside buildings has begun. To the left St Mary's Catholic School in King Street (now the Parish Centre) can be seen. On the right is the frontage of the long timber structure which was such a feature of the premises, although it was largely hidden from view until the very end of its days.

And here's a side view of this remarkable building which, but for Frank Smith's foresight, might have been lost to posterity.

This much altered, patched up and decidedly wonky building was, according to Frank, a drill hall used by the Home Guard during the Second World War. On the extreme left the building which in later years became the Factory Shop has made an appearance.

The Earls were local builders for many years. You may even, without realising it, live in one of the many houses they built in the town over the years.

Ernie himself used to call into the rates office in Lewin Street, where I worked from 1969 to 1972, and pay the greater part of his rates bill in cash.

Later, Billy 'Cocky' Wilkinson, who lived on Seabank, just  a short distance away from Earl's yard, used to regale me in the Kings Arms with tales of working for Chris Earl both at the yard and at the family home in Chester Road.

And, of course, one of the Earl family is justly famous as a local historian and expert on all things Middlewich.

Allan Earl's books Middlewich 900-1900 (Ravenscroft Publications 1990) and Middlewich 1900-1950 (Cheshire Country Publishing 1994) are required reading for anyone wishing to know about the true history of our town. Coincidentally, while I was working in the MUDC rates department, Allan was working across the corridor in the council's Surveyor's department.

Chris Earl died in 2007 at the age of 92.

Do you have memories of the Earl family? Did you work for Earl's builders? We'd love to hear from you.

Don't hesitate to get in touch, either on Facebook or by email, or by phoning us on 01606 833404.

First published 11th March 2017

Re-formatted and re-published 11th March 2019