THE ROYAL OAK, LEWIN STREET circa 1900

by Dave Roberts & Malcolm Hough

Waiting patiently in the wings for many  months now has been long time Middlewich Diary correspondent Malcolm Hough of Wych House Lane who came across this photograph of Lewin Street with an inscription on the back indicating that it was taken during Middlewich's celebrations for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897. At first Malcolm was inclined to take this inscription at face value.
Later, after the photo was cleaned up by his wife Jen, Malcolm took a second look at it, and had a change of mind, thinking that the photo may have a connection with the second Boer War (1899-1902) because of the letters CR fashioned out of flowers which can be seen on the wall on the right of the shot.
Malcolm was wondering if the letters CR might stand for Cheshire Regiment?
The Cheshires certainly took part in the 2nd Boer War, although the troops involved in the Siege of Mafeking were mainly recruited from Rhodesia and surrounding areas by Colonel Baden-Powell who had decided to hold the Cape Colony town due to its strategic position. He successfully did so for 217 days from October 1999 until the 17th May 1900 when British troops from Lord Roberts' army brought the siege to an end.
After a chance meeting with Middlewich historian Allan Earl and consulting Allan's book Middlewich 1900-1950 (Cheshire Country Publishing 1994) (see Page 16 - Ed) Malcolm decided that the photo may well have been taken in May 1900 as the people in the photo are dressed in light Summer clothes.
In 2012, when we were looking at a photo of Hightown donated by Kath and Barry Walklate, we mentioned the then unusual way in which the people of Middlewich first heard the news about the Relief of Mafeking. The article can be read here.

Malcolm writes:

'I have been talking to Trevor Williams, who has lived in Lewin Street for most of his life. He remembers Maureen Condra (nee Hitchen)* very well. We have come to the conclusion that the 'Royal Oak' was demolished at around the same time as Niddries shop was built in the 1950s.
This was around the same time as the Cotton Houses (see this diary entry -Ed) where I used to live were demolished and we should have moved to George VI Avenue. The Hitchin family did move there, but we moved to Hayhurst Avenue instead. This would be in mid-1958.
On the extreme left-hand side of the photo you can see the corner of a three-storey house. Trevor said it was Georgian and was demolished at the same time as Niddries was built.
I can vaguely remember this building, as my Auntie and Uncle lived there in the early 1950s. It had tall stone steps and wrought iron railings and, from the top, it looked like miles down to the footpath.
I think that's why it sticks in my mind so much. Terrifying!
Trevor Williams says that part of the back wall of the 'Royal Oak is still standing, with a fence on top of it. He is now in the process of doing an oil painting of this photo.
Returning once more to the CR letters, on the right hand side, I wonder if the man with the ladder is hiding more lettering?
There is a sign below the letter C, with what looks like it might be a steam train. Could it have been to do with the opening of the Cledford Railway Halt in 1911? (I think it very doubtful. The opening of Middlewich Station itself in 1867/8 was not, it appears, an occasion for much ceremony, so the opening of Cledford Halt, which was some distance away and was only a small wooden platform probably wouldn't have caused a lot of celebration either. The halt only lasted  a few years, closing during World War II - Ed).
We do know that the picture has to be after 1898, which is when the Victoria Building opened.

- Malcolm Hough

* Maureen now lives in America and is an enthusiastic reader of the Middlewich Diary -Ed.

Let's take another look at Malcolm's photo in order to compare it with a modern-day shot. The imposing bulk of the  Victoria Technical Schools can be seen, patriotically flying the flag, in the background. This building later became known as the Victoria Building, and housed the council chamber and offices of the Middlewich Urban District Council, as well as Middlewich library, replacing the old Town Hall on Hightown. 

More recently it has been the home of the Middlewich Town Council and has been officially given the name it should have carried for many years - Middlewich Town Hall. The small area in front of the building was, at one time, called Victoria Square. To the right of the building and the three Lewin Street chimney pots the castellated roof of St Michael's church tower can just be seen.

To the left of the Victoria Building the white roof with the ball ornament at its apex belongs to the Working Men's Institute, which was later converted into the town's second fire station and is now the site of a floral clock and flagpole.

Next come two houses, White Horse Alley, and then the 'White Horse' pub.  It's unclear whether the building actually was a pub  at the time of this photo. If it was, it would have been right next door to the 'Royal Oak', but such a situation has never been very unusual in this country. Certainly the fact that the alley-way next to the building was named after it tends to indicate that the White Horse has been there for a very long time.*

Then comes the 'Royal Oak' itself which is, of course, long gone and its site given over to the 'White Horse's' Car Park and part of the now-derelict Niddries site.

The buildings on the right hand side of the picture still survive (see below).

* subsequent information from Malcolm shows us that the White Horse was certainly there, and operating as a pub, as long ago as 1860. So the two pubs were indeed in business right next door to each other -Ed.

Here's the same area on  January 14th  2015. The Victoria Building still dominates the scene, but looks a little foreshortened without a flagpole and flag waving in the breeze. The White Horse has come into prominence with the demolition of the Royal Oak and the other buildings to its left, and that surviving wall from the old 'Royal Oak' must be just out of shot to the left in among the rubble and desolation that  once was Niddrie's toy shop.*

Remarkably, though, the shop on the right which was being garlanded with flowers all those years ago seems little altered.

To prove that appearances can be deceptive, please note that there is not a vehicle in sight in this view. Had it been taken a second before or a second after it was, the photo would have been chock-a-block with vehicles of all kinds. In fact, a true comparison photo was impossible as it would have needed to be taken from the middle of the road. 

Standing in the middle of the carriage-way in modern day Lewin Street is, it need hardly be said, not recommended..

The whole area looks a little forlorn and sorry for itself on a freezing cold January day but, come the Summer, when the crowds descend on the town for the FAB Festival, this area comes to life and looks a little more like it must have done when the town was celebrating the Relief of Mafeking (or was it Queen Victoria's Jubilee, or even George V's Coronation?) all those long years ago.


*Update (15th January 2019) The White Horse finally closed its doors on the 10th March 2018 (see link, below). As of even date it's still standing and looking much the same as it always did. It's been converted into offices and stands empty. There are those who think that it will stand for a few years yet, most probably untenanted, until a decent interval has elapsed and it can be demolished. To coin a phrase - You may say that, we couldn't possibly comment. - Ed.

THE CLOSURE OF THE WHITE HORSE

UPDATE - 17th January 2015:

This Diary entry generated a lot of interest, with 86 views in the first hour after it was published.

On Facebook Geraldine Williams came up with an alternative theory to explain the letters on the right of the photograph:

Geraldine Williams Could the year be 1911 and the floral letters actually be G and R for George V's coronation?
This sounds eminently plausible. George V ascended to the throne in 1910 and his coronation took place on the 22nd of June 1911, which ties in nicely with Malcolm's theory about the Summer clothes worn by the people in the photograph. So, is that a 'G' rather than a 'C'?

And Bill Eaton of New King Street emailed to say:

What a very interesting photo. I too can remember two cottages in Lewin Street with steep steps at the front, and the Hitchen family lived there, as, at one time did a Mrs Maddock and her son John. John emigrated to Australia at an early age and he and Maureen Condra, nee Hitchen, both attended St Mary's school at the same time as I did.
I also remember that, across the road from Niddries there was a dairy, which I think was owned by Maudley's.
Also, I was once told that the double fronted shop in the photo had been a bakery, which is, presumably, where the name 'Bakers Yard' (see below) comes from. I believe the premises were owned at one time by the Foster family.

          

Bill.

Meanwhile, Malcolm Hough still favours the Cheshire Regiment theory and  has  emailed us with this:

I am not certain if I have mentioned this to you before, but after a bit more research where the letters C. R. are on the wall, below them, surrounding the window frame and the window itself, are the Cheshire’s regimental colours. See image (below). - Malcolm Hough

Photo: Malcolm Hough

BAKERS YARD - circa 2011

Malcolm also sent us this view, culled from Google Earth's Streetview, showing the buildings opposite the former Royal Oak/Niddrie's site, complete with plaque indicating that the area is known as 'Baker's Yard'. As Malcolm points out, Google Earth is only updated occasionally, so this view will be a few years old, as evidenced by the shop just beyond the Victoria Building which is, at the time of the photo, still being shared between Rowlands Pharmacy (since moved to new premises in St Ann's Walk) and  Middlewich Post Office. Our caption, dating the view as '2011', is an approximation.

SEE ALSO: LAST REMNANTS OF THE ROYAL OAK

                      ROYAL OAK - THE TRUTH REVEALED

 First published 15th January 2015

 Updated 17th Janury 2015
 Updated and re-published 15th January 2019

THE END OF AN ERA - R.I.P. THE WHITE HORSE, 10th MARCH 2018

The White Horse, Lewin Street, as it was in October 2012

by Dave Roberts

In the early hours of Sunday 11th March 2018 another piece of old Middlewich came to an end as the White Horse in Lewin Street finally reached the end of the line.

The closure of the pub was widely expected and for several years had been the subject of much speculation.

The problem with the White Horse has never been with its beer, even when the main offering was the notorious Double Diamond which, you'll recall, 'worked wonders', nor with its food, even when that food consisted mostly of Walker's Crisps and KP Peanuts. The problem was never with the pub's clientele - the usual Middlewich mix of hard drinkers, nutcases, dreamers, philosophers and ordinary, run-of-the-mill, 'couple of pints on the way home' amateurs.

And there has certainly never been any problem with the people running the pub. 

Speaking  personally, I can go back to 1970, the first time I ever set foot in the White Horse, when Ken and Marjory Williams were the landlord and landlady.

I used to go in there with my first girlfriend's father Ron Grainger who worked (as I did) for the Middlewich Urban District Council and used to call into the pub to buy the, then new, Walker's Crisps. I'd go with him on occasion and we'd take in a few pints of Double Diamond while we were buying the crisps. It would have been rude not to.

Ken and Marjory were the epitome of the old-fashioned 'mine host' and his lady wife. Ken was a military man who had served in the Tank Regiment and had pictures of some of those tanks and the people he had served with all around the pub.

Marjory was just lovely. A lady with the quirkiest sense of humour I have ever encountered. She had, as they say, all her many and varied Middlewich customers 'weighed up', and wouldn't take any nonsense from any of them. I'm keeping my favourite Marjory story under wraps for the time being (as it's ever so slightly rude).

In later years, after Ken had passed on, a complete lunatic called Jerry Woods was manager at the White Horse. This was the time when, after working Saturday mornings at ERF, I'd call in for a few pints with work colleague Steve Farrington.

Saturday afternoon fun at the White Horse in the 1990s. The late Steve Farrington (and unidentified lady friend) together with his brother Peter. Sadly, Peter also died in 2018.

And this was also the time when the White Horse was just about a minute's walk (or, rather, stagger) away from the Middlewich Folk & Boat Festival site at Market Field (via the adjacent White Horse Alley) and said Jerry Woods would try to get the festival's compere so drunk as to render him incapable of introducing the acts. It never worked, though we came perilously close some years. I know, because I was that compere.

No. The  White Horse never really had any problems until relatively recently. And the problem which has ultimately seen the end of the White Horse has arisen from the pub's position close - too close - to the Lewin Street carriageway. The increase in traffic - in particular the rise in the number of heavy trucks using Lewin Street, in the absence of a by-pass between Sandbach and Middlewich, has made the pub's position more and more precarious as time has gone on.

Our main picture, taken by Bill Armsden for our sister site the Middlewich Directory in 2012, graphically shows the problem. The pub is far too close to the road. Or, to be more precise, the road is far too close to the pub. 

The only real solution would be to move the pub a few yards further back, but we all know that would never happen, even if it was physically possible.

And so, sadly, the White Horse has to close.

The plan, according to reports, is to turn the ground floor of the pub into offices for 'a transport company' with 'accommodation for truck-drivers' above.

Does that ring true? Won't the building still be too close to the road, whatever it's used for? Where will the trucks park? Where will the people working in the office park their cars? Has planning permission been granted? If not, will it be granted given all these questions and the problems  inherited from the building's days as a pub?

Can anyone doubt that the building will eventually be pulled down to ease the passage of traffic along Lewin Street?

And isn't it true that such a demolition would also give some developer access to the prime building land which lies behind the pub?

Not for us to say, of course.

In the meantime we can only mourn the loss of this most popular of Middlewich pubs.

UPDATE (16th May 2020): As of May 2020 our cynicism and scepticism over the closure of the pub and the future of the building seems to have proved unfounded. The building appears to be thriving in its new role as a 'business centre' with a suprising number of  firms making full use of the facilities it offers, and with no apparent problems over car parking. Which shows how much we know....

Many people have tried in recent years to make a go of the White Horse, and it's been something of a local success story, particularly as a disco and karaoke venue, which is how it will be spending its last night.

Other types of music have also been welcomed in recent years, particularly at Festival time:

Unofficial Festival Fringe publicity 2016

We'll leave you with these photos from the Mike Jennings Classic Collection, taken just before the pub closed its doors for good.

The White Horse in March 2018, showing once again just how close Lewin Street comes to the front of the building

Taken the same day and looking in the opposite direction towards Middlewich Town Hall

The dirt and grime which relentless heavy traffic plastered all over the building can be seen here. It didn't seem to matter how many times the White Horse was re-painted, the same thing happened. 

To the right of the building is the tower at Middlewich Fire Station in nearby Civic Way. This steel structure was once used to dry out rubber fire hoses (they were hung from the tower to let the water drain away) and is now used for training exercises.

The White Horse Bar in its final form. Still basically the same bar we all remember.

One unique feature of the White Horse - and  a feature highly prized by the male sector of the White Horse's clientele - was the marvellous Victorian  urinals in the gent's lavatories. Made by Duckett's of Burnley. We shall never see their like in Middlewich again.

Delighting in Music no more...here's the dismal scene at the White Horse on the 31st March 2018, just three weeks after closure. Earlier in the month this had been a place of music, laughter and excitement. Very soon it will become nothing but  boring, nondescript office space and 239 years of pub history will have been dumped in a skip. The building spent 239 years as The White Horse, starting in 1779. That wasn't the beginning of the pub's history, though. It was in existence in 1767 as The Horse & Jockey (Ref. 'Middlewich Hospitality' by Ken Kingston, Middlewich U3A Local History Group 2014).

From the White Horse Facebook page:

Sad times as from Wednesday 21st March 2018 the keys are being handed over to the new owner.
We have had many happy years in the White Horse and each and everyone of you have got good memories of your days n nights out to cherish
All landladies n landlords past n present would like to thank each and everyone of you who over the years have supported us to make this public house the success it was.
Without you we couldn’t of kept it going this long.
The only one good thing is that it is not being knocked down and it’s getting a new face lift for offices n flats
Thank you all once again and we hope to see everyone very soon in the near future.

Janice n Rob
Leon n Steve
Jon n Jackie

15th March 2018

SEE ALSO:

UNEVEN SURFACES

A tale of the Folk & Boat Festival

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Editorial Note

We expected this Diary Entry marking the end of a popular Middlewich institution to be popular. In fact it broke all records with nearly four thousand people from all over the world taking a look at it in the course of its first 24 hours on the Middlewich Diary.

First published 11th March 2018

Updated and re-published 15th January 2019

UNEVEN SURFACES

Photo: Salt Town Productions 2012

by Dave Roberts
This, I can assure you, is a completely true story which happened in the heady days of  the summer of 2012 during the Middlewich FAB Festival.
The scene is the White Horse public house in Lewin Street which, like many of the town's pubs, was playing host to some of the festival's fringe acts.
Mindful of the need to ensure the safety of its customers the pub's management had helpfully put this warning on a boarded-up window so that no one would trip over while trying to negotiate the entrance to the pub  and its beer garden.
Whether this had been done specially for the festival I don't know, but the last time I visited the pub the sign was still there.
Late on the Saturday afternoon I walked into the bar and was intrigued to hear the bar staff laughing uproariously and, from time to time, mentioning the words 'uneven surfaces'.
When I asked them what was going on I was told that, earlier in the afternoon, a folk festival visitor, complete with anorak, pewter tankard, Festival Guide and perplexed frown, had called in and asked them what time The Uneven Surfaces were playing.
He could not, he said, find any mention of this particular band in the Guide.
It is unclear whether or not  the Please Take Care was a later addition to the sign, possibly designed to make its purpose clearer.
Perhaps it was already there when this hapless festival-goer wandered in from the street?
If so, I wonder if he thought that Please Take Care was The Uneven Surfaces' support band or that The Uneven Surfaces were such a wild and dangerous bunch that care should be exercised when watching them?
But honestly, you try to help people...

P.S. Stuart Warren Twigg says:

Great story.

 Sometimes the truth is indeed stranger than fiction. OK so the band is called Daryl and the album is Uneven Surfaces, but you couldn't write this stuff!

The White Horse in 2012                                                                                                       Photo: Bill Armsden

Note: After years of struggling to survive, the White Horse finally closed its doors for good on the 10th March 2018. The only reason for the pub's decline was its position on Lewin Street where heavy traffic roared perilously close to the front door. Had the pub been in a better position there's no doubt that it would still be open and thriving.

SEE: THE END OF AN ERA - R.I.P THE WHITE HORSE

First published 23rd January 2013
Re-published 23rd January 2018
and March 11th 2018.

ARTISTS APPEARING AT THE WHITE HORSE, LEWIN STREET, OVER THE FAB FESTIVAL WEEKEND

ARTISTS APPEARING HERE OVER THE FAB FESTIVAL WEEKEND:

PLUS....

SESSIONS IN THE BAR ALL WEEKEND

FAB FESTIVAL FOLK SESSIONS AT THE WHITE HORSE 2016

Photo courtesy of the White Horse/Ian Murfitt

SEE ALSO: ARTISTS APPEARING AT THE WHITE HORSE OVER THE FAB FESTIVAL WEEKEND

THE WHITE HORSE ON FACEBOOK

FAB FESTIVAL FRINGE EVENTS AT THE WHITE HORSE, LEWIN STREET

WHITE HORSE ALLEY 2012

by Dave Roberts

Mike Jennings was out with his camera at the start of 2012 to bring us these pictures of White Horse Alley which, for those who don't know, runs from Lewin Street (alongside the pub which gives it its name) and past Market Field (best known these days as the venue for the Middlewich FAB Festival) to join with St Ann's Walk immediately adjacent to the Oaklands Medical Centre.

The right of way then continues across the High School's car park and around the back of the Sports Hall to eventually reach St Ann's Road.
At one time pedestrians could take a more direct route through the school grounds, but this was never popular with people who at times had to run the gauntlet of some  cheeky and appallingly bad-mannered schoolchildren.

When Mike originally sent these photos to us in January, he was asking if anyone knew why White Horse Alley had been blocked off at both ends.

Seemingly, the answer is quite obvious: it's been sealed off pending the start of work on the extension to the aforementioned Oaklands Medical Centre in  St. Ann's Walk which, since there seems to be no sign of the work in question starting, would appear to be something of a premature move.
The main picture (above) shows the alley looking towards Lewin Street. Part of the Wych Centre on Market Field is just visible top left. 
This part of White Horse Alley was always a good short cut from Market Field to the White Horse during the original Folk & Boat Festival. The festival's compere could make it back to the mainstage in less than a minute after a Festival Saturday afternoon drinking session with Jerry at the pub.
I know, I was that compere.
The alley does not run in a straight line; there is an S-bend close to the remains of the little houses which once fronted onto the alley (see below).
On the other side of the hedge on the right is a field where Mr Smallwood, who lived nearby, kept sheep.
It was the presence of those sheep just yards away from the main Folk Festival site which led, among other considerations, to the cancellation of the 2001 Folk & Boat Festival in the middle of a Foot & Mouth Disease outbreak.
The risk was just too high.
Some have claimed that 'the festival went ahead anyway' because a couple of pubs held music sessions.
Not so. A couple of sessions in a couple of pubs do not a festival make.

Mike's other photographs show (clockwise from top left): 1: A little further down the alley, towards Lewin Street. Some of the gates, fences and sheds of the gardens of Rosemount, backing onto the alley, can be seen on the left; 2: The view across the top end of what was once Mr Smallwood's sheep pasture looking back towards the property across the road from the White Horse in Lewin Street; 3: The last remains of the cottages (at least one of them a serious rival for Conway's 'smallest house in Britain' claim) which once fronted onto White Horse Alley, looking up towards the start of that 'S bend' 4: The same properties seen looking in the opposite direction, towards Lewin Street. the late Mr Smallwood's house is on the opposite side of the fence on the left. The barrier recently erected to prevent access from the Lewin Street end of White Horse Alley can be seen centre left. The White Horse pub itself is immediately to the right of it.

White Horse Alley is sometimes erroneously referred to as a 'cobbled alley'. Those are not cobbles, but setts - square shaped dressed stones, much more uniformly sized than cobbles and giving a smoother surface.

Many of Middlewich's main streets were laid with setts, and they're still there under the modern Tarmac surfaces.

Whenever the roads need to be dug up it's possible to see the original setts. 

Which, Middlewich being the way it is, means that the opportunity arises very frequently indeed.


Here's an older photograph of the Lewin Street end of White Horse Alley, showing those tiny cottages before they fell into complete disrepair. This comes from our diary entry 'Now & Then: White Horse Alley' which can be found here

Facebook feedback (from 'You Know You're From Middlewich, When...'):


Cat Cotterill My Nan used to live next door but one to the alley, and I can remember her taking my cousins and I to the smaller field behind the White Horse to see John's cows.
Also I can remember the fair moving to the field behind that (which I believe now has tennis courts on) (Quite possibly Cat means the all weather football pitch at the top of the alley - Ed)


Daniel Preston I remember windows in the cottages along there, the glass green and bulging at the bottom, the sound (sic) having slowly succumbed to gravity over the centuries.


Andy Kendrick The cottages which used to be on White Horse Alley were where my parents used to live when they had just married. My Dad told me some good stories about the characters who used to knock around in those days.

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