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