1984 LEWIN STREET LORRY CRASH

Photo courtesy of Joan Smith

by Dave Roberts

From the collection of  the late Frank Smith of Ravenscroft, courtesy of Joan Smith and Bill Eaton, come these photographs of the  aftermath of a dramatic traffic incident in 1984.

Bill has sent us this note to accompany the images:

'Frank's notes for these photographs say:

In a heavy morning mist a heavy goods vehicle ploughed into three cottages on Lewin Street.

A child in the front bedroom of one of the cottages woke early and was taken to a room at the rear of the

building shortly before the crash happened. The damage was so bad that all three cottages later had to be completely demolished.

Frank also drew attention to the decorative brickwork over the windows of the right-hand cottage (below)'

Photo courtesy of Joan Smith

Note, to the centre right of the top photograph,  Dave Costello's Angling Centre which was, at that time, still in use as St Paul's Methodist Chapel.

In a small town like this, so beset with traffic problems and with such relatively narrow streets, the wonder is not that something like this could happen, but that it hasn't happened more often.

The cottages destroyed in this incident were replaced not long afterwards by modern housing.

Facebook Feedback:

Andy Kendrick I remember that crash in 1984, and the old cottages. Shame they were lost. But it's nice to see the old St Paul's as it was. I used to go to Sunday School there. Happy memories

Rachel Walklate I have shared this link with the lady who I think was 'the girl taken from the front room to the back'.

Geraldine Williams I didn't know about the crash. I assumed that the cottages were just demolished as part of Middlewich's regeneration. My paternal grandfather was born and brought up in one of the cottages in the late 1800s.

Denise Appleton We had just moved out of one of those cottages months before the accident, but Reg Hunt was still living there.

Robert Sheckleston I remember the crash. Reg Hunt and his partner Thelma lived there. Thelma worked on the salt-floor at RHM Foods.

Susan Nugent I seem to think Mollie Wilkinson lived in one of those cottages. I'm sure she had her first daughter then. I'm sure someone will know.

Mark Joyce That was all down to a Ken Elsby's truck. My Auntie and Uncle used to live in one of those cottages

KathAndBarryWalklate This was my sister's house. It was early in the morning when the lorry ran into the house next door and took half my sister's house with it. She had a six month old baby which she had not long taken out of her cot before it was full of bricks from the wrecked wall. She was very lucky. That little baby grew up to be Nikki Wilkinson who had the Turnpike at one time.


UPDATE 30th April 2020:

When this Diary Entry was used as part of our 'Middlewich Diary Revisited' series in April 2020 Nikki Wilkinson, who was indeed the baby involved in the crash, herself posted the following stunning account of what happened on that fateful night when she was just a baby. We've reproduced it here with her permission - Ed

I was apparently about 8 months old. Obviously I don’t remember it actually happening but have been told the story many times. 

I only got to see the damage and how lucky I was, because of this story popping up. 

Across from these cottages is now the accountants business, if you notice there is a bend in the road there.

My dad, for whatever reason, had parked his car across the road on the bend the night before. Due to the bad weather and it being a grey/silver car, the lorry driver didn’t see it until the last second and swerved to miss it.

Unfortunately it meant he lost control and hit the gable end of the first cottage and ploughed through the other 2. We lived in the middle one.

As you can see on the picture, the front bedroom wall is completely missing. This wall fell on top of the drivers cabin and killed him instantly.

My cot along with a nursing chair was against the window of this room and ended up with the wall in the cab. 

Not long before the crash, I had woken wanting a feed. My mum was breast feeding so my dad didn’t stir.

She went to get me and was so tired that she decided to take me back to her bed and fell back to sleep with me feeding.

The lorry then hit and my dad woke and went running to the front room. He was hanging through the wall space on his belly pulling the rubble out of the cab screaming my name.

He didn’t know I was safe.

If my mum had decided to feed me in the chair, we both would have died.

I now live on the same road again by the narrow path next to D&D autos.

I often wonder if lightning will strike twice!!

A very dangerous road to live on.

When the papers printed the story, they mis-heard Nichola and printed my name as Baby Jessica. 

Nikki Wilkinson

29th April 2020

Originally published: 8th June 2012
Re-published 9th March 2014
Expanded and re-pub;ished 30th April 2020

Editor's note: This Diary entry was re-published not because of any additional information or updates, but because of the unfortunate comment added by an obvious internet troll which added nothing but gave local people and those who really know the town a chance to tell us what they think. As is our invariable custom, we immediately deleted the actual comment. Suffice it to say that it described the town as 'soulless and horrible', a description so manifestly unfair that, just before consigning the comment to oblivion, we canvassed opinions from people who really know the town to see if this wind-up merchant's views had any currency. The short answer is a resounding 'no'.

In case you don't know, an internet 'troll' is a sad, lonely, and ultimately irrelevant individual whose sole source of enjoyment is making fatuous comments on websites and blogs in order to 'wind people up'. Which can only work on those with a  feeble intellect similar to that of the 'troll' him/herself. Those who know and love this town would never get drawn into a pointless argument with such a weird individual. Nice try though.

As expected local people and people who have left the town and miss it very much were quick to jump to the defence of Middlewich. We've published some of the feedback from Facebook below (comments pertaining to the original subject matter - i.e. the 1984 lorry crash - have been added to the feedback at the end of the article, above), and it's also well worth taking a look at the comments on the page itself (including the original sad and misguided comment from someone who didn't deign to give us his/her name).
I think it was the use of the word 'soulless' which rankles with most people (although calling somewhere 'horrible' is hardly likely to endear anyone to its inhabitants), because soulless is precisely what this town is not.
 It's suffered terribly in the past from the ravages of industry, bad town planning and maladministration and, despite all that, has managed to pull itself up by its bootstraps and turn itself into a lively and pleasant town to live and work in.
No one denies that there's a long way to go, but people here have the enthusiasm and determination to make sure that what Dr Johnson described as 'a mean old town' is a place to be proud of.

New Facebook Feedback:

Lisa O'Toole I think this is a lovely town, full of history.

Susan Nugent If they don't have anything nice to say, well they shouldn't say anything at all. I love this town.

John Wood  Nothing wrong with Middlewich. Great little town for live entertainment and a great festival I never miss.

Gill Bowker Whoever wrote this clearly doesn't live in a town which pulls together in times of need, which has helpful neighbours and people to stop and chat to wherever you are in the community. Yes, Middlewich may not be to everyone's liking, but it does me and my family just fine, thank you.

Steven Doyle I have lived in Middlewich now for six years and it is anything but 'horrible and soulless'. Like every town Middlewich has its problems and undesirable people but, putting that aside, I cannot fault this place which has become home to me. I came to this town as an outsider and was made very welcome from the start. I think the town has a lot of character and lovely people living in it. Friendly, welcoming and helpful. I have the friendliset neighbours, who are more than I could wish for in terms of being good and helpful. It could never beat my home in Ireland, but it certainly gets second place in my eyes and is my home now. I love it here.

Sharon Barnard My view is that this anonymous person is an arse and that is all!

Richard Emblen As a Londoner who moved here nearly ten years ago all I can say is Middlewich is like heaven on earth. Appreciate it!

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LAST ONE STANDING...

Photo courtesy of Bill Eaton/Joan Smith

by Dave Roberts

Today, courtesy of Bill Eaton, we're taking a look at a couple of Frank Smith's pictures of  an area of Lewin Street now occupied by the Salinae Centre. The date would be some time in the mid to late 1970s. We know from this Diary entry that the C of E Infants School was still standing in 1975, so these views of the last building standing in the row will date to around  that time, or perhaps a little later. The boarding used to shield Lewin Street from the demolition of the Infants School is still in place, and you can see that a small portion of the school has been left standing to the left of the Square One shop, presumably to support the shop's end wall. 

What appears to be a strange construction on top of the shop building is, we think, someone recovering roof tiles, the image made a little blurry by the back lighting. 

Are we imagining it, or is that crouching 1970s workman wearing a pair of trendy 1970s flared jeans?

Those roof tiles probably live on to this day, keeping the rain out of someone else's house or shop.

To the right of the shop is the open space left by the demolition of the Central Methodist Church, as seen here, and  Seddon's workshops as seen here, and beyond that the still existing but much refurbished buildings behind Middlewich DIY in Wych House Lane.

Photo courtesy of Bill Eaton/Joan Smith

Frank's second photo was taken some days later, after the demolition of the shop. On the extreme left is the still extant building which was once Challinor's/Gibbin's Newsagents*, as seen here, and on the extreme right is the very last tall building on this side of Lewin Street, the former Co-op Drapery department, at that time occupied by Oates Builders Merchants, whose modern warehouse building can also be seen in the middle left of the picture. The tall building has gone, and the present day Builder's Merchants business, operated by Jewson, is concentrated on that new warehouse and a large yard created by the demolition of the other buildings on the site.

Many thanks, as always, to Bill Eaton, for sending us the pictures.

Bill points out that these shots are another example of Frank Smith's happy knack of being in the right place at the right time.

*this building was later to become the home of J&M Print and then, after a period of dereliction, became the home of Peter Forshaw's Funeral Directors business in the second decade of the 21st century.

DEMOLISHING THE INFANTS SCHOOL 1980s

Photograph courtesy of Joan Smith

The last of the large buildings in Lewin Street to disappear in the 1980s was the much-photographed CofE Infants School, and once it had gone the whole aspect of the street altered.
Like so many other buildings on the street, the school suffered from the instability of the ground it was built on and, in its latter years, itself became unsafe, as can be seen from the strengthening girders bolted onto the outer walls (the pinkish-coloured vertical lines on  either side of the large windows to the right of the building).
Frank Smith took the opportunity of photographing the demolition of this fondly remembered building and, as usual with items from Frank's collection, Bill Eaton has supplied a little information taken from the original notes accompanying the photos:

'Frank's notes for these photographs say more about the craftmanship you can see in this old school than the demolition itself.
He particularly admired the roof structure and other unique features of the design and construction which would not be found in today's modern buildings.'

Notice, on the left, Les Gibbins' newsagents shop, which, as we saw here, still exists, though not as a shop.
Next to this is the pleasing little arched side entrance to the school which, fittingly for a church school has a vaguely ecclesiastical look to it.
At the other end of the building is Square One, which was, in the early 1960s,a record shop.
Although large metal sheeting has been erected alongside Lewin Street to protect people and traffic from any fall-out from the demolition, there are no 'Demolition In Progress' signs. Presumably the contractors thought people might be able to work this out for themselves.

Photograph courtesy of Joan Smith

Frank's other shot, of the rear of the building, was taken from the Kinderton side of the Trent & Mersey Canal and River Croco, most likely from the bottom of Seabank and, again, the beautiful internal roof structures can be seen to good advantage.
To the right of the school is the old fire station and to the right of that, at towpath level, is the blue brick structure which was once part of the footbridge which linked Seabank and the Town Wharf.