A NEW MAYOR FOR MIDDLEWICH - TWENTY EIGHT YEARS ON...

Photo: Peter Cox

David Roberts

Monday 18th May 2020

Monday 18th May 2020 is a historic day for the town of Middlewich.

Tonight the Town Council, for the first time in its forty-six year history. will be meeting, not in the Victoria Hall, or the Wych Centre, or even the Council Chamber in the Victoria Building, but online.

The change has been brought about by the need for 'social-distancing' because of the current Covid 19 outbreak. Many town, borough and county councils are doing the same thing with, as the old phrase has it, necessity being the mother of invention.

LINK: FIRST EVER ONLINE TOWN COUNCIL MEETING 18th MAY 2020

One of the items on tonight's agenda is the annual appointment of the Chairman of The Town Council, successor to Russell Watkinson, the current Chairman.

In previous years the Council Chairman has taken on the role of 'Mayor of Middlewich' the terms 'Mayor' and 'Chairman' being, for most purposes, interchangeable.

Last year, as is well known, this all changed with the council's introduction of a 'Community Mayor' to act as the town's First Citizen and take on the ceremonial role previously carried out by the Chairman.

As is also well known things didn't quite work out as they should have done and the 'Community Mayor Project' is currently suspended, with the council seemingly still determined to make a success of what is, when all's said and done, still a brilliant idea.

This then, is the state of play on this 18th of May.

But we thought this might be an opportune moment to travel back in time no less than twenty-eight years to the 18th May 1992, when our old friend Peter Cox, well-known supporter of the Rail Link Campaign and founder member of the original Folk & Boat Festival among many other good causes in Middlewich was installed as Mayor of Middlewich,as successor to Gerard Devaney. Peter was proposed by Cllr Colin Barrass and seconded by Cllr Dot Roberts.

And the 18th May is also special because it's the birthday of our late, and still very much missed, Town Clerk, Jonathan Williams, who sadly passed away last September.

It's worth noting that Peter acknowledged the fact that his inauguration occurred on Jonathan's thirtieth birthday by including this note in his speech:

'...at this point I would like to say that it is a special day for our Town Clerk. It's the day when he leaves his twenties behind him. I would like him to receive these token gifts in appreciation for the work he does.'

Note: What those token gifts were is not recorded, but we're sure that Peter will let us know in due course.

Peter Cox and the then thirty-year old Jonathan Williams pictured together on the occasion of the launch of the Middlewich Waterside Trail on the 27th May 1992.
(Photo: Peter Cox/Middlewich Chronicle)

Peter made a complete record of his year as Mayor of Middlewich and we are grateful to him for allowing us access to it. It's a treasure-trove of information on just what was going on in Middlewich twenty-eight years ago and on the amazing amount of things that a committed and hard-working Town Mayor can expect to get involved with during his, or her, term of office. We look forward to many more glimpses into this invaluable archive.

Sadly, Peter hasn't been too well recently and we're sure that everyone will want to join with us in wishing him a speedy return to good health.

David Roberts
Editor,
The Middlewich Diary

MIDDLEWICH HISTORY IN MINIATURE

Illustration: Vintage Model Trains

There was a time when no model railway layout was complete without at least one of these.
It is, of course, a Hornby-Dublo Saxa Salt wagon, with its distinctive peaked roof.
Saxa Salt is still the country's leading brand of salt (although these days, the brand is part of  Premier Foods and its actual place of origin is never made clear).
Saxa was launched in 1907 by the Middlewich Salt Company, later to be absorbed by Cerebos, and was the core brand of both companies.
Nowadays, as explained on the Premier Foods website (link below), people asking for 'Saxa' are just as likely to be after sea salt, or rock salt or even 'low-salt' salt as ordinary table salt.
The younger element were always fascinated by the Saxa Salt railway wagons (Murgatroyd's and other salt companies used them too) resembling as they did, little 'houses' on wheels.
In fact, railway workers habitually referred to them as 'cottage tops'.
The 'house style' roof was there for a very good, and quite obvious, reason.
Salt had to be kept dry and the sloping roof was intended, just as a house roof is, to keep off the driving rain.
The wagons' roofs were covered in roofing felt, giving them even more of a look of a yellow garden shed on wheels.
Although these vehicles were very common in this and other salt districts, they were not unique to the trade.
They were also used for carrying lime and other powdered chemicals which needed to be kept dry.

PREMIER FOODS - SAXA (LINK NOW INVALID)

(link updated 11th February 2019)

Editor's note (15th May 2020): Unfortunately, despite regular attempts to keep up with the vagaries of Premier Foods and its websites, we've found that the above link has, once again become invalid. Premier seems to have abandoned the idea of separate websites for certain of its products, Saxa being one of them. The closest we can get is the following, which really tells us nothing at all:

PREMIER FOODS BRANDS

P.S. The illustration above is borrowed from e-bay. A piece of Miniature Middlewich history could be yours for less than a tenner, if you're quick.

Following the publication of this diary entry, Chris Beard got in touch to tell us of a preserved example of the once numerous Saxa Salt wagons in Scotland. Here's Chris's photograph of the real thing.

 Find out more here:

SAXA SALT WAGON - THE REAL THING

UPDATE (15th May 2020)

When this Diary Entry was featured in 'The Middlewich Diary Revisited' on the 15th May 2020, Colin Edmondson got in touch to tell us of yet another variant on this iconic railway wagon:

After seeing our post on the Salt Heritage In Cheshire group he writes: '(Here's) a 7 1/4" gauge one which used to be at the Brookside Miniature Railway in Poynton .I don't know where it is now, I suspect in Portmadoc'.

Many thanks to Colin for letting us see this version which, despite its diminutive size, looks like a serious piece of kit. Note that on the chassis are painted, rather improbably,  the words 'Return to Hornby Dublo', probably a sly reference to the fact that, as we've noted, the Saxa Salt wagon has long been a favourite on model railway layouts.


First published 11th February 2012
Updated and re-published 11th February 2019
and 15th May 2020.

MDR 150520

THE OTHER MIDDLEWICH

Saltworkers by John McKenna.        Photo: Droitwich Spa Civic Society
THIS STATUE CAN BE FOUND IN DROITWICH TOWN CENTRE

by Dave Roberts
As dedicated readers of 'The Middlewich Diary' will know, there's only one Middlewich. Or is there? I was talking recently to one of our local councillors who mentioned the fact that, despite the fact that Droitwich Spa in Worcestershire hasn't produced salt commercially since the 1920s, the town still makes much of its connections with salt.
There aren't any salt works there now, and haven't been for many years, but the town celebrates 'Salt Day' every year, and is still Britain's only salt water spa town. Droitwich also shares with our neighbours at Nantwich the rare distinction of possessing swimming baths fed by natural brine springs.
The discussion brought back something I remember being told years ago, in early Heritage Society days. Someone told me then that  'Middlewich' was used  by Droitwich salt makers at one time as a name for one of the town's three brine springs.
This information has been lurking at the back of my mind ever since then, so today I decided to do a little bit of internet research, and what I found out has revealed that Droitwich was once a kind of parallel universe, where a microcosm of the Mid-Cheshire salt industry existed.
There were indeed three brine springs in Droitwich, and they were called Upwich, Middlewich and Netherwich, forming a miniature Northwich, Middlewich and Nantwich in the middle of Worcestershire.
Even today Droitwich claims that its Roman name was Salinae, which will, I'm sure, ring a bell locally.
This lends credence to the alternative theory that neither of the towns was actually called Salinae, but that the Romans labelled all places of salt manufacture with the name, which just means 'salt workings'.
Tales are told of Middlewich salt workers having a good laugh at poor old Droitwich when, in the last days of its dying salt industry, it was reduced to bringing in supplies of brine by road tanker. Anyone can tell you that's not the way to do things.
On the other hand, the attractive Worcestershire town can teach us a thing or two about promoting our own heritage.

DROITWICH SPA WEBSITE

BBC Long Wave Transmitter at Droitwich    Photo: Arquiva/BBC Engineering Information

Droitwich's other claim to fame is the Long Wave radio transmitter which broadcasts BBC Radio 4 throughoutmuch of the country on 198kHz. And even this national institution owes its existence, or at least its location, to salt. The transmitter site at Wychbold was chosen because the underlying salt deposits make a good 'ground' for the transmitter and help produce a good clear signal (this property of salt was also exploited by the pirate radio ships of the sixties who could reach large areas of the country with relatively low powered transmitters because of the 'ground wave' produced by the briny waters all around them).
We all know, of course, that the benefits of salt are many and varied, but how many people knew that it also helps bring us the Shipping Forecast?

Facebook feedback:

Mally Mal 'helps bring us the Shipping Forecast'....until the valves conk out.

Dave Roberts Yes indeed, But that's another story.

Mally Mal Indeed.

(What Mally is referring to here, is the fact that the Droitwich transmitter is living on borrowed time. It uses glass valves which are no longer manufactured, and when the last one blows, it's goodbye to Long Wave - Ed.
UPDATE: (December 2014) This turned out to be something of an over-simplification. During 2014 extensive engineering work was carried out on the Droitwich transmitter ensuring that it would be in service, according to a BBC spokesman, 'for at least the next ten years, and probably longer').

UPDATE (14th May 2020)

John Williams writes:An interesting read! Coincidentally I moved to Middlewich four years ago from Droitwich Spa and can see many similarities between the two. Unfortunately the Spa baths referred to in the story are now closed (although the brine lido still opens each summer) and the radio masts remain in place as you can see from the picture. One small enterprising business uses the local salt to make handmade salt caramel fudge. Popular in the local shops.

Published 2nd December 2011
Re-published 8th August 2016
Up-dated and re-published 15th May 2020

MDR140520

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