THE LIME BEDS by Frank Smith

 

Introduction

by David Roberts, Editor.

The Middlewich limebeds, seen by most people as a large embankment alongside Booth Lane and the Trent & Mersey Canal, have long been a source of interest and speculation for the people of the town. They provide a very unusual environment, quite unlike anywhere else in the town, and many people have, over the years, wondered if that weird and wonderful man-made world could, in some way, be used to the advantage of locals, for wildlife conservation and as an area for leisure pursuits (it has, of course, long been used unofficially for the latter purpose).

The trouble with that idea, of course, is that an unstable mixture of chemical waste, coke and cinders, together with the salt waste contributed by British Salt, is hardly the kind of basis most would consider suitable for a picnic area.

More radical ideas have also been proposed for the limebeds over the years, including their complete removal to form yet another site for new housing. The area's proximity to the Trent & Mersey Canal has raised dreams of marinas, waterside restaurants and the like.

But - if you were to remove all those thousands of tonnes of waste, where would you put them? And just how hazardous would it be to do it? And what would happen to the flora and fauna which lives in the area?

Some refer to this area as the 'salt lagoons', a reference to the fact that when British Salt opened to the South of the site in 1969, the lime beds were used for the dumping of waste from the salt making process. This dumping commenced sometime after 1973.  Instead of pipelines British Salt used dumper trucks to transfer its waste to the limebeds, which necessitated the bulldozing of the original rather picturesque path through the site into something resembling a road.

The 'Jubilee Train' referred to by Frank was a small diesel (or petrol) driven loco hauling tiny dumper trucks which tipped clinker, cinders, ash and 'lime mud' over the edge of the limebeds, strengthening those walls as it went. Particularly memorable to me as the train was driven by my 'Uncle' Amos Hodgkinson. Sadly I only saw the train and the little railway after it had fallen into disuse.

You'll note that, from time to time, Frank refers to aspects of the lagoons which 'may be of interest to British Salt'. Possibly at the time the article was written, the company was assessing the lime beds for future use?

Poppityjohns in 1973, before the British Salt bulldozers changed it forever. In the background can be seen, on the left,  No 1, The Villa, in Cledford Lane, the home of the Farrington family at that time. To its right is the British Salt works, then only four years old. The brick chimney was part of Steventon's Pottery Works, later Ideal Standard, which was on the site now occupied by the ANSA waste recycling depot.

In fact, 'lagoon' is the correct term, and one that Frank uses in his article. 

The Griffith's Road Lagoons at Lostock, near Northwich, are still in use and still used for their original purpose. There have, over the years, been other limebeds in Middlewich. which is inevitable when you think of the various chemical works there have been here over the years. For instance, there was, up until the late 1970s, one in Brooks Lane, close by the three locks. There are (or were) also limebeds at the former ICI works at Winnington.

The public footpath which runs through the limebeds is known as 'Poppityjohns', a name whose origins are unknown, though it's thought that it may be a corruption of 'Poverty Johns' or possibly 'Property Johns', a reference to someone who once owned the land.

 If you want to establish your real Middlewich credentials, just tell everyone you're going for a walk 'across Pops'.

 In the early 1970s, when ERF Ltd established its service centre on part of the old ICI site and turned the northern end of Poppityjohns into the ghastly 'Road Beta' (an address they never actually used), Middlewich UDC Surveyor Donald Stubbs, who was a great upholder of Middlewich tradition, insisted on erecting a sign at the foot of the limebeds with the original name on it. The sign was only there for a short time, so we're lucky to have a photo of it.

The short-lived Poppityjohns sign in 1973. Does it still exist somewhere? The limebeds are in the background, and the public footpath can be seen climbing up to the left. The fence belongs to ERF's Service Centre which had been built on part of the ICI site two years earlier.

Frank Smith, of Ravenscroft, was a great source of information on the local salt and chemical industries, having spent most of his working life at ICI.

He was a member of the Middlewich Heritage Society and wrote many articles on Middlewich for them, including this one from 1996.

Frank himself describes it as 'a paper' and it's in the tradition of such dissertations, assuming that the intended audience has at least a little knowledge of the subject. There are some technical matters which may go over the heads of many of us. However, it's very accessible and answers many questions about this fascinating part of Middlewich. Additional information, in brackets, comes from my own (limited) knowledge.

If you should fancy following in Frank's footsteps and taking a look at the limebeds as they are today, please remember that this article was written twenty six years ago and in it Frank is remembering even earlier times. Much has changed. In particular, as can be seen from our title photo from Google Earth, vegetation has encroached on a lot of the area. And bear in mind also that much of the limebeds is private property and can be a treacherous and dangerous place to be.

ICI WASTE LIMEBEDS

by Frank Smith.

The source of all that chemical waste. ICI Middlewich. The limebeds were (and are) out of shot to the right. This is a souvenir photo given to all ICI employees when the works closed in 1962.
 Photo restoration by Bill Armsden and John Bailey. 

For the purpose of this paper assume that the limebeds run North to South, bounded on the East side by the Sandbach-Middlewich-Northwich railway, on the West side by the Trent & Mersey Canal, on the South side by Cledford Lane and on the north by the ERF workshops and research buildings (ERF is  long gone, but the buildings are still there, and still in the motor trade - Ed).

The lagoons were formed to accommodate the Distiller Blow Off liquor, usually referred to as D.B.O. This consisted of a clear liquid (Calcium Chloride) with various and varying calcium compounds and minute pieces of coke and cinder from the lime kilns. In the lagoons the sediment settled on the bed and the Calcium Chloride ran off as a clear liquor to discharge into Sanderson's Brook (Sanderson's Brook is a small stream which flows down from the Bradwall area to meet the River Croco near Brooks Lane. The Croco then flows alongside the T&M Canal through Middlewich to join the River Dane at one corner of Harbutt's Field, near the Big Lock. Calcium Chloride was far from the only pollutant to be chucked into poor old Sanderson's Brook and the Croco over the years - Ed.).

To me the 'old' limebeds lie to the East side, as they had acquired a sparse coating of grass and were home to numerous peewits and skylarks. There were also a few scrubby bushes of a variety of willow.

The beds seem to have been raised at different periods, since their inception, possibly while they were 'resting'. Initially the lagoons were built with clinker walls on the outside, with a backing of ashes. Thinking about this, the walls could have had an inner clinker wall with an infill of ashes, the whole thing being wide enough to allow the passage of horse-drawn carts to carry the materials used to raise the walls. The clinker would be supplied from the Finishing Machines (Chemical Roasting Furnaces) which converted the Sodium Bicarbonate at high temperatures. The fine ashes would come from the Babcock & Wilcox boilers used to raise the steam for the turbines and the chemical process.

It is interesting to note that later limebeds on the top of the old East limebeds did not have clinker walls; possibly the building of clinker walls was found not to be economically viable, but were built with cinders or earth. About this I am not sure, as these banks were grass covered. Core sampling could answer this.

On the 'new' limebeds on the West side: these may be of more interest to British Salt; I recall that the 'Jubilee train' hauled bogies of clinker and ashes along the top of the walls and discharged them down the outside of the walls. Thus the later walls relied on the natural 'slump' of the material to form the angle of the walls. I have a feeling that the bed of the Jubilee track was made of limestone chippings (2" to dust).

The D.B.O. liquor was distributed to the lagoons along wooden troughs formed in 'U' section with 9" x 1½ " boards with the angles filled with triangular wooden fillets.

A worker was employed maintaining the limebeds. He removed gritty sediment from the troughs and spread this along the top of the walls. This dried out to become reasonably firm, perhaps due to rain washing the Calcium Chloride out of it.

A further waste product was used to a lesser degree in the construction of the walls. The burnt limestone from the kilns was dissolved in water in an almost horizontal rotary vessel. Any unburnt stone and grit was sieved out, the larger pieces returned to the kilns and the remaining grit and small pebbles of limestone, together with some lime mud, was sent in bogies to the lagoons. This was tipped down the face of the wall and eventually set quite hard. An example of this can be seen on the South wall of the West bed on Cledford Lane.

In 1939, just prior to WWII,  the direction of the path across the limebeds was altered. Before this time the path ran in a straight line from its present entry at the North end to No 2 Brine Shaft where it picked up the present path southwards. This was a sunken path and the east side carried the brine main from the shaft to the works. Just East of the brine main, and higher, ran the D.B.O. trough on trestles. By blocking off the ends of the sunken path it was easy to increase the size and capacity of the West lagoon at little cost.

On the top of the wall slightly North West of No2 Brine Shaft I recall, some twenty years ago (circa 1976 - Ed) finding a variety or orchid which I also found growing on the old Furey Limebeds at Winnington.

The limebeds in 1973. In the background can be seen British Salt, and the redundant chimney at Ideal Standard which was demolished not long after this photo was taken. In the foreground is one of the walls of the limebed along which the narrow gauge train ran, tipping waste products into the lagoon.

Just before the ICI had completed its tests on utilizing the empty borehole cavities on the brinefields at Holford for the disposal of D.B.O. mud (this site is between Middlewich and Northwich, and has an entrance on King Street. Many of the  brine cavities are currently being used by INEOS to store natural gas. The brine for Middlewich's British Salt works comes from Warmingham - Ed) they were in the process of constructing new limebeds at Dairy House Farm, Marbury (the result of this construction on the landscape can still be seen today. Please follow this link - Ed). The walls had been built around a field when work stopped. These walls still stand and may be of interest to British Salt. (Here Frank has been overtaken by events, and British Salt wouldn't have been able to consider using the site if they wanted to. The site was bought by Cheshire County Council and developed into a leisure facility - Ed).

Seepage through the walls of the limebeds was dealt with by an open drainage ditch round the whole area, discharging into Sanderson's Brook from the North end. It is possible there may be a drain at the South end, passing under the railway bridge on Cledford Lane and discharging into Sanderson's Brook below the road bridge.

In the 1950s ICI had complaints that Calcium Chloride was polluting the wild brine stream and it was attributed to No 2 Shaft. This was examined by a joiner who was lowered down the shaft in a tub. A similar tub is in the Salt Museum in Northwich! (Now the Weaver Hall Museum - Ed)

He inspected the whalings* around the side for leaks and also tested them for decay by trying to insert a knife blade into the timber.

*this is the one problem I've had with Frank's handwriting which, as you can imagine, is always neat and very legible. I can't find a definition for 'whaling' other than the one you'd expect. He's obviously referring to the wooden lining of the brine shaft and 'whaling' may be a term used exclusively in the chemical and/or salt industries. I can't think what else the word can be. We're sticking with 'whalings' for the moment, but if anyone knows differently, please let us know. - Ed.

The whalings were found to be sound and with no leakage. The soundness of the timbers could possibly be due to the chemicals inhibiting bacterial and fungal activity.

The whole area of the top of the shaft was covered with a concrete capping with an access manhole in the centre. This, in turn, had a locking bar across it.

The site was visited by the Outside Foreman from ICI Holford brinefield on a six-monthly basis to ensure that it was in a safe and good condition. The liquid that accrued in this area drained into the ditch at the South end of the 'old' East limebeds. In the vicinity of the shaft is a tall, circular, brick construction, mistakenly thought by some to be a brine shaft. It is an inspection manhole for the drains at ground level and has been extended as the limebeds were raised. There is a further, similar, manhole by the present path nearer the North end.

The open ditch at the South end of the East lime bed continues, or starts, under the road at the West end of the ditch and can be walked in under the road. This is most probably the surface drain from the shaft.

Frank Smith

Ravenscroft

29th July 1996

Post Script

Since writing the above I have looked at Ordnance Survey maps dated 1909 and 1954. On the 1909 map the 'new' West limebeds are not shown and are fields. On the 1954 map the West limebeds are in existence, together with a long narrow bed on the West side and running the full length, North to South, of the limebeds. On reflection I think that this narrow bed would have to be built at the same time as the main West limebed to have access for the Jubilee train to raise the walls. I can only surmise that its purpose was to act as a 'buffer' in the event of a wall collapse or a large leak. The risk of flooding the Trent & Mersey Canal would be minimised as the main limebed would not drain into the small bed.

The land at the South end of the West bed belonged to EB & BP Ltd (Electro - Bleach & By-Products, the chemical company which stood on the Cledford Lane site later occupied by Steventon's/Ideal Standard and now the home of the ANSA recycling facility - Ed) and the limebed wall adjoining the property collapsed and flooded the field. Cynics said that it was an 'engineered' accident to enable Brunner Mond & Co (later to become ICI Ltd - Ed) to extend their limebed.

As I am now unable to verify if this occurred before 1920, when Brunner Mond acquired EB & BP, I don't know how true this is.

F.S. 

THE WARDLE CANAL AND ICI WORKS IN WINTER

 

Photo: Frank Smith/Bill Eaton

by David Roberts

Courtesy of Bill Eaton, here's a photo from the collection of the late Frank Smith of Ravenscroft showing the working days of the Wardle Canal, which links the Middlewich Branch of the Shropshire Union to the Trent & Mersey.

These days it's very much a part of the canal network's new role as a part of the leisure industry and sees many boating tourists passing through as they negotiate the 'Cheshire Ring'.

To help you get your modern-day bearings; if Wardle Cottage wasn't there, you'd very likely be able to see the Kings Lock pub (and the Kings Lock itself) at that time dwarfed by the massive ICI limestone crushing machinery and buildings.

Wardle Cottage, to the right of the photo was, of course, the home of 'Auntie' Maureen Shaw.

The Middlewich Diary has a collection of articles and photos of Maureen and her lock. Here are links to a few of them.

MAUREEN AND HER LOCK

MAUREEN'S FUNERAL

MEMORIES OF A BOATWOMAN

WARDLE COTTAGE AND 'AUNTIE' MAUREEN

Frank's picture, though, shows Wardle lock and its environs in very different times. We've been trying to pinpoint the probable date of this photo and, because of something which Frank says in his own caption, we've been able to narrow it down to some time between 1929 and 1952.

We're wondering if the snow on the ground and the huge amount of ice in the canal, means that the scene pictured could possibly have been captured in 1947, a year which saw a very hard winter indeed and fits comfortably within our time-frame.

Here's Frank's caption, which he helpfully wrote on the back of the original photo:

Shropshire Union Canal, Middlewich

Looking East.

Sutton Wharf, Wardle Lock. The works in the background was ICI (formerly Brunner, Mond & Co). This closed in 1962.
The chimney served the finishing machines which 'roasted' the bicarbonate of soda at high temperature converting it into carbonate of soda.
The cloud of steam on the left of the picture is from the works shunting engine (not visible) named  Dalton.

We're very fortunate indeed that that little shunting engine chose the very moment that the shutter was pressed to release its steam into the atmosphere, because Frank's sharp eye and encyclopaedic knowledge has enabled us to show you just what that diminutive engine looked like, and something of its history.

Photo: I.R.S. Richmond Collection/Alan Wilkinson

This photo was borrowed from 'Railways Across Mid-Cheshire' by Alan Wilkinson (Foxline Publications. ISBN 1 - 870119-66-5)

Alan writes:

All ICI's Mid-Cheshire works were shunted by diminutive Borrows well tanks, Dalton and Moulton arrived from Kerr Stuart in 1929. Moulton was scrapped in 1957 while Dalton went to Winnington in 1952. Dalton is seen (here) in the mid-thirties. Northwich crews endured many vicissitudes when transferring such 'mini powers' between works over main line tracks!

(Dalton was named after John Dalton, 1766-1844, the chemist, physicist and meteorologist)

Diary entry first published 2nd January 2022

MIDDLEWICH ALKALI WORKS RUGBY TEAM 1938-39

Photo courtesy of BILL EATON/JOAN SMITH

by Dave Roberts

Here's another offering from the collection of the late Frank Smith of Ravenscroft which, pleasingly, has Frank himself in the line-up and includes his informative notes too.

Once again it has been forwarded to us by Bill Eaton who whiled away many hours with Frank reminiscing about old Middlewich.
Frank spent a lot of his working life in the local chemical industry and had a wealth of knowledge about Brunner-Mond and I.C.I. and their connections with the local salt industry.
This photograph shows the Middlewich Alkali Works Rugby Union Team line-up for the 1938-39 season, quite possibly the last until the end of World War II.
Just look at all those 'old Middlewich' names: Ollier, Gallimore,Bailey, Sant, Noden.
Unusually, though, no one called Hough.
I was particularly interested to see that the team included Arthur W Scott. My late father had a friend called Arthur Scott, and I wonder if this is the same man? Rather a coincidence if he isn't.
The scene is the ICI Sports Field, also known as the 'Station Field' and home to several local events such as the Middlewich Show and Middlewich Carnival.
As late as the 1960s it was still a popular venue for travelling fairs and circuses and eventually became the home of the Dennis White Foundation.
The field long ago gave way to modern industry as part of the Midpoint 18 estate.
Frank helpfully allows us to find our bearings by pointing out the chimney in the left background which was part of the Kraft Dairies Cheese Factory which, along with the Nestles Condensed Milk Factory in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, took advantage of the availability of high quality milk from the numerous farms in the area.
That chimney was approximately where the Shell Garage on Holmes Chapel Road now stands.
If you know the name of the number 11, or have information on  any of the people in the photo, please let us know in the usual way.

As can be imagined it is almost impossible to find the exact spot where that Rugby team of nearly three-quarters of a century ago was standing. This photograph, taken on the morning of Friday February 1st 2013, is the best we can do.

The field has gone and been replaced by the vast sprawl of the Midpoint 18 industrial estate.

The present day Shell Garage, former 'Little Chef' restaurant* and Travelodge which are built on the site of the Kraft Cheese factory lie just beyond the low building with the white roof.

The Rugby team may have been standing somewhere near where this car park is now.

The building on the right belongs to Vion Foods.

Many thanks once again to Bill Eaton for the original photo and information.

* Now (2018) a branch of Subway - Ed.

First published 1st February 2013
Re-published 3rd February 2018

ICI MIDDLEWICH OFFICE STAFF 1930s

ICI staff in the 1930s.
(l to r) Mr Brotherton, Mr Wrench, Unknown, Frank Smith, Bill Wakefield, Unknown, Unknown, Unknown.

Mike Jennings has unearthed another photo from his classic collection, and we're looking at some of the workers on the administrative side of the ICI Alkali Works in Brooks Lane in the 1930s.

We hesitate to call them 'office staff', although they're standing outside the company's offices, as they were far more than that. 

Many of them were self-taught engineers and scientists who, to employ a well-worn cliche, were 'not afraid to get their hands dirty' in making sure the operation ran smoothly.

Among them is Frank Smith who, in later life, was one of the founding members of the Middlewich Heritage Society and wrote many articles on the subject of Middlewich and its industries.

We've been delighted to be able to make use of some of Frank's work in the Middlewich Diary. For example his evocative 1920s Christmas story A Middlewich Christmas Tale.

Frank also made posthumous contributions to our diary entries on

The Croxton Waterfall.

He was also a member of the works rugby team, as can be seen here.

We'd like some information about the other people shown in Mike's photo and, of course, to fill in the names of all the 'unknowns'. Can you help us put names to faces?

...and here's the office building they're all standing outside, as it was in its final days in 1973. The building stood on what is now a lawned area in front of the current Pochin building. Shortly after this picture was taken the old offices were demolished, the new ones already having been built behind it. The ornate railings which enclosed the  meagre front garden had long gone - probably taken for the war effort, like the railings around the parish church. Interestingly, though, part of the ornate 'pagoda' style railings can be seen reflected in the window in our main photo. A small remnant of these railings survives next to the Bare Bones Marketing building around the corner, which is itself a remnant of the former ICI works.

The ICI Alkali Works, Middlewich. The King's Lock pub is just out of shot to the left.
 Bill Armsden/John Bailey

MIDDLEWICH STATION 1965

Photo courtesy of Frank Smith and Bill Eaton

This photograph and article also appear on our sister site, Middlewich Station

by Dave Roberts
This photograph recently found its way back to The Middlewich Diary by way of Bill Eaton, who was given a lot of material written and collected by the late Frank Smith of Ravenscroft, an early contributor to the Middlewich Heritage Society and its Newsletter.
Bill has been passing on various bits of material for publication on the Middlewich Diary and MRLC websites, rightly thinking that it would be of interest to readers of both.
I was intrigued when he emailed this photo to me, with my own handwriting on the bottom giving details of its origin.
Obviously, in the early years of the Heritage Society, when I was editing the MHS Newsletter, I must, at some point, have given Frank this photo for his records.
This would have been sometime in the mid-late1980s.
The somewhat dubious quality of the picture betrays its origins as a photocopy of an original photograph by Alan Wilkinson, who lived in Middlewich in the 1960s and is well known as a railway photographer and author.
It came originally from a book called The Stanier 8F 2-8-0 published by D Bradford Barton and the Stanier 8F Loco Society, and the originally caption for the photo reads:

'Saturday afternoon bustle on a Cheshire by-way.

Crewe South's recently outshopped 48505 (D44)

slows for a brisk tablet exchange at Middlewich,

heading the 12.25 Stanlow -Egginton Junction

tanks in January 1965.'

Railway enthusiasts will, of course, have little need for any explanation, but for the layman/woman, here are some explanatory notes:

The engine shown here is, as indicated, a Stanier 8F - a very common type of  engine on the Middlewich line in the 1960s and 1970s, when freight traffic was very heavy.
One very important type of traffic was oil, which came from Stanlow via the West Cheshire route from Helsby to Mouldsworth on the Mid-Cheshire line* and then via Northwich and  Middlewich  to Sandbach and (until 1971) along the Sandbach-Kidsgrove line  to the Stoke area without having to pass through Crewe.
The 'tablet exchange' is the handing over of the token which enabled the train to travel over the single line section from Northwich to Middlewich. The signalman can be seen with his arm out of the signal box window, ready to take the token from the engine driver.
Note the water tower on the left, and the familiar MIDDLEWICH sign on the signal box.
This sign is now in the possession of the MRLC Committee, having been retrieved from Uttoxeter.
Its story is told here.

* the official title of MCRUA's Middlewich sub-committee (the Middlewich Rail Link Campain), which aims to build a new Middlewich Station and introduce a new passenger service from Crewe to Manchester via Sandbach, Middlewich and Northwich, is the Middlewich & West Cheshire Committee.
The West Cheshire line has been lifted, but the trackbed is protected and we keep an eye on the route with a view to its possible re-instatement in the future

Very belated thanks to ERF Ltd for very much unauthorised photocopying facilities.

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.