THE MIDDLEWICH LIDO (CROXTON WATER FALL 3)

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by Dave Roberts

The 'Middlewich Lido', of course, being a slightly ironic term coined by Geraldine Williams when I gave her a sneak preview of this photo before publication.

This was her reaction: 'This is brill. Positively turns the spot into the Middlewich (albeit dangerous) Lido'.

Which is a fair point.

When we were all a good deal younger a favourite pursuit on a sunny Sunday afternoon was to go 'down the river'.

The river in question being the River Dane.

But our favourite spot on the river (for King Streeters at least) was on the other side of the railway viaduct and road bridge, on the stretch between Middlewich and Byley Bridge.

It was Ravenscroft Hall not Croxton Hall which gazed down upon our paddling and splashing and early attempts at the breast stroke.

But Croxton Hall and the 'Croxton Water Fall(s)' are from a far earlier era. We're grateful once more to Mike Jennings for supplying the above post-card which shows more of the 'water fall' itself than the previous one and shows us just what a substantial structure it was.

I can't resist another comparison with Jim Moores' recent shot of the river and weir:

Such a drastic change, even taking into account the amount of time between the two photographs. But there's something about those walls on the far bank of the river which just doesn't look right in the modern shot. Shouldn't the wall be sloping down to the left as it does in the old picture? Or is it simply that Jim's shot is taken from the opposite bank of the river -  that his shot is 'the other way round'?

Here's what Mike has to say about the post-card:

'I have come across this photo of Croxton waterfall in my collection. I don't know if you have seen this one?

I wonder who that lot are paddling in there? Judging by the trees and bushes it looks like this photo was taken at a different time than the previous one'.

And Mike has also been doing further research into Croxton Water Fall(s) on our behalf:

Hi Dave

I have been talking to my father who used to clear out the debris from the waterfall which by all accounts was connected to ICI Lostock. They used to do health and Safety surveys on it. I will gather more information from him. He also states that the building burned down at some point killing a number of people?

I will also get more info on this.

Many thanks to Mike and Geraldine and everyone else who has taken an interest in this topic. We await developments, as always.

See also: CROXTON WATER FALL (AND ASSOCIATED ENTRIES - PLEASE FOLLOW THE LINKS)

CROXTON WATER FALL (2)