March 2009 Archives
Cheshire County Council closes for business today. Here its media relations manager IAN CALLISTER, the new Cheshire West & Chester's senior media relations manager, reflects on the outgoing 120-year-old authority.
Through its long history Cheshire County Council has always championed the cause of the county and its people.
It fought successfully to persuade the generals to retain the Cheshire Regiment - the last county regiment unchanged in the British Army - but sadly could not prevent its recent amalgamation into the Mercian Brigade.
CCC fought for the Vauxhall car workers threatened with redundancy, farmers hit by the Foot and Mouth scourge and took on the giant Halifax Building Society over its issue of a single share payment to groups of adults with learning difficulties.
In 2000 the authority hired its own oil tanker to collect vital petrol- with the agreement of the pickets - from Stanlow refinery during the fuel dispute. Petrol was needed to enable care workers to reach thousands of housebound clients.
It led the fight against several Foot and Mouth outbreaks- the last in 2001, after which it the council, with partners, formed a Rural Task force to spearhead rural regeneration in the ravaged countryside.
CCC sent a fleet of Yellow buses to recover its school parties from a shell shocked London during the bombings in 77 and brought a party of Knutsford High School children home from Beijing during the Sars outbreak.
And more recently a 300-strong combined services team kept the county moving when gale-force winds brought hundreds of trees crashing down on 3,000 miles of Cheshire Roads.
John Thomasen was the schoolmaster at Tarvin School for 36 years (until his death in 1740) and gained national recognition for his penmanship during this time.
His particular speciality was the Greek language and Queen Anne was said to have been so impressed by his skill that she asked him to copy the work of the old Greek poets for her collection. Many of his documents also found their way into museums and libraries throughout the country.
We go back to 1961 with this photo provided for us by Gloria Dodd (née Hinton).
It shows a concert featuring pupils of Whitchurch Junior School.
Back row: Valerie Phillips, Jean Mower, Elizabeth Pope, Annette Denny, Sheila Macdonald, ?, Gillian Evans, Tanya Kaminski and Margaret Rogers. Middle row: Pamela Birch, Jennifer Pritchard, Christine Robinson, Barbara Cooper, Ann Broadhurst, ?, Teresa Johnson, Linda Kaczmarek, Heather Wagstaffe and Pauline Jones.
Front: Gloria Hinton is second left on the front row, and her twin sister Julia is on the extreme left, Linda Haycocks, with Beryl Jones, Jean Thomasson, Moya Travers, Rosemary Darlington, Celia James, Jane Morris, Angela Haycocks and Sandra Williams.
Do you recognise any of these pupils or have any memories of the school you wish to share?
Call us on 01244 606409, drop us a line at: Whitchurch Herald, newsroom, Chronicle House, Commonhall Street, Chester CH1 2AA or email whitchurch.news@cheshirenews.co.uk.
Schooldays are regarded by many as the best years of their lives. This week we take a look at life at the chalk face during the last half-century. This archive picture shows the pupils of St Richard Gwyn High School in Flint posing for the camera.
FORMER Liverpool boss Bob Paisley, pictured, was the guest at the British Aerospace apprentice prize night.
LOCAL residents opposed plans to construct a weighbridge in Mold Road, Ewloe.
PLANS to include shops units in the remodelled Deeside Leisure Centre were expected to be rejected by Alyn and Deeside Council.
A NEW £1,500 chair lift was installed at the Citizens Advice Bureau in Shotton.
THE Flintshire executive of the National Farmers' Union feared the closure of the Welsh Water Authority offices in Mold could hit land drainage work.
SYCHDYN parents were furious that a much- needed extension to the village primary school was to be further delayed, possibly by as much as two years.
AN application for late-night drinking at Mold during the week of the Urdd National Eisteddfod was rejected by local magistrates after objections from the police.
MINERS at Point of Ayr colliery continued to defy flying pickets from the South Wales coalfield, and it remained the only pit working in the Principality.
THE Mostyn History Preservation Society was very pleased to receive the donation of a photograph of the congregation at the now long closed Bethel Chapel Rhewl who were celebrating their centenary in 1967.
PUBS have always been part of community life, especially in twin-towns like Runcorn and Widnes about which it was often said there was a saloon bar on almost every street corner.
The Industrial Revolution swept through the North West like a whirlwind and way back in the early part of the 19th century there were beerhouses everywhere.
The navvies constructing canals and railways found it thirsty work, as did the men engaged in the early chemical factories. Belching chimneys mushroomed, planning controls were non-existent and workers' conditions were absolutely dire.
And conditions in some of the pubs were not all that good either - no surprise, therefore, when many of them, little more than spartan premises, best remembered for spittoons and sawdust, were closed down.
ARCHIVIST Jonathan Pepler of Cheshire's Public Record Office gave Runcorn Historical Society members an insight into the challenges facing their office in the immediate future.
Speaking at the society's annual meeting at a time when the existing Cheshire County Council had only 25 days left in its present form, he said it had served the county for 120 years - a total of 43,800 days.
Despite the county being split into east and west, he believed that the new Cheshire East would still maintain its arrangements with both Halton and Warrington local authorities.
A WIDNES sailor who has contacted his long lost family after 45 years said finding them has been 'amazing'.
Stephen Fazackerley, 54, of Cambridge Street, lost touch with his mother when his parents split up.
He was raised by his father, who took him from his home to Germany.
Stephen said he was forbidden from having contact with the rest of his family over the years.
Several attempts to run away and return to England failed.
After leaving his father's home he became a sailor and married.
But last year he decided to try to make contact with his family through the website Genes Reunited.
Initially his cousin got in touch with him which led to a flood of further contact with other relations.
HOW much do you know about the old Ministry of Defence Works at ICI Randle, which manufactured mustard gas and became known as the Hush Hush Works?
If you, or members of your family, worked there, Colin Barber, chairman of the Valley History Society, based at Rhydymwyn, North Wales, would appreciate your help in compiling a book about the Randle Works.
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