CREWE SOUTH SHED (LINK)

Here's a link to a poem about trainspotters I wrote many years ago called Crewe South Shed.
The reason it's emerged now is that a gentleman who runs a blog in, of all places, Japan, asked me for permission to quote it in an article he's writing about railway enthusiasts (to give them their Sunday name).
The gentleman in question, I should add, is not Japanese himself but hails originally from (I think) Sheffield.
The connection between Crewe and Middlewich is close enough for me to feature a link here (and, anyway, I'm the editor, so who's arguing?) and generations of schoolchildren from this area have spent hours watching locos at Crewe South Shed (and Crewe North,  Crewe Diesel Depot and  Crewe Electric Depot too)
Our own little local train, the Dodger, used to run to and from Crewe (as, I can assure you, will its modern equivalent one fine, enlightened day - I  am hoping to live to see it) and the town of Crewe itself now finds itself in the same local authority area as dear old Middlewich. Lucky Crewe.
Incidentally, if you should be  wondering whether Crewe South Shed itself is a thing of the past, it's reassuring to find that the Northern Belle Pullman train company gives its current address as Crewe South Shed, Weston Road, Crewe.

CREWE SOUTH SHED

COTTAGES AND SALT WORKS BUILDINGS IN BROOKS LANE 1970

by Dave Roberts
Here's another Middlewich Diary entry which was going to be ever so simple.
A nice, semi rural, almost idyllic picture of some cottages next to a salt works. But unfortunately my eye fell on the curious building with a gantry on top of it next to those cottages.
We're in Brooks Lane back in 1970 and we're standing on the topmost of the three Brooks Lane locks on the Trent & Mersey Canal. Out of shot to the left is that strange right-angled turn in the canal, after which it drops down through the remaining two locks to town centre level. Out of shot to the right is the old ICI Club (now the Middlewich Community Church).

What's immediately noticeable is the still semi-rural aspect of Brooks Lane at this time, with what appears to be a smallholding of some kind to the right of our picture.
The picture was taken before ERF moved its spares and repair facilities to Middlewich from Sandbach, a condition of which was the upgrading of Brooks Lane to take heavy lorries. Crucially, it was this that led to the creation of the 'Brooks Lane Industrial Estate' and the industrial units which are now all over the entire area.
On the other hand, it can hardly be said that Brooks Lane was free from industry before the early 1970s. Very far from it. It was the home of salt and chemical works for a great many years and the evidence is here for all to see. 
On the extreme left is one of the chimneys of Seddon's Salt Works, incredibly close to two cottages. We often hear the phrase, 'living in the shadow of the local factory', but it's quite rare to see the idea demonstrated so vividly.
To the right of the cottages is something very interesting indeed - a building which I at first took to be Murgatroyd's Brine Pump no 1,which we've looked at before. Now, I'm not so sure.
This pump,or, more properly, pumps, which still sit over the brine shaft discovered by Murgatroyd in 1889, supplied high quality brine to the Murgatroyd's open pan salt works which stood close by until 1966 (in fact, had the picture been taken four years earlier, the Murgatroyd's works and its four chimneys would have dominated the background).
The brine pump building owes its survival  to the fact that in 1949  additional pumps had been installed to pump brine, via the 'brine line' which ran (and still runs, though in a disused state), alongside the nearby railway line from Brooks Lane to the Murgatroyd's Works at Elworth, where the company ran a vacuum salt plant and also extracted chlorine gas from common salt from which various chemicals such as hydrochloric acid could be produced.
More on this  can be found here and here.
Brine pumping ceased in 1977, but the building and three electric brine pumps have survived and, it is hoped, will be preserved as an important part of Middlewich's heritage. 
But is the building shown here with a simple gantry above it the brine pump building in question? The building which exists today has a much taller and more elaborate gantry on the top of it. One possibility, of course, is that the building and gantry were altered sometime during the seven years between this picture being taken and the building falling into disuse, but this would seem to be very unlikely. And I have a niggling feeling that the brine pump building was (and is) a little further over to the left and closer to the railway line. So if this is not the brine pump building, what is it? If it is not a brine pump, or a building associated with brine pumping, why was it not demolished in 1966 along with the rest of the salt works (and, indeed, the building to the right of it - see below)?
 I'm hoping that Kerry Fletcher of Middlewich Town Council, who kindly supplied some of the information on the brine pump which we've used in this and earlier Diary entries might be able to point us in the right direction.

To the right of this mysterious structure  is another building, long since vanished, which looks to me very much like the building shown here:

This drawing is taken from a Cheshire Museums Service illustration of the Murgatroyd's open pan works (not, unfortunately, including the brine pump building) which appears on page 37 of 'Wych & Water' (Middlewich Vision Canal & Salt Town Project 2009)* The brine ran from a large tank on top of the works' waggon repair shop to the salt pans. Quite why this building (if it is the one in the illustration) should have survived, devoid of its brine tank, four years after the works was closed and demolished, is unclear. Perhaps it was retained for operational reasons - i.e. it may have contained pipework necessary for the pumping of brine to Elworth.
* Copies of this illustration, in a large format, are (or were) available from the Weaver Hall Museum (formerly the Salt Museum).
So there we are - another mystery to be looked into...


Facebook feedback:
Daniel Preston: I remember there was a smallholding down Brooks Lane, a small farm. There was also a car scrapyard complete with junkyard dog in the 1970s. The scrapyard may have taken over from the smallholding as, to my memory, it was similarly situated.
Andrew Tomlinson: This is one for my mother - my grandparents ran the old ICI Club for years.

THE MIDDLEWICH DIARY ARCHIVE

THE MIDDLEWICH DIARY ARCHIVE

Now that 2011 is finally behind us it might be a good time to remind everyone of the archive we have built up so far.

There are currently 319 entries (we have dropped the 'official' blogger word 'postings' because 'entries' seemed more appropriate for a diary) or 320 if you include this one.

Some of them, but only a few, are simply links to various useful web sites and Facebook groups owned by local organisations and companies.

Most of them are entries containing photographs of various vintages with explanatory notes, written by me. This is where the internet scores over conventional 'paper publishing'. If  (God forbid) I should get something wrong, or if anyone has additional information about a particular entry, it can be altered very easily.. 

Over the months we have had some epic struggles in our attempts to tease out the truth behind some obscure aspect of an old photograph:
BUILDINGS IN WHEELOCK STREET

If you're puzzled by the reference in the above entry to 'Sharon's Cafe', it's explained by the fact that from time to time we have received queries from our readers. A classic example of this was when Sharon Barnard innocently asked if anyone could 'remember a cafe near the Vaults in 1977', little realising what she was starting:
THE SHARON'S CAFE SAGA

There are two ways to access the entries in 'A Middlewich Diary'. You can either go to the blue list on the right hand side of each entry (scroll down to the bottom), which gives you access first to the year of the entry, then the month. Click on the relevant month and a list of that month's entries is displayed.
Or you can scroll down to the bottom of any entry to find the Diary index. We're in the process of tidying this up in order to make it easier to use
 Just click on any subject in the index and a list of Diary entries will be displayed.
A Middlewich Diary will continue throughout 2012 and into the future. We have lots of exciting plans which we'll be talking about as the year progresses.
We've just got space to mention one of those ideas here: 'The Middlewich Diary Pub Quiz'.
This has been inspired by the series of  quizzes we were involved with in 2010/11 in aid of the Mayor's Charity. By far the most popular and enjoyable of these quizzes was the 'Middlewich' quiz, held at the White Horse in March 2011.
It proved, as does the 'Middlewich Diary' throughout the year, that people in Middlewich are interested in their town and its past, present and future, despite what the dwindling number of miserable mutterers and moaners might say.
So we are proposing a series of charity pub quizzes throughout the year at various venues, each featuring at least one round of questions very much centred on Middlewich.
Proceeds will be given to various local charities.
These will be simple, old-fashioned pub quizzes, bringing you entertainment, nostalgia and fun..
And each quiz will feature (after the event, of course) on 'A Middlewich Diary' so that everyone can join in.
At the moment we're just trying to find out what level of interest these quizzes might have, so if you think it's a good idea, please let us know.
Dave Roberts
Editor

CHESHIRE LIFE PHOTO COMPETITION

Cliff Astles

Cliff Astles writes:

The photos above  have been selected for a Cheshire Life article to encourage  readers to submit their own 2012 photos to the magazine's on-line readers' photo gallery. My own photo is at top right.
There are a number of categories for you to enter your photo into, with quality prizes for local and UK wide competition winners.......................so check it out !!!

With today's quality digital camera it is now fairly easy to capture that 'special photo'.

Make sure you sign up today to the on-Line Cheshire Life Magazine and show off your own photographic work, and have the chance to win.

You only WIN, if you ENTER!


CHESHIRE LIFE ONLINE

MIDDLEWICH CARNIVAL 1952: ST ANN'S AVENUE

© Phillip Shales 2011     All rights reserved
with acknowledgments to Kerry Fletcher and Dave Thompson of Middlewich Town Council

by Dave Roberts

The interesting thing about this photograph from the Phillip Shales collection and found in a file marked '1949 Carnival' is its location.

When we were looking at the Queen of what turned out to be the 1952 Carnival in this photo, I wondered if the two girls in the car were the same train bearers from that earlier photo, although even I had a vague feeling that 'the dresses were different'.

Chris Koons soon put me right: 'Different dresses and head dresses, and the girls in the second photo are at least six or seven years younger than the girls in the first photo'.

So that told me.

But it's those houses in the background which intrigued me. They looked familiar, and yet I couldn't work out the location. 

Again Chris Koons came to the rescue: 'My Dad, David Sant, recalls that the field behind his house in St Ann's Avenue used to be used for Carnival events, too. 
Looking at the present-day St Ann's Avenue on Google Earth I would say this matches exactly. It looks to have been taken from approximately where Wardle Mews is now'.

Daniel Preston agreed: 'I would say that the houses in the background are in St Ann's Avenue. We used to call that field Back Field.
(As a digression, Daniel went on to talk about the anomaly which still exists today at both ends of St Ann's Avenue: "The street sign attached to the first house on either side says 'ST ANN'S AVENUE', while the  sign at the bottom of the road says 'ST ANNE'S AVENUE'"
Daniel wonders if this is similar to the Lawrence Gardens/Lawrence Avenue anomaly, but I've always put it down to a simple administrative error by whichever council was responsible and that it's never been put right because of the perceived ' who cares -any old thing will do for Middlewich' attitude.
The correct spelling is ST ANN's without the E, as in St Ann's Road).
Susan Nugent agreed that the houses shown in our photo are in St Ann's Avenue: 'My Nan and Grandad lived at no 1 '.
And Dawn Hunter had good reason to remember living in the area: 'My Mum and Dad and I lived at number 36 from the time I was three years old. When I was five I got knocked down on Kings Lock bridge by a Rolls Royce.'
Robert Sheckleston also confirmed  the location: 'Yes, that's Back Field, at the rear of St Ann's Avenue. When I lived  in Kitfield Avenue I played football on the Back Field many times.'
Margaret Williams, who came up with the correct information and dates for the first photo - of the Queen and her retinue in the Bullring - says, '(the newspaper report) has no reference regarding the two young girls in the car, but if the procession started at Back Field, maybe they were a party from a nearby town and were waiting to join the procession.'
Geraldine Williams added: 'There seems to be a lot of hanging about going on in this latest picture, and it looks as though there's a boys' band of some sort, as well as the attendants in the car. Everyone else is in Middlewich drab (coats and headscarves), as they are in the Bullring photograph, so it mustn't have been a typical July day. The Carnival Queen and her retinue seem to have travelled on a float. I think it's the same event (i.e. the 1952 Carnival - Ed) as the newspaper states that the procession set off from the Avenues but it must have been a circuitous route down St Ann's Road for the procession to come down Wheelock Street and then up to Station Field (aka ICI Field - Ed)'
So in conclusion, this would appear to be a photograph taken on the 26th July 1952 at Back Field, behind St Ann's Avenue, as the Carnival procession was getting ready to  take to the streets of Middlewich, and most probably shows two girls from a neighbouring town.
Incidentally, Wardle Lock Cottage would be somewhere behind the camera, standing in splendid isolation many years before being surrounded by the modern housing of Wardle Mews and Waters Edge Mews
Speaking personally, I'm tickled to death that we now have the actual date of both this and the 'Queen' photograph, because it shows us Middlewich as it was when I was born just two months later in September 1952. 

MIDDLEWICH CARNIVAL, 16th JULY 1952: THE ARRIVAL OF THE CARNIVAL QUEEN

© Phillip Shales 2011     All rights reserved
with acknowledgments to Kerry Fletcher and Dave Thompson of Middlewich Town Council

by Dave Roberts

Note: This photograph was found in a file marked 1949 Carnival on a computer at Middlewich Town Council, and was originally published with that date. Subsequent information contributed by Middlewich Diary readers has enabled us to establish not only the correct year but also the actual date of the photograph and the name of the Carnival Queen and her escort.

A classic example of just what the Middlewich Diary can achieve. We have preserved the Facebook Feedback as part of this entry to illustrate how the process of revising our information works. Many thanks to all our contributors for  their efforts -Ed.

Here's the revised version of the text:

We're back in Middlewich Town Centre on Carnival Day, Saturday 16th July 1952, to witness the arrival of the Middlewich Carnival Queen, Jacqueline Davies, with her two train bearers.

The gentleman with the rosette is Mr G Moses*, Chairman of the Carnival Committee. 

The Queen is heading towards the War Memorial  which was at that time sited between Hightown and Lower Street, to lay a wreath, as was customary at carnivals at that time, while the procession itself is about to veer off down Lower Street.

The Carnival Queen, of course, is not to be confused with King and Queen Carnival.

 I don't know if these two semi-knockabout, almost Pantomime Dame-like figures  took part in carnivals at the time of our photo, but they certainly appeared during later Carnivals in the 70s and were always played by the more extrovert and ebullient members of rugby clubs and the like.

Our Carnival Queen, though, as you might expect, has more of the look of the young Queen Elizabeth, who had ascended to the throne on the 6th February, and was to be crowned on the 2nd of June in the following year.

* Margaret Williams, in the comments below, has his name as 'Mr G Moss' and, particularly in Middlewich, this does sound a more likely name. Can anyone tell us which is correct?

(Bear in mind that, when this picture was first published, we were under the impression that it showed a scene from the 1949 Carnival. We didn't know the name of the Carnival Queen, or the name of her escort [the man with the rosette]. We did, however, surmise that he might be 'the chairman of the Carnival Committee'. 

We deduced that the Queen was heading for the War Memorial, because the crowd seemed to be parting to allow her through, but didn't know about the custom of Carnival Queens laying wreaths. We thought, though, that she might have 'made a speech' there, which she may well have done. Finally, we changed 'Princess Elizabeth' to 'Queen Elizabeth' and revised her dates -Ed)


See also: CARNIVAL DAY 1952 AT BACK FIELD, ST ANN'S AVENUE

Facebook feedback:

Margaret Williams: I think the Carnival Queen in the picture may be called Jacqueline Davies and at that time the Carnival Queen used to lay a wreath on the War Memorial before heading up to what was known as I think station fields (ICI fields) for the grand procession

Geraldine Williams: I thought it looked like Jacqueline Davies, too, but she would only have been aged 10-11 in 1949. Did she have an older sister?

If you’re correct about the Station Field venue and if it is Jacqueline she wouldn’t have had far to go home as she lived just over Station Bridge! I’d noticed on a previous pic that the crowd seemed to be separating to form a pathway to the Cenotaph, so that makes sense if there was a wreath-laying ceremony.

If it is Jacqueline, I used to be so scared of her, as she was very vocal in the daily exchange of insults when children from the Council School (as it was called) encountered St. Mary’s children on the Town Bridge at home time.

I think they called us ‘Catholic Bulldogs’, but I never understood why……!

Dave Roberts: How very different from the home life of our own dear Queen…

Geraldine Williams: Tee hee!

Margaret Williams: I have found a dilapidated cutting from the Middlewich Chronicle, which I wasn’t sure I still had, and it confirms the young lady is, indeed, Jacqueline Davies, but the date on the cutting is Saturday 26^th July 1952. Her escort is a Mr G Moss, chairman of the Carnival Committee.

The procession started at The Avenues and arrived at ICI Field for the crowning ceremony.

Geraldine Williams: Clever you! That would explain a lot.

Margaret Williams: The article in the Chronicle actually states that 1952 was the third annual carnival in the town, which would imply that 1949 was the first and

might explain the incorrect reference on the files.

(reformatted 29/12/2011)

COALPIT LANE IN THE SNOW

Photo from Robin Lord's CLIKPICS site 'East of Eden'. Used with permission

by Dave Roberts
Here's a nice seasonal picture showing a little of the natural beauty which surrounds us here in our 'pretty town, seated in a valley' in the centre of Cheshire.

Coalpit Lane connects Stanthorne Crossroads near Wimboldsley with the Middlewich to Northwich/Winsford road, the turning at the Middlewich end being in Chester Road,  a few yards from the bridge over the River Wheelock and  close to the Town and Borough council boundary.

The lane provides a useful (too useful, some would say, in these days of 'rat runs') alternative route between Stanthorne and Middlewich.

Another junction at the top of the hill similarly provides an alternative route to Winsford.

There was always great excitement when the little single-decker Crosville bus which took us all from the bus company's garage in Wheelock Street to Wimboldsley School every day, was diverted, usually because of some problem with the Nantwich Road aqueduct, to take us along this route which itself crosses the SUC Middlewich Branch canal via an overbridge in a very picturesque location.

One part of Middlewich I have never seen, even in photographs, is that stretch of the River Wheelock between Nantwich Road (where it runs through an aqueduct under the canal said to be the twin of the familiar Nantwich Road one) and the Wheelock Bridge in Chester Road.

And I wonder if anyone took any pictures of Wimboldsley School during its recent and sudden expansion?

The establishment is now at least three times bigger than it was in the 1950s, a sure sign of its enduring usefulness and popularity.

EAST OF EDEN

MIDDLEWICH TALES: THE CHRISTMAS BONUS by Daniel Preston

THE CHRISTMAS BONUS
by Daniel Preston

In this seasonal tale by Daniel Preston we've decided to leave the local Cheshire dialect, as spoken by Ian Sant, intact because in this case it's almost completely intelligible, even to those unlucky enough to come from outside our area.

The Cheshire dialect, as spoken in Middlewich, is a mixture of Yorkshire, Lancashire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire, with bits borrowed from all over the place.

Actually, our greatest contribution to the English language seems to have come about when we took the shortened definite article of Yorkshire and Lancashire, as in 't'' and 'th'' and dispensed with it altogether:

Hence 'goin' shop' and 'goin' Northwich' etc.

On Facebook just the other day one Middlewich lady, wishing to inform her friends that she had had a slight accident on the icy pavements, did so with the short and pithy comment:

'Just rucked it goin' shop' -Ed.

THE CHRISTMAS BONUS

 In those far off days of only forty-odd years ago, when Christmas was Christmas and coffee without milk was called black coffee; in the days when I was a paper lad, we used to get a Christmas card and a small gift of money from the customers to thank us for a job well done throughout the year.

It was Ian Sant who taught me the ins and outs of attaining said bonus.

'In th’ days before Christmas,' he said, 'It’s best that, when thar goes up th’ path, thar stamps tha feet and  meks a racket so’s they know thar’s comin’.”

 Thus alerted of your arrival someone would come out of the house to give you your treat.

There was always a Christmas card and usually some money in an envelope marked ‘Paper Lad’.

Sometimes it was paper money, like a ten bob note, other times it was coins, like two bob or half-a-crown.

Sometimes, if you’d encouraged the dog to shred the newspaper, it was ‘dash all’.

On one occasion, after I had stomped my way up the path in the prescribed manner, the lady of the house came out, an envelope in her hand.

“You don’t have to make all that racket,” she said. “you’ll get your Christmas bonus.”

“It’s ‘cos me feet are cold,” I said, looking embarrassed.

She took her paper and handed over the envelope; Christmas card and bonus.

At the top of Spital Hill, on the left hand side as you go towards Winsford, is the house where the Carnegies lived.

It was (and is) a big house with a gravel drive.

The Carnegies were well off and I think they had horses stabled there.

Ian Sant had advised me that, at Christmas, it was best to ride in there like the clappers and put the bike into a slide.

'If thar comes off thee bike,' he said, 'Carnegie’s daughter will come running out, calling thee a poor boy and taking thee inside fer ‘ot chocolate ‘n’ pamperin’.'

Apparently this had happened to him the year before and he said that Carnegie’s daughter was a cracker.

I can’t attest to the looks of Carnegie’s daughter as I never did meet her.

However, I did ride into the gravel drive like the clappers in the days coming up to Christmas. I didn’t come off my bike, against my nature that, but I did make a lot of noise on that gravel.

I got my Christmas bonus as well, paper money from the Carnegies, but it wasn’t the daughter that handed it to me.

I don’t know if that house is still there, it probably is, but maybe surrounded by mews cottages or some other such symbol of the modern age.  

© Daniel Preston 2011

Mistaken identity: Stanthorne Hall

Daniel Preston 

I looked on google street views and went up to the top of Spittal Hill. There is a nameplate at the opening to the drive where the Carnegie's lived. It is Stanthorne Hall. I'm sure that many readers on here remember Mrs. Mac (I think her name was Mrs. McCrystal) that worked at Reg Taylor's. She put the newspapers together for each of the paperboys and wrote the names of the intended recipients on the top. The newspapers would be put together in the order of delivery as well.

• Editor's note: We thought at first that the house the Carnegies lived in may have been Stanthorne Hall which is a very substantial house on the Winsford Road, but this house is much too large to be the one in question.
  See the comment below from Geraldine Williams.
• Geraldine Williams I don't think the Carnegies lived at Stanthorne Hall, Dave. The Dalby family lived there during the '50s and it's on the right hand side much further along the Winsford Road. I'm pretty sure there's a grand house with a drive, set in a lot of greenery literally at the top of Spittal Hill on the left.
  

  
  
  
  
• Dave Roberts Hmmm....I did wonder. Stanthorne Hall seems to be on a little too grand a scale to be the house in question. As always, this will have to be a case of actually going and having a look, armed with new digital camera.
  
  
  Editor's Note: Further internet research from Daniel himself seems to point to Bostock House, which is on the left at the very top of Spital Hill and, at the time of publication (December 2011) is up for sale. We hope to obtain a photo of the house soon.

(reformatted 26/12/2011)