LEWIN STREET and LEADSMITHY STREET 1983

Photo reproduced by kind permission of Joan Smith

by David Roberts

We're very grateful once more to Middlewich Diary contributor Bill Eaton who has sent us another item from the collection of the late Frank Smith of Ravenscroft.
And we're fortunate in this case that the scan we received from Bill includes Frank's original caption to this view of Wheelock Street.  It reads as follows:

1983. A...view...taken from the church tower. The small red brick building in the left foreground was the Fire Station of the Middlewich Local Board

Obviously that first Middlewich  fire station, which we looked at here was the focus of Frank's attention at the time. He was one of the people who tried to save it from demolition and was instrumental in ensuring that the terra cotta work mentioned in our earlier diary entry was saved for posterity.
There is, however, much more of interest in this photo: for example, it's startling to think that the Middlewich CofE Infants' School survived as late as 1983 though its forlorn look in this picture show that its days are clearly numbered.. The 'Square One' shop to its right is also still there.
We're used to thinking in terms of all those buildings between Leadsmithy Street and Middlewich DIY being 'swept away in the 1970s' but, as we can see here, it didn't happen quite like that.
Seddon's Wych House Lane works  along with the Central Methodist Chapel  had  disappeared quite a few years before this picture was taken (presumably by Frank himself on one of those church tower open days which Jack Stanier and I also took advantage of a few years earlier).
The MUDC road maintenance depot on the canal side of the site had also been and gone by this time, which was well into the Congleton Borough era, but on Lewin Street, opposite the library (just out of shot to the right) the site of the former Seddon's waggon repair depot (later used by the MUDC) appears to have only just been levelled.
In the left  foreground Lex House is still housing the doctors' surgery and solicitors' offices and  Gibbins' Newsagents (formerly Challinor's) is still in business in the centre foreground.
Both these buildings still exist in 2012, but are empty and awaiting new tenants (apart, of course, from the flats above and to the rear of the newsagents).
Above the roof of the infants' school can be seen the new building housing
Oates Builders Merchants which replaced the old Co-op shop fronting onto Lewin Street opposite the bottom of Civic Way.
Out on the skyline, beyond the remains of Seddon's Pepper Street works, is prime Cheshire farmland waiting for the industrial estates yet to come.
We look forward to seeing more from the Frank Smith collection

Here's the photo again with a key to the buildings: 1 Lex House 2 Old Fire Station 3 Newsagent's (Challinor/Gibbins/Tams) 4 CofE Infant School 5 Square One Hardware 6 Site of Seddon's Waggon repair shop and various other buildings in Wych House Lane, including the first Catholic Church 7 Oates Builders' Merchants Warehouse (now Jewson's) 8 Andersen Boats 9 Council Yard (site of Seddon's Wych House Lane salt works) 10 Site of Seddon's Brooks Lane salt works 11 Maidenhills (now a housing estate) 12 Stott's Chemist (now Jennie Edwards).
Update 16/1/2014: Both Lex House and the newsagent's shop (1 & 3) have now been bought and are undergoing refurbishment. The newsagent's is, apparently, to become a funeral director's headquarters.

UPDATE (24th October 2019): The shop did indeed become the headquarters of Peter Forshaw's funeral business, and Lex House has, in the interim, become the Water's Edge G.P. Surgery. Older readers will remember that part of this building was dedicated to the same purpose some years ago before the Oaklands Surgery in St Ann's Walk was built.

First Published 1st June 2012
Revised 16th January 2014
Updated and re-published 24th October 2019

'THROWBACK THURSDAY' FEATURE

24th October 2019

THE HEART OF CHESHIRE ON FACEBOOK

NOW & THEN: CHALLINOR'S/GIBBINS' NEWSAGENTS

Whenever this celebrated newsagents shop crops up in the Middlewich Diary we always seem to express surprise that it still exists. But it does - largely due, we suspect, to the existence of the flats associated with it and accessed from the rear.
We've discussed the shop in previous entries, notably, of course, in this one in which we first saw that fascinating 1948 shot.

 Now, for the first time, we can make a direct comparison between the shop as it was in Challinor's day and as it is now.
The most obvious difference, of course, is the loss of the tiny cottage tacked onto the left hand side of the shop. Before everything was covered with  white rendering it was possible to see signs of the building's truncation in the bricks on the left hand side. 

This is clearly visible in the photo below, a full description of which can be found here 

Second Middlewich Guides 1972

On the right hand side, one of the shop windows has  gone; bricked up and with just a small window in its place for ventilation.
As if to make up for this, there's an additional upstairs window where the shop sign once was. This is a fairly new addition, possibly installed to provide more light for one of the upstairs flats.
The low building to the left of the shop has gone, to be replaced by Lex House, once home of Doctors* and Solicitors. Note that there is still a chimney sticking up above the roof of that building, presumably in connection with some modern central heating equipment.
It's interesting to note that there is still Victorian style scrolled decoration on either side of the shop, but close inspection reveals that it is different in each photograph; the 2012 version seems to be longer and slightly more elaborate than its 1948 counterpart.
As mentioned in previous entries, this shop was once the premises of J&M Print, after that firm moved from the basement of the Civic Hall, but, as far as we know, the  'shop' part of the premises is unused at present.

* In 2017 the doctors, at least, were back and  occupying  the whole building

UPDATE: 22nd March 2017:

And that was the way things were up until 2012. The problem, of course, with 'Now & Then' features is that 'Now' is a moveable feast. Fortunately, working on the internet enable us to update these diary entries with relative ease, and we're able to show you how things  have changed over the last five years.

Here's our updated photo of the area, taken on the 22nd March 2017:

And straightaway we can see that the old shop premises, now occupied by Peter Forshaw Funeral Services, have been altered yet again to suit their new role. To the left 'Lex House' has become the Water's Edge Doctors' Surgery, and to the right, where the old Infants' School, the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel and the Wych House Lane Salt Works and its attendant workshops once were, is the Salinae Centre, set in its own gardens.

First published 21st March 2012.
Revised and update 22nd March 2017

A MIDDLEWICH MEDICAL MILESTONE 1967

Courtesy of Carole Hughes, another piece of  Middlewich ephemera issued to the people of the town to introduce their new surgery at Lex House in Leadsmithy Street, and with it the new patients' appointment system.
It may sound strange today, but, certainly in the surgery at the top end of Wheelock Street, which has more recently been the home of the Cafe Med, no appointment system was ever in operation. Patients would sit around the edges of the waiting room on old bentwood chairs, enveloped in a pall of cigarette smoke, and decide to their own satisfaction whose turn it was next.
When operations moved to Lex House it truly seemed like the start of a new era in medical care, although, with hindsight, Lex House was not really a great improvement over existing arrangements. As explained in the card, though, the appointment system itself did prevent people having to sit around in the waiting room for too long.

Nowadays, of course, the health of the townspeople is looked after at local level from two surgeries once more: the Acorns Surgery in Wheelock Street and Oaklands (the Middlewich Medical Centre) in St Ann's Walk. Further improvements to health provision for the town are in the air.

OAKLANDS (MIDDLEWICH MEDICAL CENTRE)

Update: In May 2014 the finishing touches were being put to a 'new' surgery in a familiar place to replace the Acorns Surgery.

Lex House was being made ready to become 'Waterside', thus moving the wheel full circle. This time, around, though, the facilities are on a much grander scale with the Doctors utilising most, if not all, of the building. -Ed

Facebook feedback (from the Middlewich Community Group Facebook group):

• Clifford Astles. Dr Brown was known for being very blunt and to the point.  When I was first married in 1962, my new wife, Barbara (same one today, thank God !!)  was very very ill.
  In the first week, after we had been married, she had the doctor at home  (this was  her old home, as we had not moved into our new house at 71 Hayhurst Avenue).
  Dr Brown would not tell anyone what was wrong with her, but, as I was then her official closest relative, told me to call in to see him after work when he would tell me the situation.
  What he actually said was, 'I'm sorry about Barbara. I know you only got married last week, but some you win, some you lose! She has a very bad kidney infection, and she will either get over it, or die.'
  He said no more, and that was the end of the discussion.
  Needless to say, we had a very bad few weeks until she began to improve. We made traditional lemon and barley water using only fresh barley. We strained water through the barley and then mixed it with freshly squeezed lemon juice. That, plus eggs mixed with red wine taken twice a day put her on the road to recovery.
  We moved to our new home at 71 Hayhurst Avenue six weeks after getting married in Middlewich Church. All being well we'll be celebrating 50 years of marriage on the 31st March 2012.
  So, she did get well!
  
  

  
  
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