NORTHWICH 1914
Northwich
is a market and union town and head of a county court district at the conflux
of the rivers Weaver and Dane, with a station on the Chester, Altrincham and
Manchester section of the Cheshire Lines Railway, 174 miles from London, 18
east-north-east from Chester, 22 south-south-west from Manchester, and 11
south-east from Warrington. The
advantageous position of Northwich, on the banks of the river Weaver, its
connection with the Manchester Ship Canal by means of the Weaver Navigation,
and its contiguity in the Trent and Mersey canal add materially to the
commercial prosperity of the town: vessels of 350 tons burthen can at present
pass up the Weaver as far as Winsford, and upwards of 1,000 craft, including
many steamers, are employed in conveying salt to Liverpool from Northwich and
Winsford: the town is in the Northwich division of the county and petty
sessional division and hundred of Northwich, and in the rural deanery of
Middlewich and archdeaconry and diocese of Chester.
The
Local Government Act, 1858, was adopted here 26th June 1862, and the
district re-constituted by the Act 38 and 39 Vict. C. 76 (1875) and enlarged by
43 and 44 Vict. C. 132 (1880); it formerly comprised Northwich,
Witton-cum-Twambrooks, Castle-Northwich, and parts of Hartford, Winnington, and
Leftwich, but these have now, under a Local Government Board Order dated 10th
Sept. 1894, been united in a single parish, called “Northwich,” governed, under
the “Local Government Act, 1894,” by an Urban District Council of 18 members,
and divided into three wards. Northwich
proper consists of 13 acres and constitutes the centre of the town, with Witton
on the east and Castle Northwich on the west.
The town stands at the junction of the main roads from Chester to
Manchester, and from Nantwich and Crewe to Runcorn and Warrington. The streets are narrow, and irregularly
built, and many of the houses are of considerable antiquity, but owing to the
immense excavations occasioned by the constant pumping up of brine at a depth
of 35 to 40 yards, which creates large chasms, and the super-incumbent weight,
subsidences of the ground not unfrequently occur, involving the partial or
complete destruction of the buildings upon it, and many of the houses have to
be screwed and bolted together to keep them secure; a portion of the High
street, which from this cause has sunk below the level of the Weaver, was in
1892 raised 6 feet, and again in 1901 3 feet 6 inches; the town is supplied
with water from springs at Cote Brook, some 8 ½ miles distant, and purchased by the late Local Board; and is
lighted with gas from works at Crum Hill and Cross Street, the property of an
Incorporated Company.
The
ancient parochial Chapelry of Witton comprises the townships of
Witton-cum-Twambrooks, Northwich, Castle Northwich, Winnington, Hartford,
Hulse, Lach Dennis, Birches, Lostock Gralam, and a small portion of Rudheath
Lordship; the six last named townships will be found under separate headings.
The
church of St. Helen, which stands on high ground near the river Dane, is a
large edifice of Eddisbury new red sandstone, of Perpendicular Gothic, erected
about 1400, and the tower a century later, and consists of apsidal chancel,
clerestoried nave of five bays, aisles, south porch, and an embattled western
tower, containing a clock and 8 bells: the aisles are continued eastwards on
either side of the chancel for one bay: the east end of the south aisle was
formerly a chantry; the chancel was rebuilt and three stained windows placed in
the apex, in 1852, and a reredos of carved oak was erected in 1878: the roof,
of richly carved oak, dates from 1560: the stained west window is a memorial to
the Rev. George Gibbons, a former vicar 1842
d.1876; there is another memorial window to George Henry Darwell
M.R.C.V.S d.1889, and one to the Rev.
William Walker Estcourt Harrison B.A. curate
here from 1888, d.1894; recently a new window has been inserted in the south
aisle in memory of the late Mrs. Sanders, and another is to the memory of the
late Thomas Ward F.R.G.S. The church
was re-pewed in 1844 and again in 1878, when the galleries were taken down, and
has now chair seating accommodation for 800.
The register dates from
the year 1561. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value
£230, with residence, in the gift of the Bishop of Chester, and held since 1913
by the Rev. Hugh Noel Nowell M.A., of Ayerst Hall, Cambridge.
The church of the Holy Trinity, Castle Northwich, erected in 1842 by the Trustees of the Weaver Navigation, under the Act 3 and 4 Vict. C. 124, and standing on a considerable elevation near the bank of the river Weaver, is a building of stone consisting of chancel, nave, and a turret with octagonal spire containing one bell. In 1899 a new organ was provided at a cost of £375: there are 250 sittings. The register dates from the year 1842. The living is a perpetual curacy, net yearly value £200, with residence, in the gift of the Bishop of Chester, and held since 1913 by the Rev. Alfred William Webb.
Danebridge St. Paul’s is an ecclesiastical parish
formed March 10th 1845 out of Davenham parish and the parochial
Chapelry of Witton. The old church,
erected in 1840, at a cost of about £2,300, was a building of stone, in the
Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave of five bays, aisles, south
porch and a western turret containing one bell. Owing to the subsidence of the ground, the church was closed in
1897 and taken down in 1908. A
temporary church was erected in 1909 at a cost of about £700. The register dates from the
year 1849. The living
is a vicarage, net yearly value £203, with residence, in the gift of the Bishop
of Chester, and held since 1889 by the Rev. Charles Packer, B.A. of St. John’s
College, Cambridge, chaplain to the Northwich Union (yearly value £20), and
surrogate; the Vicarage house, purchased at a cost of £1,000, is on Castle Hill
in Castle Northwich.
The
Catholic church of St. Wilfred, in Witton Street, was erected in 1856, at a
cost, including the schools, of about £4,000.
The church is a building of brick with stone dressings in the Gothic
style, the high alter being of marble and a copy of the high alter of the
Cathedral of Bruges. In 1901-2 the
church was enlarged and an organ provided, at a cost of £1,000. Several of the windows are stained; there
are 500 sittings.
The
Congregational chapel, in Castle, erected in 1882, is an edifice of red brick,
and will seat 650 persons.
The
United Methodist chapel, in Middlewich road, erected in 1881, is of brick, and
will seat about 200.
The
United Methodist chapel in Witton Street, erected in 1854, is an edifice of red
brick, and will seat about 300.
There
is a Primitive Methodist chapel, also in Witton Street, erected in 1877,
seating 620 persons, and another, in Zion Street, Castle, built in 1864, with
sittings for about 200.
The
Wesleyan Methodist chapel in Witton Street, erected in 1881, will seat 400
persons.
The
Wesleyan Methodist chapel, Leftwich, erected in 1889, at a cost of about
£7,000, is an edifice of red brick, with stone dressings, in the Classic style,
seating 900 persons.
The
Salvation Army have a hall in Tabley Street.
The
Cemetery, in Church Road, was opened in 1890; it is 6 ½ acres in extent, and is
under the control of the joint committee of the Northwich Urban Council and the
Parish councils of Winnington and Rudheath.
The Brunner Public Library and Salt Museum was originally
founded and presented to the town by the Rt. Hon. Sir John Brunner bart. In
1887. Owing, however, to the subsidence
of the ground this building was in 1908 pulled down, and the present building
erected on the site of the old one. The
library and museum was opened in September 1909, by the Rt. Hon. W. Runeiman
M.P. and contains a newsroom, magazine room, reference library, lending
library, ladies’ room, museum, &c.; attached to the building is residence
for the librarian. The library contains
about 9,000 volumes, of which 7,500 form the lending department. The Salt Museum contains what is perhaps the
most comprehensive collection of rock and other salts known to exist.
The
Victoria Club, in John Street, originally a chapel, was opened 28th
July 1877. The Gladstone Club, in
Witton Street, opened in 1887, and the Constitutional Club, also in Witton
Street, was opened in 1888.
The
old Drill Hall, in Leftwich, erected 1867, is a spacious edifice of brick,
holding about 500 people, and is let for concerts and lectures.
The Market Hall, between Market Street and Apple
Market Street, and erected in 1823, is a large and commodious edifice of brick;
the market, held on Friday, is for corn, butter, butcher’s meat, vegetables and
other commodities, and is well attended, but corn is chiefly sold from sample
in a large room at the “Crown Anchor.” Fairs are held on April 10th
and August 2nd.
The
Auction Market, Church Walk, is held every fortnight, for cattle.
Two weekly newspapers are
published here, called the “Northwich Guardian” and the “Northwich Chronicle.”
The Verdin Technical Schools and Gymnasium, in
London Road, was erected at a total cost of £12,000, by Sir Joseph Verdin bart.
J.P. from designs by Mr. Joseph Cawley, of Northwich, and opened July 24th
1897, by the Dowager Duchess of Westminster; it is a large structure of red
brick, containing various class rooms, a school of art, consisting of antique
room, modelling and elementary room, a lecture room, preparation, physical and
chemical laboratories, also workshops for plumbing, mechanical engineering and
carving, laundries and kitchens, and is under a body of managers, consisting of
members nominated by the Verdin Trustees, The County Education Committee and
the Northwich Urban District Council.
The office of the Administrative Sub-Committee of the Education
Committee for Northwich and district area also adjoins the above schools.
There are several iron foundries, and in Castle
Northwich and Leftwich, are dockyards for flat and boat building. Brick and
tile making are carried on, but the inhabitants of Northwich and vicinity are
chiefly employed in the chemical and salt works, rock salt mines, and also in
the dockyards, in which flat-bottomed boats of a peculiar construction are
built for the conveyance of salt.
In
the neighbourhood of Northwich are numerous salt works and rock salt mines,
from which there is an immense export trade, and a moderate island trade is
also carried on. The white salt is
shipped to America, its chief market, and also to the East Indies; rock salt is
principally shipped to Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Australia, and South
America. The average quantity of white
and rock salt exported annually from this locality and Winsford, about 6 miles
distant, is now (1914) about 950,000 tons.
Rock salt, it is stated, was first discovered
accidentally, near Marbury, in 1670, in the course of a search then being made,
for coal. The pits now in operation are
in the townships of Witton, Wincham, and Marston, adjoining Northwich, and belong
to the Salt Union Limited. There are
two beds of rock salt, an upper and lower, both of which lie horizontally: the
upper bed, about 25 yards in thickness, is found about 50 yards from the
surface; underlying it is a stratum 10 yards deep of very hard marlstone,
immediately beneath which lies the lower bed of rock salt, which is about 30
yards thick. The rock salt is drawn up
in large tubs, containing about half a ton each, its appearance resembling that
of smoky quartz, and is often mixed with clay, or coloured dark yellow or
brown, or coral red, but is sometimes met with of a pure white, as pellucid as
the purest glass, and possessing a lustre whiter than that of most crystal;
this sort however, is only found in very small quantities, specimens of which
are generally kept for the inspection of visitors.
The
Marston Rock mine is about 319 yards in depth, and contains an excavated area
of about 35 acres. The roof is
supported by prodigious pillars of rock, 30 feet in diameter, 16 feet high, and
about 75 feet apart; in June, 1844, this mine was visited by the Emperor
Nicholas of Russia, during his stay in this country, and in 1854 the
proprietors entertained eighty members of the British Association to a splendid
banquet, held at the bottom of the mine, the principal parts of which were
brilliantly illuminated for the occasion.
White
salt, is made from brine, pumped out of the earth into a reservoir, whence it
is conveyed by pipes into salt pans, which are shallow vessels of iron, varying
from 30 to 100 feet long, and from 20 to 27 feet wide, with a depth of about a
foot and a half, the large surface thus exposed greatly facilitating
evaporation; the salt pans are covered with a wooden roof, and the necessary
heat is supplied by furnaces under each of the pans, the flues of which are
carried into lofty chimneys. During the
process of manufacture, a film of white granular substance is continually
forming on the surface of the brine and sinking to the bottom of the pan, i.e.
deposited as salt, and in this way, the various kinds of salt are made, the
difference depending on the degree of heat applied: in making the coarse
grained salt, the brine is heated to 270 deg. Farenheit: the salt formed in
this process is somewhat harder than the common salt; the large-grained or
fishing salt, requires a heat of only 130 degrees Farenheit, but is the
strongest salt of all; no agitation is produced by the heat on the brine in
this case, and the slowness of evaporation allows the chloride of sodium to
form in large and nearly cubical crystals; with this heat it takes from seven
to fourteen days for the salt to form.
In making the stoved or lump salt, the brine is raised to boiling heat
(226 degrees Farenheit), and the salt deposits almost instantaneously: the
fires are then slackened, and the salt, after being collected at the sides of
the pan with iron rakes, is put into wooden tubs of an oblong form and drained,
and is afterwards dried in stove-houses heated by a continuation of the flues
passing under the evaporation pans; the brine is generally found at a depth
from 45 to 85 yards, and is no doubt formed simply by springs of water,
originally fresh, flowing over a vast bed of rock salt; it has been estimated
that every pint of brine contains five ounces of salt, and to make 100 tons of
salt from 50 to 70 tons of coal are required.
Northwich
Salt Compensation Board, appointed under the Brine Pumping (Compensation for
Subsidence) Provisional Order Confirmation Act, 1896, has its office in
Brockhurst Street.
The Police Station and head quarters of the
Northwich Police Division is in Whalley Road; the force here consists of 1
superintendent, 5 sergeants, 1 acting sergeant, and 28 constables.
The
Urban District Isolation Hospital is at Wade Brook, but is only occasionally
used.
New
Public Baths are now (1914) being erected in Victoria Road.
Northwich
is the headquarters of C Squadron, Cheshire (Earl of Chester’s) Imperial
Yeomanry. The Drill Hall is in Navigation Road.
The
Victoria Infirmary, pleasantly situated in the Verdin Park, of which it was
previously the mansion, is available for 25 patients, 20 men, 10 women, and 5
children. On the ground floor are the
convalescent room, operating theatre and lavatory, the boardroom, consulting
room, kitchen, scullery and domestic departments; on the first floor are the
matron’s sitting room, two male wards of five beds each, matron’s private store
closet, female ward with two beds, child’s ward with one bed, bath room,
matron’s bedroom and a spare room; on the second floor are two servants’
bedrooms; the infirmary is supplied with every convenience, including the most
modern surgical appliances. At the back
is a mortuary and a laundry. A new wing
was added in 1902, at a cost of £4,000, as a memorial to Her late Majesty Queen
Victoria.
The
Verdin Park itself, opened to the public by Lord Stanley of Preston, in Oct.
1887, was formerly part of the Winnington Bank estate, and is about 20 acres in
extent. There are carriage entrances from Castle Street and Winnington Street,
and a foot entrance from Winnington Hill.
The Park affords a wide expanse of grass land, and is diversified with
borders and beds planted with evergreens and trees: there are three good
bowling greens, and three double courts of tennis ground, as well as a cricket
ground. At each carriage entrance is a
lodge. The works were carried out under
the superintendence of Mr. James Holland, architect, of Northwich; the park and
pleasure grounds and infirmary, all in Castle Northwich, were presented in
1887, by the late Robert Verdin esq. M.P. to whom a statue has been erected in
the park.
Northwich is mentioned in the Domesday Survey,
compiled 1055-6. During the Civil War
it was visited, 25 Feb. 1642-3, by the Parliamentary forces, who proceeded to fortify
the place, and furnished it with a garrison; in the following March it was
spiritedly but vainly attacked by a detachment of Royalists, under Capt.
Spotswood, but in Dec. 1643, in consequence of the defeat of Sir William
Brereton, near Northwich, the Roundheads were compelled to withdraw their
garrison and abandon the place. The
manor of Witton, together with that of Le Crosse, was vested in the Venables
family, Barons of Kinderton, and it continued in the possession of their
descendants for many generations; in the year 1757 the manor was purchased by
Sir Peter Leycester bart. from the Vernons, and the manorial rights are now
held by the Trustees of the late Lord de Tabley (d. 1887, ext.), who held a
court here.
The
land is held by many small owners. The
area of the civil parish and Urban District of Northwich is 1,286 acres of land
and 112 of water; rateable value, £74,959. the population in 1911 was 18,151,
including 200 inmates and 9 officials in the workhouse. The population of the Urban District wards
in 1911 was:-
Castle, 5,649; Northwich, 3,800; Witton, 8,702. The population of the St. Helen, Witton
otherwise Northwich), ecclesiastical parish in 1912 was 23,968 and of
Danebridge ecclesiastical parish, 9,469.
CASTLE NORTHWICH.—The
manor of Castle Northwich was in 1816 claimed by the 5th Earl of
Dysart, and is now held by Lord Tollemache, a descendant of the 3rd
Earl, who is lord of the manor and chief landowner. Castle Northwich, anciently called “Castleton,” is a place of
considerable antiquity, and obtained its name from a fortress, once existing
here near the point of the junction of the rivers Dane and Weaver, where the
latter river was crossed by the Watling Street, but it probably became ruinous
before the time of Richard I; no vestige of the building now remains, but its
site is indicated by two mounds rising in a triangular field on the right side
of the steep part of the Chester Road; the higher of them is almost circular, and
about 90 feet in diameter.
LEFTWICH township was formed by Local Government
Board Order in September, 1894, from that portion of the old township outside
the Northwich Urban area. The reputed
manor of Leftwich, now simply a portion of the barony of Shipbrook, was
anciently held by the Vernon family; afterwards by the marriage of Sir Richard
de Wilburgham, Lord of Wymincham, with Margery, daughter and co-heiress of
Warin Vernon, it came into the possession of the Wilbrahams, and one of the two
daughters and co-heiresses of this Sir Richard in turn carried it by marriage
to Robert de Winnington, whose son Richard assumed the local name and resided
here, and his posterity in succession for many generations. The site of Leftwich Hall is now occupied by
a farmhouse. Lieut.-Col. Frederick
Charles France-Hayhurst J.P., of Bostock Hall, who is Lord of the reputed
manor, Sir Joseph Verdin bart., Messrs. Cartner-Kelmer Limited and Mrs S.A.
Dobell are the chief proprietors of this township. The area is 705 acres of land and 16 of water; rateable value,
£4,159; the population in 1911 was 346.
WINNINGTON township was formed by Local Government
Board Order in September, 1894, and comprises that portion of the old township
outside Northwich and the ancient township of Wallerscote, owned by Lord
Barrymore.
Winnington
Bridge, over the Weaver, was the scene, during the Civil War, of a sharp
conflict between the Parliamentary troops, under Major-Gen. John Lambert, and
the Royal forces commanded by Sir George Booth, in which the latter was
defeated.
Winnington
Park is the property of Messrs. Brunner, Mond & Co. Limited, who have
erected large chemical works here, employing nearly 4,000 workmen. In the township are several white salt
works.
Winnington Park Recreation
Club, situated close to the Brunner-Mond Works, was the gift of Sir John T.
Brunner bart. and the late Dr. Ludwig Mond F.R.S.; in the centre of the grounds
is a large pavilion erected in 1904, and containing library, reading room,
billiard room with four tables, also a large concert hall. Workmen’s Baths, for the employees of the
company, were erected in 1909. The Park
surrounding comprises a splendid cricket pitch, football field, tennis and
bowling greens and grand stands.
The
manor, previous to the reign of Henry VIII, was held by a family who assumed
the local name, in the latter part of which reign, by the marriage of
Elizabeth, heiress of Richard de Wynington, to Sir Piers Warburton kt., it
passed to the Warburton family and subsequently in like manner by the marriage
of Anne Susannah, daughter and heiress of George Hugh Warburton esq. to Richard
Pennant esq. created in 1783 baron Penrhyn of the Kingdom of Ireland, it was
transferred to that family; on the death of this peer in 1808, the title became
extinct, and the estate was purchased by Lord Stanley of Alderley, whose
descendants sold it to Messrs. Brunner, Mond and Co. Limited and others. The area is 561 acres of land and 18 of
water; rateable value, £29,919; the population in 1911 was 1,503.
WALLERSCOAT (Wallerscote) was, by Order in Council
in 1892, transferred to Winnington.