What strikes me as I look through this collection of old images of Middlewich is not how many things have
changed, but how many things have stayed the same or, at any rate, are still recognisable. Not so with this shot from the late 60s (though we may be creeping into the very early 70s here). Nothing seen here exists today. It's another slide taken by Jack Stanier, featured courtesy of Middlewich Heritage Society and showing Whiston's Garage at the bottom of Nantwich Road. Out of shot to the right was the Red Lion (now an apartment block called 'Lion House') and on the left is Yeowart's grocery shop which we had a tiny glimpse of in a previous shot of the Red Lion. Out of site behind Yeowart's is Chester Road Methodist Chapel (officially the Chester Road United Methodist Free Chapel) This was built in 1868 and is still in existence today as a computer and stationery supply business. A pity - I always thought it would make a nice little theatre/music venue. But I'm glad it is, at least, still there. I attended one of the last services at the chapel, just before it closed in the 1990s (In fact, it may have been the last service - does anyone know the date?) to be replaced, like the other Methodist Chapels in the town, by a new Church in Booth Lane in the year 2000. I did this just so that I could say I'd been there. I had a bad cough at the time and a kind lady supplied me with cough sweets throughout the proceedings). If you look at this view today you will see the old church, acres of dual carriageway with new housing in the background, some attractive flower beds and that highly dodgy junction between St Michael's Way and Nantwich Road. Whiston's was replaced by a new garage on what is now the Lidl supermarket site. As always, comments and corrections are very welcome.
On Facebook, Geraldine Williams said:
ReplyDeleteYes, good old Sid Whiston! There was another building set back to the right of the car showroom where Harry Jackson used to run the radio part of the business. In front of this was the main Wheelock Street bus stop (the next being in the Bullring) in the days when double-deckers, Crosville and North-Western, and PMT buses on certain days if you wanted to go to Hanley, used to trundle up and down the street. Of course, the Crosville garage was on the opposite side of the road.
And I was a frequenter of both Crosville and North-Western buses from an early age. I caught the little single-decker from the Crosville Garage to go to school at Wimboldsley and then, in later years, the North-Western Road Car Company's double-decker to Sir John Deane's Grammar School in Northwich (alighting at the College of Art in London Road, of course). Arriva North West is a direct descendant of the old North-Western Company.(Comment from Facebook)
ReplyDeleteOn Facebook, Geraldine Williams said:
ReplyDeleteMe, too! The sight of all those SJD uniforms forming a pincer movement along The Crescent.......
That's right. Harry went on to work at Douglas Williams, just a little further up the road and directly opposite the Crosville Garage (now the MoCoCo cafe). Douglas Williams shop itself is now a 'tanning studio' or some such frippery. What a nice man Harry Jackson was, too. A shopkeeper of the old school, always courteous and polite, very much like the Samuels at the other end of the street. If anyone has a good photograph of the Crosville Garage in its heyday, we'd love to see it, as would Middlewich Community Church. By the way, we now know that the new Methodist Church in Booth Lane opened in 2000, so that will have been the year of my valedictory visit to the Chester Road chapel.
ReplyDelete(comment from Facebook)
What was the garage called on Chester Road at the end of Croxton Lane
ReplyDelete