A FOGGY DAY...

Photos by Paul Greenwood       Descriptions by Dave Roberts

A foggy day in old Middlewich town in February 2012, captured in this beautifully atmospheric shot by Paul Greenwood. The Church of St Michael & All Angels  can just be glimpsed in the background and, to the left, the lights of the amphitheatre glow fitfully through the gloom.

As ever cars jostle for position outside the Tesco Express and, a little further up Hightown on the right, we can just make out the outline of the former Fitton's/Vernons butchers shop, now home to the Balti Spice takeaway.

In the foreground is evidence of the work being done by National Grid all along Wheelock Street to replace ageing metal gas pipes with plastic ones.

Looking, if anything, even more out of place than usual, on the right, is one of those ghastly street lamps dubbed 'glorified patio heaters' (probably by me) which so disfigure our town centre with their plasticky cheapness.

Let's hope they prove to be as temporary as the road works.

A short distance away, in Wheelock Street, further evidence of the National Grid's endeavours can be seen on the right and, to the left, the lights of Reed Rains Estate Agency and Bargain Booze glow almost eerily through the fog. Also on the left can be seen the Alhambra, the town's second cinema, built in the 1920s, with its ornate facade, and its name, thankfully preserved. The building is now enjoying a new lease of life after being a cinema, bingo hall and amusement arcade in its time.

The amusement arcade, it will be remembered, was, like most things associated with the youth of the town, going to bring hellfire and damnation down on us all, and mean the end of civilisation as we know it.

Strangely, it never happened and now it's a Chinese restaurant - probably the only Chinese restaurant in the country named after a Moorish palace in Spain.

It's almost possible, looking at this picture, to imagine oneself back in the Middlewich of a hundred years ago.

Despite all the changes over the years, Wheelock Street is still recognisably the same place we see in pictures from 1912 and even earlier.

The fog, and the black and white photography, lend a timeless quality to the scene and, on days like this, all our Middlewich ghosts come back to haunt us.

Facebook feedback:

Paul Greenwood WOW!!! Thanks ever so much mate - I'm on the cover of Salt Town Productions. :)

Dave Roberts Very prestigious indeed. Talent will out, though. There aren't many people who could have taken those pictures, you know.  

Geraldine Williams Terrific pic Paul, very atmospheric. All it needs is a couple of hansom cabs and Jack the Ripper lurking in Vernon's doorway.........!!

Helen Kerr Wow what a fab pic x

Dawn Lee  Cracking piccie Paul... I love black 'n' whites. If the modern road works weren't there... it cuddav gotten away with looking like a really old picture... xxx 

Julie Westray I was just thinking the same thing

SINGER WANTED BY MIDDLEWICH GUITARIST/SONGWRITER

Sample tracks: SOUND ADVICE - Paul Farrington (Soundcloud)
NATURAL HIGH - Paul Farrington (Soundcloud)

NEW RADIO MAST ON THE MIDDLEWICH BRANCH LINE

This photograph taken from Prosperity Way, the access road to Middlewich's Sewage Treatment plant, on Friday 3rd February 2012, shows another new addition to the assorted trackside paraphernalia which adorns the Sandbach, Middlewich & Northwich Railway in the modern age.
It's Network Rail's new GSM-R mast (Global System for Mobile communications - Railway, since you asked).
Network Rail are erecting these masts along every railway line in the country - one every four or five miles - and in many places they are causing controversy, particularly in 'areas of outstanding natural beauty'.
Brooks Lane, Middlewich, does not, unsurprisingly, fall into that category.
Because the masts are on railway property NR do not have to ask for planning permission to put them up. They did, however, inform Cheshire East Council, Middlewich Town Council and other interested parties, including the Middlewich Rail Link Campaign, of their intention of siting the mast in the town.
MRLC did not object to the mast being erected, but pointed out that the site chosen is perilously close to the site of the proposed platform for the new Middlewich Station.
Local Authorities have told Network Rail officials that they must be prepared to move the mast if it is found to interfere with the building of the new platform.
It's interesting to note that with all the new signalling and communications apparatus needed to run railways these days, the trackside in Middlewich is now more cluttered with signals, equipment boxes and safety fences than ever before.
However, this has had the beneficial side effect of making the area more secure and a lot tidier than it was.
Incidentally, an inspection of the track made at the same time  the photograph was taken shows that the rails are nice and shiny - always a sign that the line is being well used.
All the railway scene in Middlewich needs now is that station. And some passenger trains, of course.

LINK: PAUL HURLEY

Illustration: Tempus Publishing 2005

Paul is the author, with the late J Brian Curzon, of Middlewich, a book in the 'Images of England' Series published by Tempus Publishing. Details of some of Paul's other books and stories can be found on his website.

PAUL HURLEY WEBSITE

LINK: MIDDLEWICH CLEAN TEAM

MIDDLEWICH CLEAN TEAM

THE TOWN THAT WENT TO WAR ON LITTER (MAIL ONLINE)

THE MIDDLEWICH DIRECTORY

WELCOME BACK!

Hello again! Apologies if you've been trying to access our Middlewich Diary over the last few days and been getting nowhere.
We've been making a subtle change to our website address, which is now simply 'middlewichdiary.com', a domain which is our property, meaning that all the content on A Middlewich Diary belongs to Salt Town Productions and, by extension, to the town of Middlewich and can be preserved for posterity (as long, that is, as someone who cares about our town owns the domain name).
If, like me,  you automatically type 'www' in front of every web address, that's fine too, as www.middlewichdiary.com will also find us.
None of this will make any difference at all to most people, particularly those of you who pick up new entries on the Middlewich Diary through the links we post on Facebook.
All the old entries, going back to last June, are still available.
We're sorry for the inconvenience while the mysterious machinery of the internet (and believe me, you probably know as much about it as I do) has been grinding away in the background to bring about this change, but it's done now.
Normal service resumes tomorrow.
Thank you for your time.
Dave Roberts, Editor

VERNON'S BUTCHER'S BILL 1970

by Dave Roberts

From Carole Hughes' collection of Middlewich memorabilia comes this reminder of the time when our town had one of the finest butcher's shops in the area, before the march of progress and some heartbreaking vandalism wrecked it forever in the 1980s.

The story of the unfortunate end of this Middlewich institution is told in The Butchered Butchers Shop, but here is a reminder of happier times, just prior to decimalisation of the currency, when Vernons were keeping up the old standards and traditions of the former Fittons butchers shop on Hightown.

Even the bills had a pleasingly old-fashioned air about them, with assurances such as

All our Meat kept in Cold air Stores during hot weather,

the promise of

Free delivery to all parts daily

and the delightful plea:

It will be esteemed a favour if Customers would send Luncheon orders the previous day

- beautifully phrased, and typical of the old-world courtesy observed by shopkeepers until rampant consumerism started to get the better of us all, not too long after this bill was issued.

The weights of the goods sold are, of course, resolutely shown in pounds and ounces (as, remarkably, they still are today. The British swallowed decimalisation with scarcely a murmur, but it was a different matter when it came to weights and measures. Officialdom seems to have just about given up on the issue and, though we tolerate all those litres and kilos and so on, we still insist on having our weights and measures displayed properly as well).

Having shown myself in past Diary entries to be no great shakes at deciphering these old bills, I'll declare myself open to correction on the details of the goods Mr Sant (or, more likely, Mrs Sant) bought forty-two years ago,but here's what I think they were:

A leg of lamb (2lb 8 1/2 ozs) at 15s 4d

1lb liver at 2s

2oz sausages at 2s

and 10 oz ham at 3s 10d

And isn't it amazing how those of us who remember the old pre-decimal currency can still add up in 'old money'and still do so whenever we see a bill like this...

So it's 10d, add 4d, add another 10d that's 24d - that's 2s, so carry over into the next column. 2s add 3s, add, 2s, add another 2s, add 15s, add 7s - that's 31s, so put down the 11s and carry over the pound.

That'll be £1 11s 0d. Thank you.

COSTELLO'S SHOP, KINDERTON STREET, circa 1973

Looking very much stricken with age and seeming to be almost begging for someone to pull it down before it falls down is Costello's grocery shop in Kinderton Street in the early to Mid 1970s.
In fact it's astonishing that a shop selling food should be allowed to stay open in such an appalling state.
This photograph was taken around the same time as this one (slightly earlier, in fact. Note that the Typhoo Tea sign on the left [or at least the 'hoo Tea' part of it] is still intact here, whereas in the colour shot with Mary Costello, the sign has been broken).
To the left of the shop can be seen the little 'privy' which also features here and, behind it, the old outbuilding, the remains of which we featured here.
Next door but one to the shop, beyond the little cottage, is another long vanished Kinderton Street establishment, Whittaker's shop.
This photo was taken from the corner of Brooks Lane and Kinderton Street, immediately next to the Boar's Head Hotel.