PRESCRIPTION PORT RIP JULY 2012

by Dave Roberts
The curious case of the shop which wrote its own epitaph. 'Prescription Port' established itself in one of the shops in the new  housing and  shopping development in Wheelock Street, opposite the White Bear (which can be seen reflected in one of the shop windows as it basks in the warm July sunshine) just a few months ago and closed after less than a year, leaving BetFred as the only surviving business in this rather prestigious looking row of shops.
'Prescription Port' itself is a bit of an enigma. There are (or were) branches in Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Winsford and Sandbach and it is obviously, as the name implies, a firm of chemists.
But why it should be thought that there was room for a third chemists shop in this small town, with the trade so obviously firmly sown up by Rowlands, is not clear.
Then again perhaps the competition from Rowlands was not the real reason why the shop closed - that website address brings up the name DAVID STEARNE LTD, a pharmaceutical wholesaler which also owned a chain of pharmacies but was forced to go into receivership a short while ago.
The metal sign started to fall to pieces almost as soon as it was erected and, by the time the shop closed, the first part of it read, as can be seen in the photo, RIP.
Perhaps it would be a kindness if someone removed the other remaining letters?
On a lighter note, you will notice the poster for Peter Jolley's Circus in the window.
Whoever distributes these circus posters would be worth a fortune to any publicity firm. The posters end up almost literally everywhere, including places where most people don't even realise there are places...
Observant readers will be able to date this photograph exactly, because also reflected in the shop window is one of the stalls belonging to the Artisan Market.
Our picture must, therefore, have been taken on the 28th July 2012.

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Jain Talbot: Such a shame, as the staff were really nice and you didn't have to wait ages!

NIGEL and BILL SAGA - 1 THE CONGLETON COUNCIL HANGING BASKET SKETCH

SEND THEM SOME MORE HANGING BASKETS!

by Dave Roberts

There's a perception in Middlewich - maybe it's more than a perception? - that the town is pretty hard done by when it comes to local government services and amenities.

It was, of course, ever thus. There are those who would say that, with the latest council re-organisation, Middlewich  merely progressed from being the 'forgotten town of Congleton Borough' to being 'the forgotten town of Cheshire East'.

Back in August 1985  the old Congleton Borough Council, of which Middlewich was an anomalous, unlikely and (as far as its people were concerned), somewhat unwilling part, was only eleven years into its thirty-five year history.

Many people thought that Middlewich was getting 'a raw deal' from Congleton, paying high rates (forerunner to the present Council tax) and getting little in return.

At that time, it so happened that I had recently been studying the art of comedy scriptwriting - the rhythmic sequence of a scene; conciseness, the importance of characterization and all the rest of it.

One of the exercises was, unsurprisingly, something along the lines of  'write a short comedy sketch involving two characters and tackling a topical issue in a humorous way'.

So I had a go, and Nigel and Bill were the result. In the first draft, they were called Neil and Clive, fact fans, but the names didn't sound authentic. 'Nigel' of course, is a name just made for local government and 'Bill' became his partner as an oblique reference (it says here) to the fact that 'Bills' were all you ever seemed to get from the council.

I was reasonably pleased with the result, gave it the title 'The Congleton Council Hanging Basket Sketch' and decided to send it to the editor of the Middlewich Chronicle (being careful, as always, to retain the copyright) to see what he thought.

To my (slight) embarrassment, rather than giving me his opinion, good or bad, said editor merely published the entire thing on the letters page.

The hanging baskets mentioned were an early attempt to 'smarten up' the town centre at, it seemed to me, minimal cost to the council.

Thus the council could be seen to be 'doing something' about the eternal shabbiness of poor old Middlewich.

The trouble being, of course, that the hanging baskets were the only idea they seemed able to come up with, and the town soon became festooned with the things. 'One trick pony' is the phrase that springs to mind.

The 'Hanging Basket Sketch' was just the first in a whole series of Nigel and Bill sketches published in the Chronicle, featuring ever more elaborate council schemes aimed at doing poor old Middlewich down and keeping all the money in Congleton. 

One sketch was written for radio and was recorded by myself and a member of the town council for broadcasting on community radio (this was long before the days of the now-defunct Cheshire FM).

But this is the sketch everyone remembers. At the time and ever since, when the subject of Middlewich and its place at the bottom of the Council pecking order has been raised, 'Send Them Some More Hanging Baskets!' was, and is, the cry.

To its eternal credit one department of the old Congleton Borough Council joined in with the joke and sent out Christmas cards featuring hanging baskets one year (presumably 1985). Or so I was told. I never saw one of these Christmas cards. If anyone has one, I'd love to borrow it.

So let's go back  twenty-seven years to remind ourselves that the more things change the more they stay the same,with the original sketch which kicked off the Nigel & Bill Saga:

THE CONGLETON COUNCIL HANGING BASKET SKETCH

(IT IS coffee time at the Congleton Borough Council. Nigel and Bill are talking of this and that.)

BILL: By the way, I've received another letter of complaint from Middlewich?

NIGEL: Middlewich?

BILL: It's a small town on the edge of the borough.

NIGEL: Oh yes, I remember. I thought we'd demolished it.

BILL: We tried, but they will keep building new houses.

NIGEL: Yes, it's a hard life in local government. What's their problem now?

BILL: They have this absurd idea that because they pay high rates they're entitled to the same amenities as the rest of the borough.

NIGEL: The very idea! Send them some more hanging baskets!

BILL: They say they're fed up with hanging baskets.

NIGEL: Ungrateful wretches! Those hanging baskets don't grow on trees, you know.

BILL: They say they'd rather have a swimming pool.

NIGEL: For Heaven's sake! Why?

BILL: Because they have two canals and three rivers running through the town. they think their children should have easy access to swimming lessons.

NIGEL: They do have a point, but think of the expense. Send them some more hanging baskets!

BILL: They say they can't get down Wheelock Street because of all the hanging baskets, and if we send any more they'll throw them in the river.

NIGEL: You know, Bill, I sometimes wonder why we bother. Anything else?

BILL: They want to know what we intend to do with all the derelict land in Lewin Street.

NIGEL: The Council has earmarked that land for a very special purpose. We're going to turn it into a nursery and grow lots of flowers.

BILL: What on earth for?

NIGEL: To put in the hanging baskets, of course. I do wish you'd think sometimes, Bill. Anyway, back to work. I've been asked to design a new logo for the council.

BILL: And what have you come up with?

NIGEL: It's an enormous great hanging basket on a blue background...

(All characters are fictional. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is coincidental)

First published in the Middlewich Chronicle on 22nd August 1985

©Dave Roberts 1985/Salt Town Productions 2012

THE SYCAMORE COMMUNITY GARDENS OPENING DAY, SEPTEMBER 1st

(This diary entry was originally published on 20th June and revised and re-published on 23rd August  and 1st September 2012)

(ARCHIVE VERSION)

The Sycamore Community Gardens in Warmingham Lane, which were originally due to be opened in June,  were eventually opened on Saturday September 1st at 2pm. The opening ceremony was performed by Deputy Town Mayor Bernice Walmsley.

.......................................................................................

As the name implies, this is a community initiative which has turned what was just a piece of waste ground into a beautiful garden for the benefit of pensioners living in the adjacent houses.

The main instigators of the scheme were Kath and Barry Walklate, themselves pensioners, who have been delighted with the help and support they have received, not least from the now  retired Assistant Town Clerk Stephen Dent who helped them obtain funding from the Big Lottery Fund via the Community Pride Group.

The grand opening  featured stalls, a tombola and live music.

The opening was based around no. 44 Warmingham Lane.

We'd like to congratulate everyone concerned with this wonderful project, not least Kath and Barry who have put many hours of unpaid hard work into it.

SEE ALSO: A DREAM COME TRUE - THE OPENING OF THE SYCAMORE COMMUNITY GARDENS

PHOTO: STEPHEN DENT

ICI MIDDLEWICH DISTILLER BUILDING

by Dave Roberts

Bill Eaton has sent us this photograph of part of the old ICI Middlewich Works which he found in a book about the history of the firm.

He says, 'the camera man would be standing with his back to the lime beds looking at the back of the works'.
This site is now occupied partly by Pochin Ltd and partly by warehousing which was, between 1971 and 2000, ERF's Middlewich Service Centre (Pochin's is on the part of the site nearest to Brooks Lane, and the ex-ERF buildings are at the other end of the site, directly beneath the lime beds.
An access road called 'Road Beta' runs from Brooks Lane to the foot of the lime beds.
This is the start of the footpath which runs off in the direction of Cledford Lane and was formerly known as 'Poppityjohns'.
Bill, who worked at the ICI works in the mid-1950s,  goes on to say, 'the tall building with the decorative brickwork is the distiller building'.
Note the railway wagons in the foreground of the distinctive type used in the salt and chemicals industries, and which we saw an example of here.
According to Bill, these wagons would be 'on their way with limestone to feed the kilns'.
To enable the modern Middlewichian to get his or her bearings, we should say that the Kings Lock pub and the Trent & Mersey Canal were (and still are) directly behind the buildings in the centre of this picture.
The area is, of course, still industrial in nature and Brooks Lane has been transformed over the years into the 'Brooks Lane Industrial Estate' but, in its day, the ICI Works dominated the area in a way that is hard to envisage now, with its massive limestone crushing machinery, its tall chimneys and its many sidings full of railway wagons.
An idea of the huge scale of the works is afforded by a piece of information which Bill Eaton gives us about that rather charmingly decorated distiller building.
'For a comparison', he says, 'the distiller building was roughly the same height as St Michael's church tower.'

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Bill Armsden I remember that place. There were always loud crashing noises as if stuff was being dropped down the inside of the tall corrugated building. We lived on Long Lane by the canal and that noise could be heard at our house. It was not an attractive structure at all.

Dave Roberts No it wasn't. The whole place was ugly and workmanlike. Which makes it all the more remarkable that they should go to the trouble of putting decorative brickwork on that distiller tower. For whose benefit was it? The constant crashing noises would come from the limestone crushing machinery inside the buildings adjoining the canal.

MIDDLEWICH GUARDIAN 'FAIR PLAY' CAMPAIGN

Our friends at the Middlewich Guardian are currently running a Fair Play Campaign calling on Cheshire East Council to invest in better and safer play areas for children in Middlewich.

The Campaign features a petition which Middlewich people are being urged to sign in order to highlight the dilapidated condition of the town's playgrounds.

The petition was originated by nine-year old Owen Hughes, who was concerned about the state of the Booth lane play area, and taken up by The Guardian. You can sign 'Owen's Petition'  here

There are already over 150 signatures on the petition, but many more are needed.

If you'd like your local play area to be featured in the Guardian's Fair Play Campaign, you can e-mail the paper, briefly outlining the problems you've experienced at:

david.morgan@nqnw.co.uk

or write to Fair Play, Winsford & Middlewich Guardian, 3 Theatre Court, London Road, Northwich CW9 5HB

MAYOR BACKS CAMPAIGN

MIDDLEWICH GUARDIAN MAIN PAGE

PEAK FOREST & BUXTON via MIDDLEWICH 11th AUGUST 2012

UK Railtours' special train from Basingstoke to Buxton passes through Middlewich on the morning of 11th August 2012. Our sister site, the MRLC website, features some superb photos of the train by Neil Cundliffe.

MRLC WEBSITE: PEAK FOREST & BUXTON VIA MIDDLEWICH

SEE ALSO: THE LIMESTONE COWBOY RIDES THROUGH MIDDLEWICH

MCRUA CHAIRMAN'S BLOG: SPECIAL ON THE MIDDLEWICH LINE

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Jenny Hatton: In over thirty years I have never ever seen a train on that line - I thought it was shut!

Diane Russell: There are trains using this line every day. Mostly goods trains, but there is sometimes a Virgin passenger train, if it gets diverted.

Jenny Hatton: I may have to take some sandwiches and camp out next to it - seeing is believing!

Diane Russell: I live about fifty yards away from it, so I can see them from my kitchen window.

Dave Roberts: The shiny rails are evidence that the line's being used quite frequently at the moment. Neil, who took the photo, tells me he lives close to the line and frequently hears trains rumbling through, particularly at night.

Bill Armsden: On a quiet night with the bedroom windows open and a breeze in the right direction, I can hear trains rumbling along the track.

Diane Russell: You can more or less set your clock by them, Dave. One about 5pm most days, and then again between 10 and 11pm, and just lately there have been quite a few during the night. I have got used to them now, and it's quite nice hearing them going past, even in the night.

Dave Roberts: It brings back memories for me. When I was young and lived across the road in King Street I'd often hear trains running in the night - steam trains from 1959 to 1968 and then diesels. I sometimes hear trains in the night now, but they're mostly on the West Coast Main Line, which isn't too far away.

HIGHTOWN, MID to LATE 1960s

If you own the copyright on this image, please let us know

by Dave Roberts

This photograph of a rather forlorn-looking group of shops on Hightown in the mid-to-late 1960s is a companion to this one, and it's highly likely that the two were taken on the same day, possibly within minutes of each other.
On the extreme right we can see a small sliver of Brockley's wallpaper shop which later moved to Wheelock  Street in  premises  opposite 'Temptations' which are currently used by a financial services company.
The move didn't happen because  the original shop was demolished - it's still there and currently (I think) houses one of Middlewich's many hairdressing businesses.
The three shops on the left were not so lucky. The top one, which is partially obscuring the old Town Hall, was a dry cleaners - apparently operated by 'Marvell' - was this one of a chain of shops at the time?
Then comes a small, empty and unidentifiable shop and, finally, a shop which I always think of as a chemist's shop but also, at the time of the photograph, seems to be empty. Can anyone make out the name over the door?  Does anyone remember? I've been trying to make it out from the photograph, and it looks like it may have been 'Bradshaw', or something similar. If you know the answer, please don't hesitate to let us know.
I ought to know myself because, assuming that this picture was taken sometime between 1963 and 1969, I must have stood at the bus-stop across the road from them (outside the National Westminster Bank which is out of shot on the right) nearly every morning of my life waiting for the North-Western Road Car Co. bus to take me to school at Sir John Deane's Grammar School in Northwich.
So I had plenty of time to study these shops over those years.
We've seen them  before in our Middlewich Diary, of course, notably in this picture which was kindly supplied by Kath and Barry Walklate:

This rare view shows us that at least one of the shops we are looking at was the Carbineer Inn and that another was called Summerfield.
You can see the original diary entry on Kath and Barry's photo here.
As startling as the difference between the Hightown of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries may be, even more startling are the changes to the Bullring since the 1960s.
It's astonishing to realise that  the photograph below, taken just a couple of weeks ago, shows people enjoying the Middlewich Artisan Market nearly half a century after  those three forlorn looking shops stood, empty and abandoned and awaiting their fate, in exactly the same place.

The second Artisan Market in Middlewich, July 2012

LINK: THE ARTISAN MARKET IN MIDDLEWICH

Facebook Feedback:

Bill Armsden: Those two shops on the left...The far one was Marvell Dry Cleaners and you are right, they had a chain of shops. 
Two of them were in Northwich on Witton Street: One was where the cleaning was done, and the other was the shop. The company was owned by a family who lived at Stanthorne Grange. I know because I worked for them and I passed my driving test whilst in their employment.
I can't remember their surname, but the owner's son was called Geoff.
They ran a door-to-door collection service and Geoff, me and a couple of others operated that service. They were great to work for.
On the subject of the other shop: I think you're right, Dave. I enlarged it  in Photoshop and it looks like  'B.J. BRADSHAW' but that is mainly a guess.

David Morgan: I love the photo provided by Kath and Barry!

SALT WORKS, GAS WORKS and CANAL 1960s

If you own the copyright on this image, please let us know.

by Dave Roberts

Archetypal 'old Middlewich' and a view rather similar to this one but probably taken slightly earlier, judging from the amount of boats carrying coke pictured here (or perhaps that other picture just happened to be taken at a quiet time?).
This is the reality of that 'lovely old town' which everyone remembers (or thinks they remember) - a grimy, shabby, work-a-day place full of smoking chimneys - ' a mean old town' as Dr Johnson is said to have described it..
That coke is en route to Middlewich Gasworks, which can be seen in the right background, with piles of the black stuff already waiting in the yard to be used.
The use of coke to make town gas can lead to a little confusion as, when gas production first started, it was made from coal and coke was one of the by-products.
However, improvements made later meant that town gas could be produced from other substances such as oil, for example, and coke which had been made as a by-product of other industrial processes.
In other words, rather than making coke, Middlewich Gas Works was, by this time using it to make town gas.
At the time this photograph was taken (probably early to mid-1960s) most of the Gasworks, once the property of the Middlewich Gas Light & Coke Company but by now the province of the North Western Gas Board, had disappeared. This was probably as a result of the switch from using coal to using coke to make the gas.
But could they really be manufacturing town gas in that one small brick building?
And how did they get the coke to the works? Did they use barrows to wheel it across that rickety-looking bridge across the River Croco and through that gap in the wall? If they did it would have taken them the whole day, if not more, to unload five boat loads.
It's much more likely that, by this date, they used a tipper truck of some kind and made the short journey from the gasworks, past the old corn mill (now Town Bridge Motors) and along the canal side to empty the boats.
Even so it would still have been a time-consuming and tricky process.
There are, though, other possibilties: could that coke, in fact, be destined not for the Gas Works, but for Seddon's Salt Works on the other side of the canal (it was still in operation until 1967)?
You can just make out, under the pipe-bridge which carried the coal gas into town, more canal boats. Were they unloading at Seddon's and were the boats in the foreground awaiting their turn?
The difficulty with that theory is that, so far as we know, the salt works in Middlewich always used coal (and cheap, low-grade coal too) rather than coke to make salt.
So we have to come to the conclusion that those boats were indeed carrying coke to Middlewich Gas Works.
Unless, of course, the black stuff in the boats is coal and not coke. But we could go on for ever like this...
Just a few years later the whole process would be just a memory with the introduction of North Sea Gas.
That little brick building, though, survives. It's very much altered and goes under the name of 'Cheshire House'
Note that the boats all carry the British Waterways livery of blue and yellow.
We've just had to say goodbye to British Waterways, which has been replaced by the Canal & River Trust.

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