MIDDLEWICH TOWN CENTRE FROM KING STREET c1971

 by Dave Roberts

This is a bit of a mystery photo. It shows part of the view from the garden at no 33 King Street in the early 1970s. The slide itself is marked 'Town Centre from King Street c1969' but the condition of what remains of the Pepper Street salt works would seem to suggest that it is slightly later than that. The chimney on the right, part of which has crept into the shot, has whitewashed brickwork at the bottom of it, a sure sign that the salt pan and associated roofing which were formerly in front of it have gone. And the gas-holders which once stood between us and the canal and River Croco have also disappeared. 
For these reasons, we've revised the date to 'c1971', which is the year that the chimneys themselves were felled.
The slides in this collection are all marked with a brief description and date which is something of a small mercy all these years later as we can, at least, give a rough estimate of the date each was taken - the year, if not the month in most cases. The drab colour, by the way, is largely due to the fact that we used Agfachrome for this particular slide - always a second choice after Kodachrome, but we had to use whatever slide film local chemists felt like stocking at the time.
Middlewich Town Hall is on the extreme left and the  white painted buildings, centre right, are the Vaults in Wheelock Street, seen from the rear.

First published 10th November 2011
Revised and re-published 10th November 2017