VERNON COOPERS, STANWAYS AND WOODBINES 1970

Another excellent shot from the camera of Jack Stanier and a companion shot to the one shown here. It's 1970 (as evidenced by the 'Back Home' World Cup poster in Vernon Coopers window). To the right of Vernon Coopers is Stanways fish shop with its lettering removed but the name just about still visible. Adjoining this we can get a better view of an establishment we've mentioned a few times before - Harold Woodbine Ltd in its original Lower Street premises. It's obvious from the configuration of this shop that it was once  separate premises; probably two or three small cottages. Note that while Vernon Cooper promotes the virtues of Ferguson and Ekco sound and vision, Harold Woodbine favours Philips.

Vernon Cooper advertisement from the Northwich Chronicle of Saturday May 16th 1953, urging people to buy a TV set in time for the Coronation which took place on June 2nd. Note that the address is given as 'Wheelock Street, Middlewich' and that there were also Vernon Cooper shops in Winsford, Crewe, Sandbach and other local towns

Here's a little reminiscence from me about Harold Woodbine's which featured in an earlier posting:

I still remember the excitement when I called in to order a record album in 1963
(actually, we didn't call them 'albums', we called them L.P.s)
The record seemed to take weeks and weeks to arrive but when it did, I played it
until the grooves were white with wear. It was 'With The Beatles'
(the mono pressing, of course). A year earlier my eldest brother, Glynn,
had brought home 'Love Me Do'. The perfect ending to this story would be
for me to say that I thought this early 'waxing' was great, but I didn't.
I thought it was boring. By the following year I'd obviously changed my
mind about this Liverpool beat combo. (original comment from Facebook)

Moving to the extreme right of the picture we can see the very edge of the Town Hall complex of buildings and, to the left of that, the JayGee Fireplace building which is now  Town Bridge Estate Agents. Left of this is the North-Western Gas Board showroom and, to the left of that, the first signs of demolition along the row as the showroom manager's house is reduced to rubble.
To take this picture Jack stood outside what is now Pineland*. If we were to take a picture from this viewpoint today we'd see mostly dual carriageway with the Bullring bus interchange to the right of it. (see 'Now & Then: The Bullring . Link below).
There are a few interesting little details about Vernon Coopers shop which will replay a bit of clicking and double clicking: First of all, above the 'Ltd' on the left hand side is a small sign directing people down Pepper Street to The Vaults and its car park. Secondly, what might appear at first to be a satellite dish on the left hand wall is, in fact, a STOP sign for the Pepper Street/Lower Street junction, placed at this height to make it visible from further down Pepper Street.
And if you look to the left hand side of the building's tall chimney, there is a fine array of vintage VHF TV aerials. The giant X is for band one, BBC 1 on channel 2 and the other, classic 'ITV' aerial is for band three, Granada Television on channel 9. Incidentally, if you should happen to have a surviving ITV aerial on your roof, you could use it for receiving DAB radio, as the aerials are exactly the same. Somewhere, by this time, there must also have been one or more modern  aerials for 625 lines UHF (with colour on all three channels).

* Update: Pineland has now joined the long list of closed businesses in Middlewich (Sept 2014)

See also: LOWER STREET 1970
               LOWER STREET 1969
               NOW and THEN THE BULLRING
               PEPPER STREET/LOWER STREET JUNCTION EARLY 1970s

Facebook feedback:

Ian Hill-Smith What's the road leading out of the right of the pic, Dave?

Dave Roberts Hi Ian. The road in the right foreground is Hightown which is still more or less in the same position, although the traffic flow now runs in the other direction - i.e. towards Lewin Street, The road leading off into the distance (and the Town Bridge) is now the bus lay-by and part of St Michael's Way.

Originally published on 1st September 2011

Re-formatted and re-published 30th October 2018

LEADSMITHY STREET EARLY 20th CENTURY

We believe this photograph to be out of copyright. If you own the copyright, or know who does, please ket us know.

Leadsmithy Street veers off to the left and Lower Street to the right in this pre-1931 photograph of the area in front of St Michael & All Angels Church, before wholesale demolition and road-widening altered the scene for ever. We know it's pre 1931 because that was the year in which the old Middlewich Town Bridge was demolished in order to make way for the present concrete 'Cheshire County Council' one, but the dress of the lady just seen peeping round the corner on the left seems to suggest a date some time in the Edwardian era.

The parapet of the old bridge can be seen on the right, forming part of the 'awkward turn to the Lompon' which we musing over towards the end of last year - it's the same corner that that intrepid motorcyclist and his sidecar passenger were rounding here.
Incidentally, our enquiries into what and  precisely where 'The Lompon' was seem to have stalled, but no doubt the answer will emerge in the course of time.
The motley collection of buildings huddling around the Churchyard is very interesting. Why, for instance, should the cottage in the centre of the picture have that large flat frontage to it? It's a parapet frontage, and there are whole terraces of houses built in this way in Nantwich and other towns.
But why would one solitary house be built in this form in the centre of Middlewich? Was it just built that way because a local builder was following the latest fashion?
To the left of the row of shops and cottages in the centre of the picture can be seen the Leadsmithy Street entrance to the churchyard, which survives to the present day. Note the lovely old Victorian lamp above, on the corner of Leadsmithy Street.
In the right background the old Town Hall can just be glimpsed. The extreme right hand side of this building, along with part of the Churchyard and all of the buildings in the foreground, were demolished in 1931 to make way for the new, widened, Lower Street leading from the new Town Bridge.
This, in its turn, gave way to the southern end of St Michael's Way in the 1970s.
And, as always, giving us our bearings in the background is Middlewich Parish Church.

Note: This is one of two versions of this famous Middlewich postcard.

See: A TALE OF TWO POSTCARDS

Facebook feedback:
Geraldine Williams: That parapet frontage is certainly a mystery. If there had been a row of buildings it would have made more sense as I understand that the idea was to disguise the roofs and make the buildings seem taller and more attractive. Then aesthetics would have kicked in and the church would have been spared the hotchpotch of chimneys which spoil its outline. You can say what you like about the restrictive present-day Planners but they do have a point! But as a stand-alone, that house looks ridiculous as all the side of it is exposed and it doesn't look as though there had even been an adjoining house. There would seem to be a little alleyway between the buildings and the church wall. Wonder what that was called?
Re: The Lompon: previous speculations mentioned the Croco and the Allum.
There is, of course, an Allumbrook drive in Holmes Chapel, and an Allumbrook Farm at Brereton, but maps don't show the brook anywhere - but there again they didn't show the Croco either! just the canal...

Originally published 3rd January 2012
Re-published 4th January 2018