MYSTERY PHOTO #2 - SOUTHWAY, AUTUMN 2011

Photo: Salt Town Productions 

Can you identify this attractive little corner of Middlewich?

Clue: Quite a few people have seen through my little subterfuge...

Well, of course, everyone saw through it. The photo should really look like this:

Photo Salt Town Productions

It's just that, when I looked at the picture which was actually taken this Autumn and shows Southway, close to the entrance to Tesco's delivery yard, it had a vaguely Edwardian feel to it which I thought could be enhanced by the sepia look. But nobody could really be fooled by the obviously 21st century brick paving, the steel lamp post to the left, or the Tesco Supermarket plant room on the right. Worth a try through.

This view, and many others we've become used to over the last few years, will be obliterated for ever if Tesco's plans for a massive new 35,000 sq ft. store come to fruition. The plans were recommended for acceptance by Middlewich Town Council in late December 2011

NOW & THEN: SOUTHWAY AND TESCO ENTRANCE 1960s and 2011

This posting should be read with reference to this one in which we were looking at part of the site of the current Tesco supermarket and car park as it was in (we think) the 1960s.
Obviously the best way of comparing a scene from the past with its modern-day counterpart is to take a 'now' picture to put alongside the 'then' shot, but this is not always as easy as it might appear.
This is a case in point.
Short of knocking down the Tesco Supermarket, there is no way an exact present-day equivalent of the 1960s shot can be taken, and this is the best I could do. I've cropped and enlarged part of the original black & white shot to try to make the two pictures a little easier to compare.
On the extreme left of both shots is Barclay House, struggling to be seen through the trees in the old shot, but in the new picture seeming almost engulfed by the luxuriant foliage which forms part of the landscaping of the current Tesco car park.
The two windows at the end of the block of shops along Southway can be seen in both photos (in actual fact the block in question is, traditionally, part of Wheelock Street - Southway was, until the 70s, just the name for the footpath between Wheelock Street and St Ann's Road. This posting shows how things were at the start of that decade) At one time these windows were partly masked by the roof of the wooden 'industrial' building which stood at the end of the block, and when this was removed and replaced by the modern lower-roofed building which houses the hairdressers and florists shops, those windows were fully revealed.
And I have to say that I think my assertion that the trees in the 'then' shot are in the same spot as the Tesco entrance 'pagoda' was absolutely spot on.

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Paul Greenwood The two windows at the end of the building to the right of the image are my bedroom windows now!!