 |
| We believe this image to be out of copyright. if you own the copyright, or know who does, please let us know |
One recurring theme in our Middlewich Diary is the fact that although the streets of Middlewich have changed over the years, they have not changed so much as to be unrecognisable. And here's a case in point from the Paul Hough Collection.
This photograph must be getting on for sixty years old and yet if you were to stand in the same place today with a camera you could take a photograph which would be almost startlingly similar to this one.
To the right is the Cheshire Cheese, now extended somewhat to encompass the little cottage to the right of it, but basically the same place. Is that a Ford Prefect standing outside?
How many people remember the shop next door, now just a terraced house like all the rest in the row?
In fact Lewin Street was never a shopping street in the way that Wheelock Street was (and is); it was always a mixture of houses, shops, pubs, churches and public buildings.
Most of the shops were found further down the street towards the town centre in the area where the Winsford Co-Op dominated, but in this part of Lewin Street, around the British Legion Club (out of shot to the left and at this date occupying its old premises - the present club was built in the early 1960s) were a few shops including 'Lil Brock's' Newsagents (behind and to the left of the camera, and now part of Cash's Garage) and Horace's barber's shop in the row of houses on the left (now replaced by Larry's, just across the road from the camera and out of shot).
Then there was Annie Blackburn's fruit shop (relocated at some point from further down the street) and Cy Gillett's grocery shop, both in the middle distance, round about where the van is.
But I think that most, if not all, of these were in the future when this photograph was taken.
I'm sure that people will come forward with a few (approximate) dates.
Just above the black car on the left is the location of one of Mike Jennings' Guard Stones, at the end of what is now a pathway which runs from Lewin Street alongside Bembridge Court and connects onto Bembridge Drive. This little passageway appears to have no name and is not marked on any maps (we've marked it in red on the OS map below).
The top end of this passageway would probably not have existed at the time of our photo (although the bottom part of it would, of course, have given access to the rear of the houses on either side of it) and would not have had anything to connect with anyway, except, perhaps, Derbyshire's orchards..
Oddly Bembridge Drive, although it is shown on the map, is not given a name either, though this is probably just an omission by the printers..
We welcome your memories of Lewin Street
In fact Lewin Street was never a shopping street in the way that Wheelock Street was (and is); it was always a mixture of houses, shops, pubs, churches and public buildings.
Most of the shops were found further down the street towards the town centre in the area where the Winsford Co-Op dominated, but in this part of Lewin Street, around the British Legion Club (out of shot to the left and at this date occupying its old premises - the present club was built in the early 1960s) were a few shops including 'Lil Brock's' Newsagents (behind and to the left of the camera, and now part of Cash's Garage) and Horace's barber's shop in the row of houses on the left (now replaced by Larry's, just across the road from the camera and out of shot).
Then there was Annie Blackburn's fruit shop (relocated at some point from further down the street) and Cy Gillett's grocery shop, both in the middle distance, round about where the van is.
But I think that most, if not all, of these were in the future when this photograph was taken.
I'm sure that people will come forward with a few (approximate) dates.
Just above the black car on the left is the location of one of Mike Jennings' Guard Stones, at the end of what is now a pathway which runs from Lewin Street alongside Bembridge Court and connects onto Bembridge Drive. This little passageway appears to have no name and is not marked on any maps (we've marked it in red on the OS map below).
The top end of this passageway would probably not have existed at the time of our photo (although the bottom part of it would, of course, have given access to the rear of the houses on either side of it) and would not have had anything to connect with anyway, except, perhaps, Derbyshire's orchards..
We welcome your memories of Lewin Street
No comments:
Post a Comment
Leave your comments here. Please note that comments are moderated and, if they are particularly relevant, may be incorporated into the original diary entry.