January 2009 Archives

Family bakers in Chester are few and far between these days, as supermarkets and bakery chains flourish.

Back in the 1970s and 80s, however, workers on their way to the office would have been greeted with the smell of fresh bread from virtually any street in the city centre.

Weinholt's, P&A Davies', Griffith's, Blake's and Bannister's are names which will get the nostalgic taste buds tingling as readers remembers shops on Watergate Row, Upper Northgate Street, Bridge Street, Eastgate Row and Foregate Street.

Chester History and Heritage Centre's latest exhibition, Pat-a-Cake, is a history of bakers and mill owners in Chester from the 1800s to the present day. The exhibition runs until March 26.

Weinholt's, which closed its last shop in Handbridge in 2007, was founded by Frank Weinholt in 1953. A second shop was opened in Upton, followed by the first city centre bakery in Northgate Street in 1984.

The exhibition includes photographs of a four-tier cake, made in 1981 for the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer and a cake for the christening of Lady Edwina Grosvenor in 1981. According to a letter from the Duchess of Westminster, Lady Tamara, Edwina's older sister, referred to the baker as Mr Why Not.

P&A Davies, the only family bakers left in the city, started out in 1891 in Hoole. The exhibition has a wealth of awards won by the firm, which just last month was named Craft Baker of the Year.

Evocative photographs in the exhibition include a queue for bread outside Blake's bakery on Watergate Row during the strike in 1977 (above) and a staff outing from Bannister's bakery in 1960.

Heritage staff are keen to hear from staff who worked in any of the city's bakeries or shops and would love to see photographs of group shots or staff outings. If you have any information, contact Pam Lynch on 01244 402110.

ASTROLOGER Russell Grant (pictured) started a weekly horoscope in the Chronicle.

DELYN councillors were to vote on axing car parking charges in Mold.

A NEW advice service run by the unemployed to help the unemployed was set to be launched in Buckley.

FOUL tasting water from polluted supplies from the River Dee brought a flood of angry complaints from Clwyd ratepayers.

PLANS for a major sports complex in Holywell, next to the existing swimming pool, were given the go-ahead by Delyn council.

TRIPS to the baths and other outings for pupils at Argoed High School were under threat after a disastrous fire destroyed the school coach.

SCHOOL improvements in Clwyd were restricted due to budget restraints.

ALYN and Deeside council were set to increase rents by 50p a week from April.

SILVER worth several hundred pounds was stolen from a house in Nercwys.

HOPE community council asked British Rail to send a representative to a meeting to discuss a controversial plan to single track parts of the Wrexham-Bidston rail line.

A THIEF mysteriously returned a £2,000 antique clock to its delighted Buckley owner.

PAST and present Red Cross volunteers from all over the area converged on Buckley to mark the diamond jubilee of the society's youth movement.

A PLAN to open a BMX bicycle track on land at Llanerchymor was to be considered by Delyn councillors.

A HOBBIES fair in Mold proved a big hit.

A Flintshire school with an enviable reputation is celebrating its half-century this year.
Castell Alun High School in Hope opened in 1958 and has three distinct chapters in its development.

Originally an 11-16 secondary school it then had a short spell as a junior comprehensive before securing its present status as a leading 11-18 secondary school.

In 50 years Castell Alun has had four headteachers - Geraint Williams, 1958-85; Don Platten, 1985-96; Sandra Mattock, 1996-2002; and the current post holder, David Mountfort.

The school was proud to be the first in Wales to be granted Investors in People status and the first comprehensive in North Wales to gain the highest possible grades in all areas during an ESTYN inspection.

The above picture shows the original staff at Castell Alun High School in 1958.

This description of Red Castle in Shropshire is a further extract from Castles of Shropshire by Peter and Anne Duckers.

THE authors describe the Red Castle ruin as "an interesting site that deserves to be better known since it utilises natural features in a way which is seen nowhere else in the county".

THE authors describe this ruin as "an interesting site that deserves to be better known since it utilises natural features in a way which is seen nowhere else in the county".

It presumably succeeded the castle at Weston, 600 metres to its south west. The manor, originally a Peverel holding, reverted to the Crown by 1130 and was held for a time by the le Strange family, then the Audleys in the late 12th Century.

Henry de Aldithele, Sheriff of Shropshire and Staffordshire, obtained the site from Maud le Strange in 1227 and was given a licence to "erect at Radeclif a castle".

In 1238 it was reported to be in good repair, but little is known of its history. It is thought to have been abandoned by 1386 following the death of James, Lord Audley, and Henry VIII bought it from the family in 1536.

It passed to the Corbets in the late 16th Century and may have played a role in the Civil War, briefly housing a parliamentary garrison in 1645, possibly holding prisoners of war.

Red Castle passed the Hill family of nearby Hawkstone Hall in the 18th Century and its ruins were "improved" as part of the land- scaping of the park in the 1780s. It now stands on the edge of the golf course at Hawkstone.

STEPS are being put in place to revive Runcorn's flagging Old Town shopping centre with a street market in April and May.

The market in Church Street will start at the corner of King Street extending probably as far as the Wetherspoon pub.

The street market could become a regular feature every Tuesday between 10am-4pm, and, hopefully, will attract an estimated 25 stalls.

A working party has been set up to look at the problems facing market traders and Liberal Democrat councillor Sue Blackmore assures us they are doing their very best to ensure new initiatives bring in much-needed customers.

The town's relatively new market is, of course, tiny by comparison with its counterpart across the river and would fit into one small corner of Widnes Market.

But the size of the old town market place is only one part of the town centre problem. Today, it is seen as no more than a district centre and lacks diversity in almost every field except foodstuffs.

That said, we should welcome any moves which might breathe new life into the shopping triangle where there are few people mingling around once the morning shoppers have disappeared.

The borough council, through its town centre manager Paul Smith, who has been in the post for about two years, published its first booklet, "Welcome to Runcorn Town Centre", pre-Christmas, helped by traders' chairman Gary Shaw, a popular figure at Sherwin butchers.

The booklet is a colourful, highly professional offering, and, in the words of Paul Smith, its purpose is to highlight just a few of the many small businesses which have been established for years.

"When shoppers used to think about Runcorn town centre as a place to visit," the town centre manager notes, "they thought first of its charity or fast food shops but this has changed with an ever-increasing range of retail, food and other businesses now sited in the town.

"Now, for example, you can buy your weekly shopping or purchase a new guitar, see a show, visit a gym, visit the butchers, bakers, florists or even buy a new car - and that's without visiting the market!"

Could the Church Street market bring in as many people as Frodsham's Thursday market? Maybe not. But as butcher Stephen Sherwin and Gary Shaw both say: "If we get more people down here it will be a good start."

Church Street in the past
IT IS not difficult for oldies among us to picture the Church Street we knew in the austere 1940s or the more relaxing days of the late 1950s and early 1960s, when such stores as the splendid Runcorn and Widnes Co-operative drapery premises held pride of place near the High Street end of the road.

It's somewhat more difficult, however, to visualise what it was like in the late 19th Century and early years of the 20th Century.

In those days shops and pubs stood cheek by jowl in a mishmash of widely varying one-man or one-woman businesses.

Even in the 1930s Duckett's fishmongers retained an air of Victorian worldliness and come Christmas it did a roaring trade in meat products, with turkeys hanging out at the shop front. Late shoppers would catch bargains.

Pre-refrigeration, the goods were all perishables and the proprietor had to dispose of his stock by late evening on a Saturday night.

Remarkably enough, even in the early Victorian era Church Street boasted what might be deemed a little market. This became established in and around the Barley Mow pub. Farmers would come from across Cheshire and their meat, veg and cheeses would be on display.

The pub is one of the finest examples of Victorian architecture in Runcorn. James Blundell owned the premises for 30 years, from 1841-1871.

Runcorn, of course, has something of a tradition when it comes to markets. The old market in Bridge Street opened as far back as September 1856. It's Italianate design was the work of the then town surveyor, Mr Barker.

Historian Bert Starkey tells us its meat, fish and poultry products were regarded as excellent and they attracted large crowds on the opening day.

Crowds of sightseers also came to see the gas lighting and by 10pm on a Saturday the market was so densely crowded business very nearly came to a standstill.

ONE of the best yet was how Sealed Knot members described Saturday's spectacular re-enactment of the Battle of Nantwich and the anniversary of Holly Holy Day.

The clock was turned back more than 360 years as Cavaliers were beaten by Roundheads.

Hundreds of soldiers died in January 1644 as the Parliamentarians, led by Sir Thomas Fairfax, lifted the Royalist siege of the town, ordered by Lord Byron.

This time there was no bloodshed, apart from the odd scratch or two, as hundreds of Sealed Knot soldiers staged a realistic skirmish. Cannon and musket fire rang out as they engaged in battle with their pikes and swords.

Colin Bisset, Colonel General and Chief of Command of the King's Tercio, said: "I have to say this was one of the best events yet. It was brilliant. Everyone was delighted about it, the weather was fine and the crowds were in their hundreds.

"The commemoration on the square was perfect and the battle on Mill Island was fierce but not too long. And it seems that everyone from the mayor to the man on the street enjoyed themselves.

"All the hard work put in by the new Holly Holy Day committee has paid off and this is exactly how the Sealed Knot likes to see it.

"The ground was quite muddy but the real battle happened on snow, which would have been much more treacherous than what we have encountered."

Each year since the early 1970s the battle has been re-enacted on Holly Holy Day - named to celebrate the end of the siege when townsfolk wore a sprig of holly in their caps.

Earlier, the streets were lined with onlookers as the troops marched through town from Malbank School.

The town square was packed as the regiments were inspected and wreaths were laid at the war memorial by the Mayor of Crewe and Nantwich, Brian Silvester, Nantwich Town Council chairman Keith Cafferty, Crewe and Nantwich MP Edward Timpson, representatives of the Sealed Knot and Andrew Gillitt, a founder member of Nantwich Historical Society - who was celebrating his 94th birthday.

The day included a production by Nantwich Players who marched a 'miscreant' to the stocks in Pillory Street where he was pelted with old cabbages.

To see the picture gallery from the Holly Holy Day please click here

Today's Ellesmere Port paints a very different picture to the one artist DOUGLAS EDWARDS - now living in the United States - remembers as a child growing up in the 1940s and 50s. In the last of his this three pieces for the Pioneer, he shares his fond childhood memories of the town.

FROM 1943-6, Douglas Edwards used to walk along a cinder pathway at the bottom of Worcester Street, running alongside the old church, to the Church School.

"The less said about that grim place the better, for I was lucky enough to get a transfer to John Street Primary School in 1946 - a considerably less Spartan place, which had heating," he explains.

Mr Edwards said: "So many characters seemed to exist in the Ellesmere Port I knew and so many have now, it seems, exited the stage of life.

"There was, for example, "Annie" of Cook Street. In an age when shops were closed on Sundays, should a bottle of lemonade or dandelion and burdock be needed with the Sunday lunch (Full Swing or Corona brands come to mind), there was always "Annie" to turn to.

"Entrance to her 'shop' was through the back yard and I cannot ever recall her unable to produce the kind of mineral water I was sent to purchase.

"There was also old Freddie, the crippled 'newsboy' who always had a good word for everyone as he shuffled along the town's pavements from the Echo office in Meadow Lane calling out, "Exee-Echo".

"This meant the Liverpool Express and Liverpool Echo had just arrived by bus from Birkenhead (escorted by an employee) and, in an age before televised football, these papers carried all the actual football results for Littlewoods or Vernon's Pools enthusiasts.

"Around the corner from the Echo office, and hidden behind a dilapidated wooden facade on Station Road, was a fish & chip shop (the name evades me) complete with a most compact condensation-covered corridor for customers to line up in.

"The place was so steamy and cramped but it served up the best fish and chips (although Russell's in Church Street was also very good).

"It was a popular shop during and after the war years and, once served, the customers would very often take their orders and consume them over the road, in the permanently-covered fairground located on Westminster Road corner, alongside Wilson's wood yard which 'employed' German prisoners-of-war.

"A few shops further along, in the direction of the Station Hotel, was located "Parkgate Fisheries", a wonderful place for fresh seafood which was managed by a lovely lady."
He says the old Hippodrome cinema was a "magnificent example of stately architecture".
It had twin marble staircases either side of the foyer, flanked by giant oversize portraits of golden-age film stars, leading up to the expensive balcony seats. On the walls hung heavy maroon-coloured velvet draperies.

And if a film was very popular, the queue of viewers would stretch along Carnegie Street and around the corner into Station Road past Cheshire Furnishing Stores, all the way to Waters' the Chemist (the predecessors of Laidlers) which was the last shop before the Vicarage grounds.

Ellesmere Port Civic Hall was the first building erected on the former Co-op field. In the early 1950s the Grange School, together with John Street School, decided to put together a variety show there.

Mr Edwards recalls: "Although by then, we were no longer at either school, a fellow art student and good friend, Alan Williams, and I were asked to contribute an act.

"Alan, who would later become a great fashion artist, and I decided to do a 'sisters' act wearing feminine clothing, miming to Sisters by Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ellen.

"I mention the Civic Hall because, in the mid-1950s, there was always a good Saturday night dance there with a full orchestra.

"Before I left Ellesmere Port in 1958, I often used to go to those wonderful dances - not necessarily to dance but often to meet friends like Alan or just to tap my foot to the terrific music played.

"That was in the days when boys and girls actually danced with each other, when there was a tune played that had a beginning and end, not a repeat of just one line."

The Rebecca Riots originated in West Wales in the late 1830s and spread to North Wales in 1843.

There had been much general discontent amongst the Welsh in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries over a range of issues, such as high food prices and poor working conditions. This resulted in attacks on the property of landlords and occasional unrest, such as the Camarthen riots in 1831.

The introduction of the New Poor Law in 1834 ushered in a more stringent regime for those falling below the poverty line and this proved to be unpopular in the principality. Further factors which predisposed the Welsh to unrest in the 1830s included the fact that large numbers of nonconformists meant that there was a majority of people who begrudged paying church tithes to the Anglicans.

The Chartist call for suffrage for working men was enthusiastically embraced in the region which provided a focus for working-class feeling. A series of bad harvests also exacerbated the poverty faced by the population and the final straw was the introduction of tolls on the turnpike roads.

In 1839 protesters dressed up as the biblical Rebecca to tear down the toll gates near Efailwen in West Wales and there were further sporadic outbreaks of destruction in the same area. The bad harvests continued into the early 1840s and were accompanied by industrial action in South Wales.

The erection of further tollgates in Camarthenshire in 1842 resulted in more disturbances by 'Rebecca's daughters' which escalated into the destruction of tollgates over a wide geographical area and damage to property owned by those sympathetic to the levy of tolls.

In 1843 there was a public march to Camarthen, which resulted in attacks on the Workhouse, and the crowd was only dispersed by the arrival of troops. The movement then spread to Glamorgan and the attacks became more violent and destructive, ultimately causing loss of life.

Meanwhile in North Wales, farmers and tradesmen had also been hit hard by the introduction of tolls and they followed the lead of their fellow Welshmen by taking action in Flintshire and Denbighshire. Around 30 farm buildings and ricks were burned in Denbighshire and greater numbers in Flintshire. They took down the toll gates at Maerdy, near Corwen, and left a note on the razed gatehouse saying that it was the work of Sister Rebecca. The Meliden area was particularly sympathetic to the cause and fighting was commonplace throughout 1844 in this part of Flintshire.

The deployment of troops to Wales controlled the worst of the violence and there was subsequently a move to less confrontational tactics by Rebeccaites after 1844. This was influenced by the nonconformist ministers (who could not condone the use of violence), the move by authorities to listen to the grievances of residents and the fact that the government sent commissioners to investigate the levy of tolls on turnpike roads.

Although the Rebecca Riots were over by 1845 in North Wales, there were still occasional outbreaks of further violence in West and South Wales over the next few decades.

Memories of Chester's River Dee freezing over have been flooding in to the Chronicle newsroom via email with photographs, colour slides and cine film.

Reader Roger Vincent's slides, from 1963, show all sorts of views of the river from the Old Dee Bridge up to Sandy Lane.

Roger, of Hargrave, was about 24 at the time and took photographs of his mother Edith sitting on a stranded boat and his friend Martin Wheeler braving the ice as the sun went down.

"He was braver and more foolish than I was!" he said. "I do remember it being a long, cold winter with the river freezing more than once."

Roger also remembers the river freezing over again in the 1980s.

"I was down at Sandy Lane with my family and I remember watching a man who had skated from Eccleston hitting a patch of thin ice and going straight in. There was a rush to help him and fortunately he was alright besides a cut nose."

Derek Hickson sent in a copy of a cine film taken by his father Gerald Hickson whose father Cyril used to work on the River Dee at Bithell's Boats. Gerald's footage, which features his wife Margaret and friends Dolly and Arthur Bird, is available to view below. Margaret grew up in Saughall.

Another reader Jim Espley, of Bretton, recalls: "My elder daughter, who was born in November 1961, accompanied me for a walk across the River Dee at Eccleston. This led me to claim to have walked, swam and rowed across the river.

"At the same time, J Maurice Woodward told me that he ventured his car, a green Morris 8, on the ice."

Len Morgan, of Queen's Park, remembers a Triumph Herald and a Mini being driven on to the river at Sandy Lane, while John Stoneley recalls seeing a motor bike on the ice.

Venturing on to the ice himself he remembers almost coming a cropper: "I was work ing with another joiner at the home of Ron Biggins the architect in Sandy Lane.

"Before work one morning we walked down a path at the side of the property to the river, which was frozen over. Having seen nobody on the ice before I edged my way forward. Reaching somewhere about the middle, I began to hear cracking and became very scared, not knowing whether to go back or forward. Thinking I was nearer the Meadows, I went forward and reached the other side. I then had to walk to the suspension bridge and make my way back along the road. A day or two later I saw people walking there with dogs, cycling and I even saw a motorcycle going down."

Reader Mary Gleave has also submitted cine film of the frozen River Dee in 1963 which is now available to view in the previous winter wonderland article on this blog.

A STUDENT investigating the life and times of a Chester Communist is appealing for information to help her complete a PhD.

Frank Percival Forster, who was born in Hawarden in 1910, kept diaries chronicling his thoughts and experiences within Chester's modest Communist community while living at 14 Belgrave Avenue, Saltney with his parents from 1934-1938.

He died in Chester in 1998, but Catherine Feely, a PhD candidate in history studying at The University of Manchester, has found a fascinating historical resource in his tales of the Spanish Civil war and the rise of Nazi Germany through a Cestrian's eyes.
A casual labourer by trade, Frank was heavily involved in various left-wing political activities in the city.

His diaries include unique details about the day-to-day organisation and rank-and-file membership of left-wing and anti-Fascist organisations during the interwar period.
They also provide insight into how one young man experienced both international crises and everyday life in Chester, including visits to the city's various cinemas and dance halls in pursuit of women.

His accounts form an extraordinary record of the meetings he attended, the films he saw, the spaces he inhabited and the books that he read, as well as his inner feelings and disappointments.

Catherine said: "Frank's diaries are fascinating in the way that they constantly mix the personal with the political and for their acute social commentary.

"They are complex sources, as they appear to have been written with a future audience in mind, perhaps even future historians."

Catherine says she would be particularly interested to hear from anyone who was related to or knew Frank, or any of the following people mentioned in his diary: Roger Simon, Joe Gallagher, Vicky Madders, Joan and Ruth Guest, Bob Williams, Gerald Sanovsky, Dan Reynolds, Beatrice Cox, Gwilym Williams, Frank Holland, Eileen Mathewson, Dan King, Harry Wyatt, Len Harrap, Charlie Read, Frank Bradford.

Catherine would also welcome any information or material on the operation of groups in Chester during the 1930s including the Chester branch of the Communist Party of Great Britain, Chester Left Book Club, Chester Debating Society, Chester Spanish Aid Committee, National Council of Labour College classes, Workers' Educational Association classes, Chester Unemployment Association, League of Nations Union and the Labour League of Youth.