Four from the files

HERE are four pictures from the bound files of "The Nantwich Chronicle", now in the custody of Cheshire and Chester Archives and Local Studies, and used with their permission. They were photographed by local historian, Andrew Lamberton.

    In a loose newspaper form there are adequate borders around the pages, but when the newspapers are bound into files - with hard back covers - some of the space on the folded edges of the pages is lost in the binding. Pictures at the inner edge of the pages then curve into the binding. The picture of the Beam Heath Trustees is one such picture - as it was captured by Andrew's picture.

   Another version of the picture, not curved this time, can be seen on the This and That pages.   

Picture courtesy of Cheshire and Chester Archives and Local Studies.

IT'S funny, but I have always had 1947 in my mind as the date that the River Weaver overflowed its banks and flooded Welsh Row. But all local historical references put it a year earlier, and Andrew found this picture in a 1946 edition of The Chronicle. (The picture is credited: "Armstrong, Crewe".)

   As you can tell from the car in the background, the water wasn't all that deep, but enough to call for a horse and cart to carry pedestrians through the flooded street. Some local books carry a postcard of this.

   This picture includes the old Three Pigeons pub - the lighter building just past the brick-faced properties. That was recently demolished and made way for Nakatcha, the white faced building in the street, above right, as seen today. In the more recent flood of 2007, the waters did not get as high as in the 1946 picture.    

"A poor standard of fitness"

Picture courtesy of Cheshire and Chester Archives and Local Studies.

ACCORDING to the caption when this picture appeared in a series called "Disappearing Nantwich?", the County Medical Officer (not named) said these cottages (numbers 71 to 97 Beam Street) were "incapable of being brought up to a proper standard of fitness." He added: "They should be demolished and the site cleared and re-developed."

  I recall that these cottages weren't demolished until the mid to late 1960s, which means that the wheels of local government turned slowly in that decade.

  King Place (right) now stands on the site.

Picture courtesy of Cheshire and Chester Archives and Local Studies.

SWEET Briar Hall, to the right of the picture above, locates the site of these now-demolished cottages in Hospital Street. Note the railings along the kerb, clearly indicating that pavement was slightly below street level. There is no such difference nowadays.

The accommodation there today are the flats on the Hospital Street edge of Bowling Green Court, specifically provided for people over 55 years of age.   

Picture courtesy of Cheshire and Chester Archives and Local Studies.

CUSTODIANS of a Unique Trust, is the headline over this picture - taken by Clifford V. Kendall of Nantwich - of the Beam Heath Trustees.  Standing, left to right, are: S. Barlow (Collector), S. Speed (Heath Keeper), W. T. Maybury, S. Davies, Dr J. R. T. Turner, Cllr J. Blagg, J. N. Hilditch and A. R. Whittingham. Sitting: E. Moulton, H. T. Johnson, E. H. Steventon, J. Bowyer (Chairman), L. Vaughan, H. Whitlow and W. H. Owen.

   Beam Heath is common land around Nantwich and it, and the Trustees, are still in existence. The caption to the picture said "(The land) was secured for the community by a deed more than 600 years ago and more firmly established by two Acts or Parliament dating back to 1803."

   Read more about the Beam Heath Trust on this page.

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