Snow Hill from the air              Snow Hill 1962

An aerial view of part of Nantwich Town Centre from Snow Hill at the top to High Street at the bottom. Note Johnson's the printers just up from the bottom of the picture, on the right. 

THIS aerial view is a larger version of that in a letter on the "This and That" page following a request for a picture of houses in Snow Hill. Not surprisingly it has been supplied by Andrew Lamberton. It can be found in Lost Buildings Around Nantwich - in the appendix of Nantwich town pictures.    

Row of houses

Here are some of the interesting details from the picture, starting with the row of houses in Snow Hill. On the "This and That" page, Cecilia Tomlinson says "Numbers 2, 4 and 6 had gardens and the rest of the houses were terraced."

The hill

I only vaguely remember this house with its gable end - and I can't be sure that isn't because of Andrew's picture.

   But I remember very well the slope in front of it. That to me is Snow Hill, although the name takes in a large area from Swine Market to the Baths and beyond. I appreciate that the "hill" is hard to see because of the buildings, but in my schoolboy memory the slope was a much larger -and steeper - area than it appears here.

The old Town Hall

This is only part of the old Town Hall, which I remember as a DIY supplies place, although it had two other uses before that. Firstly, it was the Town Hall, of course, and then a motor accessories store. It was demolished in 1972 to become the entrance to the Snow Hill car park and that is now part of The Water Lode. This section of the larger picture is next to the "hill" picture above. You can perhaps see a detail (a wall?) in both sections - to the left of the gable-ended building above and at the bottom right-hand edge of this section.        

The Zan

Finally, we have the Zan store at the end of the Oat Market. On the Snow Hill development page, I show the twin gables part of the building, but the larger part, facing up High Street towards the Square, is the better known half of the store (at least in my memories).

   You will realise there isn't a door in the twin-gabled part, the only entrance being that facing the camera at the bottom of the picture.

Another view of Snow Hill  

THE houses on the right of this picture - from Paul Simpson - have seen better days, but the washing to the left shows that the terrace was still occupied in 1962.

   The familiar sight of the old Town Hall (far centre) will help to locate the two rows of houses in Snow Hill. The houses on the right are semi-detached and not another terrace - as can be seen in the small picture below, a segment of the main picture above.

   I wonder what the posts in the right foreground were?

Of the main picture, Paul comments: "I remember the slope. Tommy Field had his garage down there, then moved to the Crescent Garage later on."

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