SAXA SALT WAGON - THE REAL THING

Following our entry showing a Hornby Dublo model of a Saxa Salt railway wagon, here's  the real thing, as photographed by Chris Beard, who discovered it in a Scottish museum some years ago.
This picture shows one of these wagons as it would have looked prior to 1948, as evidenced by the fact that the return location for the empty vehicle is shown as MIDDLEWICH LMS (LNW).
The inscription above that indicates that the wagon is the property of THE MIDDLEWICH SALT Co Ltd (as, of course, does the SAXA SALT lettering emblazoned across the side).
It will be noted that the SAXA SALT lettering shown here is actually different from the lettering on the Hornby model. The 'S', in particular, appears to be in a completely different typeface.

Further evidence of the wagon's private owner status is in the words NON-POOL on the left, designed to prevent some railway yard foreman somewhere appropriating it for another use.
This would seem to be unlikely to happen anyway, due to the vehicle's high-profile yellow and red livery.
The Middlewich Salt Company features in this entry, which has proved to be one of our most popular diary entries, with the second highest number of  'hits' since we started in June 2011.
Many thanks to Chris for sending us the photo and for going to the trouble of tracking down the name of the museum where this restored wagon can be found. Here's a link.

First published 12th February 2012
Re-published 11th February 2019 and 15th May 2020

MDR 150520

THE WAR AT HOME - MIDDLEWICH HERITAGE TRUST LINK

We invite you to take a look at the superb work done by Kerry Kirwan and the Middlewich Heritage Trust on the 'War At Home' Project

THE WAR AT HOME

(Middlewich Town Council Link)

    

VE DAY 75th ANNIVERSARY MESSAGE FROM Cllr MIKE HUNTER

The following is a message from the Vice-chairman of Middlewich Town Council,

 Cllr Mike Hunter, on the occasion of the 75th Anniversary of VE Day, 8th May 2020:

'In the midst of a national crisis, we remember the millions who lost their lives in the Second World War and celebrate the 75th anniversary of our victory in Europe over fascism.

We had hoped that this bank holiday would have brought our community together to revive the spirit of 1945, but under current social distancing that is not possible.
So let's get into our front gardens on Friday and do whatever we can to create a street party atmosphere. One day we will meet again for a proper party.
We owe them for the freedoms we enjoy today.
I can say with immense gratitude - to all those who served and those who paid the ultimate sacrifice - your honour, courage and love of freedom will never be forgotten.
Thank you'.

1984 LEWIN STREET LORRY CRASH

Photo courtesy of Joan Smith

by Dave Roberts

From the collection of  the late Frank Smith of Ravenscroft, courtesy of Joan Smith and Bill Eaton, come these photographs of the  aftermath of a dramatic traffic incident in 1984.

Bill has sent us this note to accompany the images:

'Frank's notes for these photographs say:

In a heavy morning mist a heavy goods vehicle ploughed into three cottages on Lewin Street.

A child in the front bedroom of one of the cottages woke early and was taken to a room at the rear of the

building shortly before the crash happened. The damage was so bad that all three cottages later had to be completely demolished.

Frank also drew attention to the decorative brickwork over the windows of the right-hand cottage (below)'

Photo courtesy of Joan Smith

Note, to the centre right of the top photograph,  Dave Costello's Angling Centre which was, at that time, still in use as St Paul's Methodist Chapel.

In a small town like this, so beset with traffic problems and with such relatively narrow streets, the wonder is not that something like this could happen, but that it hasn't happened more often.

The cottages destroyed in this incident were replaced not long afterwards by modern housing.

Facebook Feedback:

Andy Kendrick I remember that crash in 1984, and the old cottages. Shame they were lost. But it's nice to see the old St Paul's as it was. I used to go to Sunday School there. Happy memories

Rachel Walklate I have shared this link with the lady who I think was 'the girl taken from the front room to the back'.

Geraldine Williams I didn't know about the crash. I assumed that the cottages were just demolished as part of Middlewich's regeneration. My paternal grandfather was born and brought up in one of the cottages in the late 1800s.

Denise Appleton We had just moved out of one of those cottages months before the accident, but Reg Hunt was still living there.

Robert Sheckleston I remember the crash. Reg Hunt and his partner Thelma lived there. Thelma worked on the salt-floor at RHM Foods.

Susan Nugent I seem to think Mollie Wilkinson lived in one of those cottages. I'm sure she had her first daughter then. I'm sure someone will know.

Mark Joyce That was all down to a Ken Elsby's truck. My Auntie and Uncle used to live in one of those cottages

KathAndBarryWalklate This was my sister's house. It was early in the morning when the lorry ran into the house next door and took half my sister's house with it. She had a six month old baby which she had not long taken out of her cot before it was full of bricks from the wrecked wall. She was very lucky. That little baby grew up to be Nikki Wilkinson who had the Turnpike at one time.


UPDATE 30th April 2020:

When this Diary Entry was used as part of our 'Middlewich Diary Revisited' series in April 2020 Nikki Wilkinson, who was indeed the baby involved in the crash, herself posted the following stunning account of what happened on that fateful night when she was just a baby. We've reproduced it here with her permission - Ed

I was apparently about 8 months old. Obviously I don’t remember it actually happening but have been told the story many times. 

I only got to see the damage and how lucky I was, because of this story popping up. 

Across from these cottages is now the accountants business, if you notice there is a bend in the road there.

My dad, for whatever reason, had parked his car across the road on the bend the night before. Due to the bad weather and it being a grey/silver car, the lorry driver didn’t see it until the last second and swerved to miss it.

Unfortunately it meant he lost control and hit the gable end of the first cottage and ploughed through the other 2. We lived in the middle one.

As you can see on the picture, the front bedroom wall is completely missing. This wall fell on top of the drivers cabin and killed him instantly.

My cot along with a nursing chair was against the window of this room and ended up with the wall in the cab. 

Not long before the crash, I had woken wanting a feed. My mum was breast feeding so my dad didn’t stir.

She went to get me and was so tired that she decided to take me back to her bed and fell back to sleep with me feeding.

The lorry then hit and my dad woke and went running to the front room. He was hanging through the wall space on his belly pulling the rubble out of the cab screaming my name.

He didn’t know I was safe.

If my mum had decided to feed me in the chair, we both would have died.

I now live on the same road again by the narrow path next to D&D autos.

I often wonder if lightning will strike twice!!

A very dangerous road to live on.

When the papers printed the story, they mis-heard Nichola and printed my name as Baby Jessica. 

Nikki Wilkinson

29th April 2020

Originally published: 8th June 2012
Re-published 9th March 2014
Expanded and re-pub;ished 30th April 2020

Editor's note: This Diary entry was re-published not because of any additional information or updates, but because of the unfortunate comment added by an obvious internet troll which added nothing but gave local people and those who really know the town a chance to tell us what they think. As is our invariable custom, we immediately deleted the actual comment. Suffice it to say that it described the town as 'soulless and horrible', a description so manifestly unfair that, just before consigning the comment to oblivion, we canvassed opinions from people who really know the town to see if this wind-up merchant's views had any currency. The short answer is a resounding 'no'.

In case you don't know, an internet 'troll' is a sad, lonely, and ultimately irrelevant individual whose sole source of enjoyment is making fatuous comments on websites and blogs in order to 'wind people up'. Which can only work on those with a  feeble intellect similar to that of the 'troll' him/herself. Those who know and love this town would never get drawn into a pointless argument with such a weird individual. Nice try though.

As expected local people and people who have left the town and miss it very much were quick to jump to the defence of Middlewich. We've published some of the feedback from Facebook below (comments pertaining to the original subject matter - i.e. the 1984 lorry crash - have been added to the feedback at the end of the article, above), and it's also well worth taking a look at the comments on the page itself (including the original sad and misguided comment from someone who didn't deign to give us his/her name).
I think it was the use of the word 'soulless' which rankles with most people (although calling somewhere 'horrible' is hardly likely to endear anyone to its inhabitants), because soulless is precisely what this town is not.
 It's suffered terribly in the past from the ravages of industry, bad town planning and maladministration and, despite all that, has managed to pull itself up by its bootstraps and turn itself into a lively and pleasant town to live and work in.
No one denies that there's a long way to go, but people here have the enthusiasm and determination to make sure that what Dr Johnson described as 'a mean old town' is a place to be proud of.

New Facebook Feedback:

Lisa O'Toole I think this is a lovely town, full of history.

Susan Nugent If they don't have anything nice to say, well they shouldn't say anything at all. I love this town.

John Wood  Nothing wrong with Middlewich. Great little town for live entertainment and a great festival I never miss.

Gill Bowker Whoever wrote this clearly doesn't live in a town which pulls together in times of need, which has helpful neighbours and people to stop and chat to wherever you are in the community. Yes, Middlewich may not be to everyone's liking, but it does me and my family just fine, thank you.

Steven Doyle I have lived in Middlewich now for six years and it is anything but 'horrible and soulless'. Like every town Middlewich has its problems and undesirable people but, putting that aside, I cannot fault this place which has become home to me. I came to this town as an outsider and was made very welcome from the start. I think the town has a lot of character and lovely people living in it. Friendly, welcoming and helpful. I have the friendliset neighbours, who are more than I could wish for in terms of being good and helpful. It could never beat my home in Ireland, but it certainly gets second place in my eyes and is my home now. I love it here.

Sharon Barnard My view is that this anonymous person is an arse and that is all!

Richard Emblen As a Londoner who moved here nearly ten years ago all I can say is Middlewich is like heaven on earth. Appreciate it!

• 
  

THE ORIGINAL LONG LANE CANAL BRIDGE

by Dave Roberts

We're indebted once again to local photographer Bill Armsden who found this remarkable image while he was looking through some family photographs.
In fact, Bill thinks it may well have been taken in the 1960s by his mother, who died recently.
We're calling it 'remarkable' not because there is anything particularly special about the photograph itself, but because it depicts a lost feature of our town - the only bridge on the Shropshire Union Canal's Middlewich Branch (within the town boundary at least) to have been destroyed and replaced by a modern concrete structure.
Nearly all of Middlewich's canal bridges have survived through the years, the only exceptions being the most famous of them all, the Town Bridge, which was replaced by a modern structure in 1931 and the Turnover Bridge, drastically altered in the 1960s, both on the Trent & Mersey. 

See: TOWN BRIDGE circa 1914

          THE TURNOVER BRIDGE

The replacement of this particular bridge happened during that curious and mercifully short-lived era when the car was king and, in the rush to make everything easier for the motorist, a historic canal bridge which had been serving the community since 1829 could be sacrificed.
Or am I being too harsh? Was there, in fact, a problem with the original bridge which would have cost too much to put right, making the concrete replacement the better option?
I certainly can't remember there being any public outcry over the destruction of the old bridge (which there certainly would be today if anyone suggested destroying such an iconic structure).
Does anyone know the circumstances of this drastic change to the SUC landscape?
Was it simply a question of the need for a  a wider road, which couldn't be accommodated by the old bridge?
Housing development in the area around the 'new canal' over the years has, of course,led to an increase in road and pedestrian traffic on the roads leading from the town to these outlying estates. The St Ann's Road Bridge, for example, survived, but with an additional pedestrian footbridge. Was it simply that the Long Lane bridge couldn't be adapted to the new traffic conditions and thus had to go?
Whatever the reason for the change, it comes as a bit of a shock to see the modern bungalows on the other side of Long Lane, which still look very much the same today, with this long-gone bridge in the foreground.
And look at the steel and concrete 'stile', to the right of the bridge, which I'd always thought was put there when the new bridge was built.
Is it the same 'stile' which is there today? It certainly looks like it.

Facebook Feedback:

Geraldine Williams I think the photograph must have been taken a little earlier than Bill thought. My parents moved into one of the new Chris Earl houses bordering the canal in Hubert Drive no later than 1959 and there would have been gardens where the photograph has been taken from. I well remember the scramble down that path from the bridge to the canal - it's a wonder no-one ended up in the water! Bill Stoneley lived in the first bungalow.

Dave Roberts Yes. I should have mentioned that Bill says that he thinks his mother took the picture from the bottom of their garden in (I think) Hubert Drive.

Geraldine Williams I suppose it was a shame that the original bridge had to go but I can remember when Long Lane was just a dirt track and when you consider all the housing that was eventually built - Long Lane North and South, the extended Hayhurst Avenue/Rolt Crescent area etc - even if the bridge was sound it would never have been wide enough to take the traffic and, more importantly, provide safety for pedestrians. The steps created down to the canal were an added bonus of course!

Facebook Feedback (April 2018)

Paul Smith (to Ron Evans) I'm guessing the coving stone I saw in the mud must have come from this bridge. I wonder what me Aunt Dol would have made of all this hoo ha?

Ron Evans (to Paul Smith) Paul,The surface of Long Lane used to be clinker cinders from some local factory and was replaced periodically! If you fell on it you could look forward to deep grazing which took ages to heal.
Used to have a smoke under that bridge on the way to school.....courtesy of Barry Jones whose mum gave him five fags every morning.....is he still in Middlewich?
Our Doris moved into her house in Long Lane in 1962!

First published 11th April 2014
Re-formatted and re-published 11th April 2018
Updated and re-published 30th April 2020

KING STREET 1940s

(originally published in May 2012 as 'King Street 1930s'

We believe this image to be out of copyright. If you own the copyright, or know who does, please let us know

by Dave Roberts

We're a little undecided as to whether this particular photo comes from the 1930s or the 1940s.
The car is no real clue, of course, as the Second World War meant that cars from the 1930s and earlier  were kept on the road during and after the war rather than being replaced, so we can't be sure of the date of this car's manufacture and how long it was on the road for.
The two houses on the right are numbers 44 and 46 King Street and were both built in the early 1930s by my Grandfather and Grandmother  and 'Uncle' Harry Shore. There was (and is) a third house to the right of these - no 42 - which belonged to the Costello family.
We still have a number of documents relating to the building of these houses and they will be finding their way onto the Middlewich Diary in the fullness of time.

Most of the present day houses and bungalows to be found on the right hand side of King Street, where the hedge is in our picture, weren't built until the early 1960s, but those on the left have an almost new look to them so were probably built in the 1920s. They could, in fact, be the reason why the picture was taken in the first place.

In the centre of the picture, next to the large tree, is the entrance to Harbutt's Field which was, many years later, to be identified as the site of a Roman fort, ensuring recognition of our town's part in the history of Roman Britain.

UPDATE: 20th April 2020:

When this diary entry was re-published and used as part of our   'Middlewich Diary revisited' feature during the 2020 Coronavirus outbreak, Geoff Williams contributed the following additional information. On the strength of this, we decided to change the title of this entry from 'King Street in the 1930s' to 'King Street in the 1940s'.

'The Fort was rediscovered after the photograph. It was known about long before that,. one of the Vernons from the Manor knew of it and C F Lawrence most certainly did, he named his house on Kinderton Street, the same as the more probable Roman name for Middlewich being CONDATE. I seem to recall (may have been in "Omerod's Cheshire") that the fort was a very good Bow shot from the Manor. It would have had to be a very good Bow shot from the Manor, perhaps not so far from the manor grounds. The diverted Roman Road did run down New King Street and underneath the grass bank on the right of the photo, where the grass verge in front of the pavement now is. The original Roman Road probably ran under your old house (No 33 King Street - Ed) and more directly to the Fort's southern gate. I seem to recollect being told that the 2 boys could have been my brother Maurice and his friend Jim Wooley, which would have made it the 1940's'.


(Geoff is a long-standing member of the Middlewich Heritage Society and the Middlewich Heritage Trust and has been involved in many projects in Middlewich over the years, including the Roman Middlewich Festivals and the Murgatroyd's Brine Pumps restoration. The comment below from 'Unknown' is also actually from Geoff who, for many years, has lived at number 24 King Street, which is just out of shot to the right of this photograph. -Ed.)


On the other side of the tree the road veers to the right and rises to cross the bridge over the Sandbach-Middlewich-Northwich railway line, descending on the other side towards the River Dane.
This stretch of road is relatively quiet now, and destined to become even quieter when the Middlewich by-pass is (eventually) completed.
It is, in any case, a deviation from the original line of the Roman  King Street which was originally along the line of what is now New King Street, running from the now closed off end of that Street, along the line of the hedge-row on the right to the entrance to Harbutt's field.
If you stand at that entrance today, and look back towards New King Street, the original line of the road is quite obvious.
What isn't quite so easy to make out is where the Roman road originally crossed the River Dane, but there may well have been a ford or bridge over the River quite a distance to the left of the present bridge.
The large wooden poles on the left of the picture are not telegraph poles, but components of the somewhat quaint and erratic system supplying electricity to King Street, part of which survives today, with copper wires strung high along the road and some of the wooden poles doubling as street lights (definitely not the kind of thing for Geraldine Williams' Middlewich Street Light collection, though).
During periods of high wind these copper wires would sway alarmingly, even snapping on a couple of occasions and lying in the road like thin dead snakes.
I remember phoning the Merseyside & North Wales Electricity Board (MANWEB to you) to tell them of one such occurrence, only to be treated with a lot of suspicion, as if I'd made the story up as a joke. Electrical cables flailing  all over the footpath outside my home was never one of my favourite subjects for humour.
And at one time there was a transformer slung high up on wooden poles at the entrance to Harbutt's Field and just opposite my Grandma's house.
One afternoon in the late 1960s we stood in Grandma's front garden and watched with great interest as this transformer started emitting huge blue sparks and, eventually, and spectacularly, burst into flames.
Oddly, though, Grandma's electricity supply was not affected.

First published as 'King Street in the 1930s' 3rd May 2012
Revised and re-edited with additional information by Geoff Williams and re-published as 'King Street in the 1940s' 20th April 2020

MIDDLEWICH SALT COMPANY LETTERHEAD 1946

The Roberts Collection

Here's an interesting piece of Middlewich history in the form of a letterhead from the Middlewich Salt Co Ltd (incorporating Verdin Cooke & Co Ltd). The company was later to become part of Cerebos and had one of the earliest vacuum salt making plants in the country, as well as traditional open pan works. The letterhead itself repays closer inspection. From it we learn that the company's telephone number was Middlewich 117 (2 lines) and their telegraphic address was 'Witch, Middlewich'. Their registered office was at Willesden, London and this remained the case right up until the take-over by RHM Foods in the late 1960s.

The trade-marks are particularly interesting. For some reason stags have always been associated with salt (perhaps a simple matter of alliteration) and cruet sets containing stag salt and pepper shakers remain popular to this day.

Cerebos table salt, of course, still proudly displays the Royal coat of arms on its packaging: 'By Appointment To Her Majesty The Queen, suppliers of table salt and pepper, Cerebos, London'.

The other trade mark is based  on that old association which we've mentioned before between Middlewich and witches, and even includes a pun on the town's name in its 'Middle-Witch' brand.

This  heading comes from a letter of reference which my Dad, Arthur, obtained from the company in 1946 in order to get a new job at Benger's in Holmes Chapel.

This proved to be a costly mistake as he returned to his old job shortly afterwards having lost part of his pension entitlement.

UPDATE (28th October 2016)

Those three witches, of course, are too good, and too iconic, to be forgotten. This modest account of a long-forgotten salt company has, since the very start of the Middlewich Diary, been our most popular entry. So we've decided that an updated representation of them would be ideal to celebrate Halloween. Here's our special Middlewich Diary Masthead for October 2016.

UPDATES, APRIL 2020

FIRST UPDATE (16th April 2020)

Hello everyone - I am currently researching for a book on the history of Foden Ladies Football Club. I have written a two part article on early women's football in Mid-Cheshire.

Part one, which can be found on the link below, is all about the #Munitionette teams from Middlewich, Lostock and Winsford, who played against each other for various charities towards the end of the Great War. 

While you are on lockdown - give it a read and if anyone has any further information on the teams, know a relative who may have played then let me know, I would be interested to hear from you - enjoy 

Click on the link - bit.ly/3bWmcoa

Margaret Roberts

(adapted from an original post on the Middlewich Community Page)

SECOND UPDATE (17th April 2020)

I have a list of all the names of the women who played so if your Grannie/Auntie etc was a Munitionette at Electro-Bleach, Middlewich Salt, Verdin Cooke or Lostock then you never know - she may have been a footballer. I would love to be able to put names to faces.
Surnames include - – Ketteridge, Pollitt, Goodall, Coleclough, Stockley, Washington, Edwards, Collings, Siddall, Manley, Thomas, Oakes, Dillon, Johnson, Shaw, Sproston, Lucas, Moulton, Molyneux, Dickenson, Robinson and Harrop. I would love to chat to you if anyone can help. Many thanks.

Margaret Roberts.

(adapted from an original post on the Middlewich Community Page)

If you can help Margaret with this interesting project, please contact us at:

Middlewichdiary@aol.com

First published: 27th September 2011

Re-published: 28th October 2016

Updated: 30th October 2017

Updated, re-formatted and re-published 17th April 2020

BEFORE THE MIDDLEWICH DIARY: RICHARD DEVANEY IN A KILT 1973

HERE'S ONE FROM MAY 2011

From Facebook, 13th May 2011


For Mr Ian Murfitt and all his other fans here by popular request is 
the  notorious 'Richard Devaney in a kilt' photograph, taken at the Middlewich Carnival 1973. Richard was one of the founders of the Middlewich Folk & Boat festival in June 1990.

If you look closely, you can see that Mr Devaney is also sporting some quaint kind of headgear, but we must stress that the sunflower is not part of it.

Mr Devaney does not wear giant sunflowers on his head (though we wouldn't put it past him).

Facebook Feedback:

Liz Mcguinness Haha!! Love it!

Geraldine Williams Was his headgear the prototype for Princess Beatrice's hat....??!!

Ian Murfitt A truly magnificent specimen.

Liz Mcguinness Yes it'll keep the kids away from the fire Dave!!

Angela Appleton I remember babysitting for Richard Devaney when I was about 15, sure he had twins. They had a Jack Russell dog and everytime I moved it growled at me. The babies were crying and I didn't dare get up.

First published 13th May 2018
Re-formatted and re-published 16th April 2020