The Big Houses Of The Heatons: West Bank – Part Six: Charles Henry Scott

We mourn the loss of High Street names on a daily basis. Part of this is progress. We have neither the need nor the desire these days to wander past endless Blacksmiths, Coal Merchants and Tripe Shops when shopping in a mall. However, there are Grocers we remember from our childhood, whose stiffly overalled proprietors we remember like some archetypal Alf Roberts, when they are gone there is a hole, perhaps our parents felt their loss, as we would if Sainsbury or Tesco were to disappear from streets and yet forty years or so later they are forgotten. No more Gateway, no more Lennons, no more Moores Stores. These were eaten up into larger chains as they in their turn devoured T Seymour Mead and Burgons of Manchester.

Our next West Bank resident, Charles Henry Scott was perhaps an unlikely Grocer, he was born into a working class family in Bridgwater, Somerset, his father, Joseph (1810-1891) was a brickmaker. Bridgwater was a brick town. In 1850 there were sixteen brickmaking factories in the area. The product was exported around the world to China, The Bronx, Canada and New Zealand.

Joseph Scott married Mary Ann Irish in 1832 and worked in the brick trade until 1863, when he moved to Manchester. He died in relative comfort in 1891 in Altrincham, Mary died a few years later in 1895.

Charles Henry Scott was born on 25 August 1834 and his first venture into the working world was as a Bookbinder, but some time in the 1850s he moved to Manchester and in 1861 he started working as a journeyman grocer on Booth Street West, this is possibly at the wholesale grocers Wright & Green. Manchester was a big town and people worked long hours, small shops therefore sprung up in the streets, these were supplied by the large wholesalers.

He shares his lodgings with six other grocers. He is the oldest amongst them.

Charles	Scott	26	1835	Grocer	Bridgwater
Rob	Ratcliffe	22	1839	Grocer	Worsley
Thomas Seymour	Mead	20	1841	Grocer	–
James	Robert	21	1840	Grocer	Cheshire
Moses	Haxley	17	1844	Grocer	Warwickshire
James Woodline	Cobbe	17	1844	Grocer	Staffordshire
Westby	Edward	15	1846	Grocer	Buttington

Interestingly he is working with the man who would become his main competitor in the future grocery trade, and the one whose company would also survive a century – Thomas Seymour Mead.

Seymour Mead – Didsbury

Two years later, in 1863 Charles married Mary Ann Birks at St John in Heaton Mersey. Mary was the daughter of Frederick Birks and Mary Robinson. Frederick was a Liverpool born grocer who had settled in Stockport and had a shop at 35 Greek Street.

Around this time he began an association with Isaac Burgon. Isaac was born in Derbyshire in 1821. In 1846 he married Caroline Wilson and they went to live on Stretford Road in Hulme where he established a grocers shop. His first average weekly receipts were £23. (typical average receipts were £83-£123 per week). By the 1860s he had three shops on Stretford Road, and two on Oxford Street. He moved to 133 Oxford Street in the late 1850s and then to Lansdown Villas in Withington and finally Belmont in Urmston. By 1881 he was employing 66 men as a tea merchant and grocer. He died in 1885 whilst on holiday in Blackpool, Caroline died a few years later in 1893.

During that time Charles was also coming up in the world. He also describes himself as a grocer and tea merchant between 1871 and 1901.

Mary and he are living at Sandway Oakling in Altrincham in 1871, moving to 35,Rumford Street in Chorlton before we see him at West Bank in 1891. What is clear is that whilst his reputation is rising in the community he is only comfortably off when he lives at West Bank, soon after Isaac Burgon’s death.

Isaac died intestate, and Charles saw the opportunity to buy up his shops from his estate.

In 1880 there were six Burgon’s stores but the growth after Charles took control is quite dramatic. There were 45 stores by 1913, including the flagship store in Manchester City Centre.

Burgon’s Store St Mary’s Gate – The Drug Department – Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser 24 September 1913

The city centre store was quite a novelty, at the time central Manchester was mainly devoted to commerce. However, around St Ann’s Square and St Mary’s Gate was where the fashionable shops stood. Burgon’s occupied pride of place here. It was in Exchange Arcade, the drug department dispensed prescriptions from the other branches which were sent back by messenger. The grocery section was considered high class. It sold over a thousand packets per week as the modern housewife does not have time to spend long hours preparing a dinner which will be eaten in a few minutes, nor does she rely upon the skill of her cook to provide a recherche meal at short notice. She could buy the constituents of an entire meal, hors d’oeuvres, joints, fish, sweets all in tins and packages of various kinds, everything served in a few minutes. Let nobody tell you the ready meal is a modern invention.

The store had two storerooms devoted to chocolate. On Saturdays the trade in chocolate exceeded all other. Not only did it cater to retail customers, it also supplied restaurants. Burgon’s butter was specially blended there, and because of its popularity, the turnover was so high that it was always sold freshly prepared.

They also had a coffee house on Deansgate, which served as English coffee houses had for hundreds of years, as a meeting place for businessmen. The coffee was freshly ground and blended at the St Mary’s Branch.

Infact tea and coffee was at the forefront of their quality offering. This lasted well into the mid twentieth century, both Burgons and Seymour Mead prided themselves on that. I can remember Seymour Mead tea cards, alongside the PG Tips cards.

1913 Burgons Butter Manchester Courier

1897 Burgons Coffee

1878 Burgon Tea

1897 Seymour Mead Tea

The employees were well treated, there was a profit sharing scheme, not only that for every £20 spent at the store in a year, customers received one fully paid ordinary share, which paid a guaranteed dividend of 5%, infact the dividend paid in 1913 was 6.25%. If less than £20 was spent, the accumulated purchases were carried forward to the next year.

The head office was in the India Buildings on Oxford Road with branches as far afield as St Annes On Sea, Blackpool, Bakewell, Matlock and Buxton. There was a branch at 52, Heaton Moor Road, on on Stockport Road in Levenshulme and at 108 Barlow Moor Road in Didsbury.

Burgon’s Heaton Moor Store – The Four Heatons Through Time – Phil Page, Ian Littlechilds

Burgon Stores – Prestwich, Denton and the Supply Store at Cheadle

Around 1895 Charles is appointed a director of the Prince Shipping Line in Sunderland. This may have been through his connections. The Prince Line was formed by James Knott, the son of a successful North East Grocer. James started as a shipbroker in 1875 but by 1878 he realised the big money was in ownership. By 1891 the line had 47 steam ships.

Interestingly James Knott took advantage of the boycott of Liverpool shippers of the newly opened Manchester Ship Canal by using the canal. Charles Scott was one of the first directors when the company incorporated in 1895 with a capital of 50,000 £10 shares. Both Charles and James attended the opening of the canal in October 1894, and by 1900 he was the chairman of the Line, as well as a director of the Manchester Ship Canal Company – as was a former inhabitant of Bank Hall and the Towers in Didsbury, Sir Joseph Leigh.

In 1897 Charles embarked on the Creole Prince as she left Salford Docks for the inaugral sailing of the Mediterranean line from Manchester to Egypt and the Holy Land. Not only was the Mediterranean line a money spinner for passengers, it also gave Manchester a ready supply of Egyptian Cotton.

The profits in 1900 were £141,000 (2019 £17.3m) and a healthy dividend of 7.5% was paid.

Charles and Mary at West Bank

We have a number of photgraphs of West Bank from Charles and Mary’s days there.

West Bank at the beginning of the 20th century

Charles died a wealthy man at West Bank on 2 January 1913, he was certainly a canny businessman. He had built a successful chain of grocers and was good employer and recognised the value of quality. He left £210,768-2/4 in his will (£24.1m in 2019). Mary died earlier in 1906.

Whilst much of his fortune went to his family, he rewarded his company secretary, general manager and company clerk with a bequest of preference shares, as well as leaving money to his gardener and coachman. He left £3000 to the Mary Ann Scott Memorial Home for the Blind in Old Trafford of which Charles was a Trustee.

His successor at the helm of Burgons was a Burgons man, who had worked his way up from the shop floor at the St Mary’s branch. His successor on the Prince Line as Chairman was Daniel Clifton, a Stockport brewer, of Mile End Hall.

Charles and Mary had thirteen children. Emily Birks Scott died in infancy in 1864, and William Edward Scott lived from 1866 to 1880.

Alfred Henry Scott (1868-1939) was a councillor on Manchester City Council and in 1900 stood against Arthur Balfour, the First Lord of the Treasury in Manchester East, he was unsuccesful, and this was despite a campaign of lobbying and court cases funded by his father to prevent Balfour from standing stretching back to 1892.

Alfred Henry Scott (1806-1939) Wikipedia

He stood as a radical, supporting Home Rule for Ireland, the Temperance Movement, Nationalisation of Land, Railways and Mines and the abolition of the House of Lords. He was eventually elected for Ashton Under Lyne in 1906 and held his seat until 1910, when he was defeated by Max Aitken (Lord Beaverbrook to be). He subsequently moved to London and attempted unsuccessfully to be elected there, and retired to Thanet in Kent where he became an alderman and JP, he died on 17 July 1939.

Nellie Scott (1869-1942) married Llewellyn Birchall Atkinson, a director of an Electrical Cable Manufacturer in Buckinghamshire. She retired to Devon after living in Breconshire, Surrey and Buckinghamshire. She may have had an interest in Wagnerian Opera.

Nellie Scott

Mary Alice Scott only survived nine months, dying in March 1872.

Charles Archibald Scott was born on 7 August 1872 and he followed his father in the Tea trade, marrying Beatrice Sarah Norforlk first, then Florence Kate Hayler in 1919 after Beatrice’s death. They moved to Vancouver in British Columbia where he was like his father a grocer, tea merchant but also a tea blender and real estate broker. He died on 9 July 1932 in North Vancouver.

Charles Archibald Scott

Dorothy Scott (1873-1933) married Dr Hugh James Dickey, an Irish surgeon resident in Heaton Mersey. They lived at Ovoca, on Didsbury Road which is to this day a GP’s practice in the area before moving to Buckinghamshire.

Millicent Scott (1874-1963) married James David Bell who was a cloth salesman, they moved to Devon then Worthing in Sussex.

Joseph Frederick Scott was born on 10 October 1876. He first set up a printing company, but then enlisted in the Imperial Yeomanry in 1900. He did not stay there long and marred Annie Christian Matthews in 1903 moving to Southport where he established a restaurant. He died in Liverpool at the Northern Hospital in 1954.

Joseph Frederic Scott

James Edwin Scott (1879-1939) became a grocer and tea merchant like his father and married Doris Burton. His sister Kate (1879-1952) remained a spinster all her life, as did Margaret Elsie (1880-1961).

Finally Marion Scott married Adam Gordon MacLeod and lived from 1888 to 1977, when she passed away in Wiltshire.

Both Burgons the Grocers and Seymour Mead were bought by Moores stores of Sunderland which was founded by William Moore in 1907. Moores was eventually bought up in 1972 by Cavenham foods which was part of James Goldsmith’s empire. Burgons and Seymour Mead were both trading under their names until the early 1970s in the Manchester and Stockport areas.

Copyright 2019-2024 Allan Russell

The Big Houses Of The Heatons: West Bank – Part Three: Mortimer Lavater Tait

Alfred Orrell left West Bank around 1846. Our next inhabitant did not live in the house for long, as on 20 May 1848 the contents are placed up for auction in the Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser. The auction taking place on 25 and 26 May. The house is to be let at the same time, being in the possession of one Mortimer Lavater Tait. A full description of the contents and order of sale is given in the article below.

1530-manchester-courier-20-may-1848-west-bank-house-and-contentsDownload

West Bank at that date had a drawing room with large chimney, dining room containing Spanish mahagony chairs and table, a breakfast room, entrance hall staircase and landing, again with mahagony chiffonier and tables, kitchen and scullery, butler’s pantry a dressing room and six upstairs bedrooms. In the gardens there was everything the hi tech gardener would need including a Budd’s Patent Mowing Machine (invented by Edwin Beard Budding in October 1830 who wrote in his patent  Country gentlemen may find in using my machine themselves an amusing, useful and healthy exercise).

The Budding Mower

Mortimer Lavater Tait was not staying, possession of the house was immediate after the sale of contents. He had been bankrupted and needed the funds to pay off his creditors.

Mortimer Lavater Tait was the son of William Watson Tait and Jane Danson. William was a Liverpool Merchant who had been born in 1771 at the then innovative British Lying In Hospital in Holborn, London – one of the first maternity hospitals. As befits such a birth, Mortimer came from a well to do family who lived at Livesey Hall in Wavertree. This house was in what is now Newsham Park.

Newsham House Liverpool – Formerly Livesey Hall

William married Jane Danson (1781-1848) in 1802 in Bolton Le Sands.

William Watson Tait

William was a ship owner and broker. He had many branch offices and warehouses carrying out his trade between the West Indies and the European ports of the North Sea. During the Napoleonic wars he mistakenly captured a Dutch Vessel, believing we were at war with the Netherlands. William’s mistaken belief and a subsequent case at the Prize Court in Liverpool lost him a lot of money in compensation payments. Following that there was the failure of his correspondant in Hamburg, Herr Sonntag, due to levies enforced by General Marshal Davout of Napoleon’s army during the French occupation of Hamburg. This was unfortunate also for his daughter Susan, who had been christened Susan Sonntag Tait in his honour. All of this forced the sale of Livesey Hall.

The family moved to Manchester. He was discharged from Bankruptcy in 1811 and recovered as a businessman as in 1825 was appointed secretary of the Manchester Ship Canal Company.

This was the first attempt at a Manchester Ship Canal, not the second successful one.

There had long been a desire of Manchester merchants to have an easy route to the sea. The Mersey and Irwell navigation had partially solved these problems, but in the early 19th century Liverpool was not the major port it became, and most traffic went via the Dee. Parkgate on the Dee was the major embarkation point to Dublin and Ireland, and therefore proposals were made for the first Manchester Ship Canal from Parkgate, passing along the Cheshire side of the Mersey, crossing the Wirral Canal, through Lymm and Altrincham to Didsbury and onwards to Manchester where it was to end in Hulme by the barracks. The company was to raise £1m in 100,000 shares of £10. At a meeting held in the Old Exchange in Manchester it was resolved to build a navigable ship canal capable of bearing vessels of 400 tons .. and upwards to communicate with the Irish Sea direct from Manchester.

Needless to say, Liverpool was not impressed and the Liverpool Kaleidoscope expressed their scepticism on 19 April 1825, by invoking the Monarch of the seas – Neptune – to speak on their behalf.

The Monarch, indignant at what he called treason

And contrary too, to the dictates of reason

Advis’d them in future to stick to their Jennies

And in aping their betters not make themself ninnies

“And as for your ditch there, why take it for granted

My protection in this case will never be wanted”

Clearly Liverpool’s sense (or is it realisation) of inferiority to Cottonopolis goes back a long way. The bill went to Parliament, coincidentally, in the same session as the railway bill for the Liverpool Manchester route on 21 March 1825. It eventually was passed by a Commons majority of one, but failed in the Lords.

The Dawpool Docks for the Manchester and Dee Ship Canal

His endeavours failed him once again, and in 1828 he was once again made bankrupt in another Liverpool venture. William died in 1851 at Robert Street in Ardwick. We would have to wait nearly 70 years for another Heaton Mersey connection to put egg on firmly on the faces of our Liverpool cousins.

William and Jane had at least twelve children. They were both extravagantly named and many well travelled, befitting their merchant father.

The first, Augustus Danson Tait died in infancy in 1803. Jane Sonntag Tait (1804-1882), named for the Hamburg merchant, was his second child. She first set up as a milliner in Liverpool but that did not succeed and in 1834 she married William Cawkwell (1807-1897) who went on to become the General Manager of the London and North West Railway.

William Cawkwell, General Manager LNWR by Hubert Von Herkomer – National Railway Museum

Augustus Henry Tait (1806-1883) married Ann Hogg and they emigrated to the USA, he died in Hastings New York on 19 December 1883. His brother Ferdinand Adolphus was born in 1808 and went to Brazil where he married Clara Da Silva Barbosa and had two children by her, before parting from her and marrying Elizabeth Trevilla Richard back in England, having five more children and emigrating to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where he died in New Orleans in 1860.

The next child Dover Ashurst Tait was born in 1809 at Livesey Hall and died in 1834 in Mehattan, Mexico.

Mortimer Lavater Tait was born on 28 October 1810 in Bolton Le Sands. He married first Ann Hood (born 1808 in Lougborough) at St Nicholas in Liverpool on 28 September 1834, and they moved to Manchester where they lived on Broome House Lane in Eccles in 1841, before moving to George Street, Manchester (now in China Town) in 1844, where he has an interest in a cotton mill on Mosley Street as well as something intriguingly called the Mortimer Tait Railway Company.

In 1846 we find him at West Bank with Ann, and he is running Heaton Mersey Bleachworks with Samuel Stocks (who had been in business at the same factory with John Stanway Jackson).

Heaton Mersey Bleachworks 1831 by A Fraser 1786-1865 – Lancaster Museums

In 1847 this business failed and a fiat in bankruptcy was ordered, this forced the sale of the possessions at West Bank and the letting of the house, and he moved to a property he called The Cottage in Heaton Mersey. Whether this is a small cottage or a nod at a house the size of Alfred Orrell’s residence in Grasmere I can’t say.

However, by 1854 whatever the size of his residence, he has overcome his troubles and is once again at Heaton Mersey Bleachworks, and he is living on St James’ Street in Manchester. Ann died around 1851 and on 24 July 1860 he married Mary Danson in Regent’s Park, London, and they settled on New Road in Heaton Moor. Obviously once more a succesful man, by 1857 he is respected enough to serve on the Grand Jury for the January Quarter sessions at Salford.

Mortimer continued his association with the Heaton Mersey Bleachworks into the late 1860s before retiring to Barrow Mount in Ramsbottom and then Bold Street in Heysham near Morecambe after Mary’s death in 1872, where he died on 2 March 1893.

Mortimer is buried at St John in Heaton Mersey together with both of his wives.

Mortimer Latimer Tate, Ann Hood and Mary Danson’s resting place at St John Heaton Mersey.

The next child born to William Watson Tait and Jane Danson was Constantia Elizabeth Tait (1812-1891) she married Dr Joshua Rowbottom, FRCS, at the Collegiate Church in Manchester on leap year day 1848. They lived together on Union Street in Ardwick. They subsequently moved to New Zealand, where Joshua died in March 1881 and Constantina moved back to her family roots in Lancashire.

Alfred John Tait was born in 1814 and married Susannah Williams in Liverpool in 1836, but he died young in Manchester in 1845 aged 31. He was buried at Ardwick Cemetery.

William Arthur Tait (1817-1865) married Dorothy Maria Chester and they moved to Oporto where he became partner in a Port Wine Lodge, Rawes & Tait, before running it under his own name. Dorothy died in 1863, and he married Margaret Page in the British Consulate in Oporto.

Through the years the Tait label has undergone a few mergers, but is now sold under the marque Velloso & Tait, previously it was Stormonth and Tait, and supplied the necessary port to Ernest Shackleton on his expedition to the Antarctic.

Williams oldest son, William, carried on the family trade and purchased Casa Tait in Oporto, which today houses a museum of numismatics. William Jr was a keen student of flora and fauna, and introduced many plants to Portugal.

Casa Tait, Oporto copyright Francisco Restivo

Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait (1819-1905) entered the Agnew and Zanetti Art store in Manchester aged 12. Agnew and Zanetti were famous for framing paintings by well known Victorian Artists.

He soon developed an interest in art and between 1845 and 1848 he specialised in lithographs of railway subjects. There are a lot out there. It is worth searching, I especially recommend Views On The Manchester & Leeds Railway.

Crewe Station, Victoria Station Manchester and Stockport Viaduct by A F Tait

Attending an exhibition in Paris he became aware of the Americas and emigrated to New York and established himself as a professional artist, where he attracted the attention of the lithographers Currier and Ives (who are namechecked in the popular 1948 song Sleigh Ride) In 1858 he was elected a full member of the United States National Academy of Design.

He specialised in animal pictures and illustrations of the American West.

Autumn Morning on Lake Raquette, An Early Start and Playmates by A F Tait.

Being an artist he married many times, firstly to Marian Cardwell in Liverpool, then to Mary Jane Polly Bortoft in 1873 and finally to Emma Hough in 1882 and He died in Yonkers in 2006 and remains popular, one of his paintings sold for $167,300 in 2006.

Maria Louisa Tait (1821-1870) died in St Pancras London, and finally Sarah Tait (1827-1827) died in infancy.

Returning to Mortimer Lavater Tait, he and Ann Hood had eleven children.

His first son, Mortimer Dover Tait (1836-1918) emigrated to Australia and maintained the family railway connections by becoming a Station Master in Jondarayan near Toowoomba. He married Elizabeth Anderton shortly before emigrating He died suddenly, collapsing and expiring near Goggs Street in Toowoomba on 4 September 1918.

Maria Jane Tait, and Harry N Tait died in infancy. William Henry Tait served in the Indian Army, gaining a medal during the Indian Mutiny of 1857-1861 (just four years before my great grandfather served in Agra in India). He returned to the UK to become a farmer in Heaton Mersey, marrying Margaret Hull, and dying aged 40 in 1879 on the Isle of Man.

The next two child Ferdinand Morley Tait died in infancy in 1840.

Louisa Ann Danson Tait (1846-1917) married Thomas Newton Pearson a Heaton Mersey merchant.

The Reverend Herbert George Danson Tait (1846-1900) studied at Lincoln College in Oxford obtaining his MA in 1881 and becoming headmaster of Rossall Preparatory School in Fleetwood. He died of a heart attack whilst returning home along the sands on 14 January 1900 after performing divine service.

There were two Emily Jane Taits. The first was born in 1842 and died in January 1844, the second Emily Jane Tait lived from 1844 to 1914, and married her cousin Edward Paget Tait in Auckland New Zealand. They had three children and he died in 1903, Emily returned to England and married Charles Knight, and died in Blackburn.

Charles Lavater Cawkwell Tait (1848-1891) was another to be associated with the Railway Industry. After marrying Hannah Walker Moore in Whitehaven in 1871, he became manager of the East Midlands Railway Company and settled at the Cow and Hare in Fakenham before becoming a railway traffic manager in Liverpool and dying in 1891 in Birkenhead.

Finally the youngest Tait, Arthur Christopher (1850-1892) emigrated to Buenos Aires where he married Rudecinda Fonda and became a merchant. He had six children, two of which returned to England and were to die in their great great grandmother, Jane Danson’s home of Bolton Le Sands.

Mortimer Tait and his second wife, Mary Danson, did not have any children.

We remember Mortimer Tait these days in Heaton Mersey in Tait Mews, where Tait’s Buildings once were, where he once housed his apprentices for the bleachworks.

Copyright 2019-2024 Allan Russell

The Big Houses Of The Heatons: Bank Hall – Part Seven: Sir Joseph Leigh

Joseph Leigh lived at Bank Hall between 1886 and 1889. He was born in Ashton Under Lyne in 1841, the son of Thomas Baines Leigh and Mary Ann Linney. Thomas Leigh founded a cotton spinners in Stockport in 1851 at Bee Hive and Portwood Mills.

Joseph was educated at Stockport Grammar and at a young age he entered the family firm to help out because of his father’s failing health. Thomas Leigh died in 1857 and soon after Joseph was in overall charge of the firm.

On 30 December 1868 he married Alice Ann Adamson, the daughter of Daniel Adamson and Mary Pickard. Daniel was to become a close business associate of Joseph.

Daniel Adamson was born to Daniel Adamson and Nanny Gibson, the keepers of the Grey Horse Inn in Shildon, on 30 April 1820 near Durham. He was educated at the Edward Walton Quaker school and in May 1833 he started an apprenticeship at the Stockton and Darlington Railway. He and Mary Pickard married in 1845 at Aysgarth, at which time he describes himself as a farmer. However, a few years later he is working at the Hackworth Engineering works. The works were sold on the death of Timothy Hackworth in 1850, so Daniel moved to Stockport, where he became manager of the Heaton Foundry on Gordon Street in Heaton Norris. At this time Daniel and Mary are living on New Road in Heaton Norris.

Daniel Adamson 1820-1890

Daniel was both successful and precocious, he left the Heaton Foundry to set up the Newton Moor Iron works and they move to Back Lane in Newton, near Ashton Under Lyne.

The Adamson Iron works in Hyde

By 1871 he has a workforce of 250 men, and describes himself as a civil and mechanical engineer, and in 1872 he relocated to Johnsonrook Road. He had patents on 19 improvements to boiler design and used steel when other manufacturers would not.

His wealth at this point allowed him to move to the Towers in Didsbury. Pevsner calls The Towers the finest of all the Manchester Mansions, and it has a detailed history of its own, but that is for another time. It is still standing, and well worth the trip across the border into Didsbury.

The Towers, Thomas Worthington 1826-1909

On 27 June 1882 a number of people, including Joseph Leigh and Daniel Adamson (a director of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce by then) met at the Towers and agreed in principle to proceed with the building of a Manchester Ship Canal.

Daniel was elected chairman of the committee to promote the Ship Canal, and in the face of intense opposition from both the railway companies and the Port Of Liverpool – who would lose out on their monopolies, the Ship Canal Act was finally passed on 6 August 1885

The Shipping and Mercantile Gazette of 4 November 1882 sets out the economic case for the canal

While all (are) anxious to support the great railway interests which had done so much for them, yet they could not hide the fact that if they were to keep abreast of the times, they must possess means for carrying produce in bulk at the very lowest rates…. an Atlantic steamer carried 1,000 tons 1,000 miles at less cost than the railway for 100 miles, they had no fear the canal paying, if only it were made

On 8 August 1885 Daniel returned from Parliament to Didsbury to an enthusiastic reception at the Towers. It was arranged by the people of the village, bunting was festooned across the streets, an arch had been set up above the station holding a portrait of Daniel, with the inscription, A Well Deserved Success on one side, and Lancashire’s Future Greatness on the other. The Newton factory band played him in with See The Conquering Hero Comes the procession proceeded to the Didsbury Hotel, where a lorry was standing carrying a boat, The Daniel Adamson crewed by a boy and a girl in nautical clothing.

Daniel then proceeded to a rousing speech which drove the crowd wild. The Manchester Courier reported on 10 August 1885

I am rejoiced at this reception, because it will tell our Liverpool friends that it is an untruth to say that Lancashire is weary of the fight. If I may judge by what I see this day, Lancashire is only just beginning to fight. We have fought one of the greatest battles ever contested (Cheers) and won that battle in spite of the opposition of strong and powerful corporations. – a struggle prolonged for a period beyond all precedent (Cheers) Our opponents said that we could not find the money, but if they might judge from the demonstration the money could be found three times over (Cheers) Our Liverpool friends might at once take notice that the sixteen millions sterling which they have invested is in some danger. (Laughter). When we have got the money we want to construct the canal with, we should invite our Liverpool friends to sell to the Ship Canal Company their docks and warehouses. The property in which sixteen millions has been invested at Liverpool is not after the passing of the Canal Bill worth more than eight millions, and I shall not be prepared to offer more for it.

I think that day it was Manchester 4 Liverpool 0. In the Towers a celebration meal was held.

A prospectus was issued for 725,000 £10 shares at par in 1886 with Daniel as Chair of the Ship Canal Company and Joseph Leigh as a director.

Prospectus 1886 Ship Canal Company Illustrated London News

Unfortunately failing health meant that by 1887 Daniel had to retire and was unable to cut the first sod, nor did he see the canal completed. Daniel Adamson died on 13 January 1890 at the Towers, and is buried at Southern Cemetery.

A blue plaque can be seen on the Towers, commemorating him

However, Joseph Leigh did see the canal completed. Let’s return to him. Joseph continued as a director and promoter of the Ship Canal Company, and was present at Eastham Ferry on 11 November 1887 when the first sod was cut for the Canal.

After his marriage to Alice, they first lived at Beech Villa on Glossop Road in Marple, before moving to Brinnington Hall around 1881 and living at Bank Hall approximately 1886-1889

Between 1884 and 1889 he served as Mayor of Stockport for a record four times. He was an enthusiastic promoter of education and founded Stockport Technical School in 1889, which later became Stockport College. He was also a staunch supporter of Stockport Sunday School, attending first for lessons then rising to teacher and eventually Trustee.

In 1889 Joseph showed his textiles at the Paris Exhibition and so impressed were the French that they made him a Chevalier of the Legion Of Honour. The French did like him, as he visited Paris again in 1903 and was awarded this silver plaque by Monsieur Lansessan, the editor of Le Siecle.

Alice also had shipping connections, and in June 1889 she launched the ship Alice A Leigh at Whitehaven, which was capable of reaching Australia in 100 days, at the astonishing speed of 330 miles per day.

The Alice A Leigh Whitehaven

By 1891 he and Alice have moved from Bank Hall to Tabley House, in Tabley Park near Knutsford.

Tabley House

In 1892 he was elected Liberal MP for Stockport, and represented the seat between 1892 and 1895 during which time he was knighted for Services to the Ship Canal, and was present in May 1894 when Queen Victoria opened the Canal. He continued with local causes, becoming Chairman of Stockport Technical School in 1897.

He successfully contested the 1900 election to stand once more as Liberal MP for Stockport until 1906, and with his wealth moves into the Towers in 1908, as well as having a seaside residence at 26, North Promenade, St Anne’s On Sea.

In 1908 he is Deputy Chairman of Williams Deacon’s Bank, and President of the Manchester Board of Trade, he continued his association with the Ship Canal, entertaining journalists in September of that year, who were amazed to see the large steamships.. and smaller craft which seemed to cling like tentacles to every nook of the roomy docks. (the most) interesting item of the three hours voyage was the inspection of the large shed at number 8 dock, where were stored countless bunches of bananas. Elders and Fyffe Limited now have a fleet of steamers constantly bringing this nutritious food from various parts of the tropics to the United Kingdom, and it is interesting to note that Manchester… supplies all the territory North of Birmingham … a cargo is the equivalent of about five hundred railway truck loads.. The party on its return to Trafford Wharf was conveyed by special electric cars ….to the Midland Hotel where Luncheon was served.

Sadly, nineteen days after that outing Joseph died at The Towers on 22 September 1908. T & J Leigh continued trading until 1960, however cotton was still spun at the mill until 1969.

Dame Alice moved to Yorkshire after Joseph’s death but continued visiting St Anne’s dying at Duneside, on the South Promenade in 1927. She was buried at All Saint’s in Marple.

Alice and Joseph had seven children between them.

Frederick Adamson Leigh was born in 1872 at Tabley Hall, and died young at Lancaster in 1898.

Thomas Herbert Leigh was born in Marple in October 1873, in 1894 he became a lieutenant in the 7th Lancashire, Manchester Artillery, and commanded an Artillery brigade during the First World War. He served in the Home Guard in World War II , dying on 19 January 1942, at Holly Rough in Chelwood Gate, Essex.

Alice Mary Leigh was born in 1875 in Marple, she lived with her mother after Joseph’s death, taking the waters with her in Harrogate in 1911. During the First War she earned Distinguished Conduct Medals as a member of the Canteen Worker Corps and the French Red Cross. She died in 1958 in Cheshire.

Joseph Egerton Leigh (1876-1959) followed his father into the cotton industry, becoming a cotton spinner in Whitby. He served in the First War as Captain and Lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery. He married Kathleen Doris Padfield in 1920 in Jesmond, ending his days in Torquay.

Joseph Egerton Leigh

Oswald Bowes Leigh was born in 1877 and was still living with his mother in 1911 aged 34. He married Beatrice Garvey in 1937 in Kirton Lindsay, she was a Vicar’s daughter and aged 37 , 23 years his junior. He died soon after in Brigg, Lincolnshire in October 1941, aged 64.

Oswald Bowes Leigh marries Beatrix Mary Garvey in November 1937

Adamson Lennox Leigh (1878-1968) married Enid Kathleen Elwis in Balby near Doncaster in 1924, In 1928 he founded Healy Mouldings, a Bakelite moulder in the East Midlands, retiring in 1963. and dying in Sutton Coldfield aged 90 on 20 July 1968.

Finally Kathleen Marguerite Leigh (1880-1920) married Percy Augustus Moore in 1902 in Manchester.

Joseph Leigh has one monument still in Stockport, Joseph Leigh House on Wellington Street, built in 1881, now used for affordable housing. It was built as the Reform club, with funds supplied by Joseph Leigh and was once Peaches Nightclub. At least he is remembered, though few will know why.

Joseph Leigh House, Wellington Street, Stockport

Copyright 2019-2023 Allan Russell

Turn Right At Liverpool And Keep Walking- Day 29 – West Kirby To Neston – 3 May 2017

A lovely fine morning setting out from West Kirby and beautiful blue clear skies with long views of Hilbre, Hoylake and Wales

And of course West Kirby itself as I walk around the boating lake:

I’m soon out of town and waling along the cliffs which overlook the Dee. It really is a more sedate river than the Mersey.

Obviously there are a few people with the same idea of a walk on such a pleasant spring day.

It is a day full of great views and peaceful strolling , half along the beach and half along the old railway line that used to go to Hooton.

You could be fooled at times that this is an estuary, it looks so seaside like

An unusually named bridge on the railway path piques my curiosity

There’s a path with signs to the Dungeon, so how can I resist. Turns out the dungeon is a wooded valley with a small waterfall, Dungeon derives from Denge, meaning land by a marsh, still it is an worthwhile diversion.

A few miles further down the path I reach Parkgate, which is a total revelation and has become a firm favourite for Mrs R and I to visit. It was once the major seaport for traffic to Dublin until the Dee silted up, but in its Georgian heyday it hosted Handel, and Lady Hamilton, it was once even considered back in 1825 as the starting point for the proposed Manchester Ship canal.

The Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser of 24 September 1825 has a full description of the proposed route and costings. That would really have hacked the Scousers off had we done this. Unfortunately it never got off the ground. It is on columns three to four of the attached.

Manchester Ship canal route and costings

However, today Parkgate is a lovely destination with a great Fish and Chip shop. It still shows traces of its maritime past, and although the tide very rarely reaches the shoreline (when it does the place is overrun by rats fleeing the water)

I had the chips on the sea wall. It is my firm belief that these are the best fish and chips I have ever tasted. I commend Parkgate Chippy to all visitors. I hear the restaurants are good too, but I cannot believe they can surpass this:

Of course if you don’t want to overlook the estuary, then you can dine in. After lunch it was a look around the village.

It is a very affluent place, as the cricket club pavillion demonstrates

After that, a quick descent into Neston to catch the train back, via a convoluted route, to West Kirby. Nine miles today, but another walk with great views

Copyright 2019 Allan Russell

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Turn Right At Liverpool And Keep Walking- Day 25 – Frodsham To Ellesmere Port – 7 April 2017

In a better mood today, and Frodsham looks nicer in the early spring sunshine. Park up at the station and partake of a coffee before setting off on my next stage. First thing of interest on the High Street is a telephone box

A blue plaque tells me it is a K4 “Vermillion Giant” designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, only 50 were made, and this is one of four which survive. It is also Grade II listed . Frodsham seems to be suffering the same fate of all towns, pubs going out of business, once the centre of a community, they are slowly dying out, only the strongest surviving. Still I suppose they lasted longer than Blockbusters.

a mile or so down the road I come to Helsby, and its fine Victorian Church of St Paul, designed by John Douglas, Chester architect, building and renovating churches was one of his fortes.

Lest it be forgotten, I am trying to walk alongside the Manchester Ship Canal, I have largely abandoned my idyllic ideas of strolling along a towpath, after realising that horses would not have been in the plans to bring big ships up to the Port Of Manchester (I can remember just as a child seeing big ships at the docks) but the main reason that keeps me from the banks is the industry, and the biggest part of the industry here is the Stanlow Oil Refinery which appears after a stroll through the pleasant villages of Ince and Elton, it is quite a contrast. The refinery itself is a major UK one, producing one sixth of the country’s petrol requirements, and is linked to the UK pipeline network.

This part of the walk is quite a slug as I have to negotiate the (wide) grass verge of the A5117 for around three miles in order to reach the Ellesmere Canal. En route I did get the impression that someone was out to get me.

That achieved the rest of the journey is a pleasant stroll along the canal towpath. I am greeted with a burnt out tree stump:

After the busy road, it is pleasant to be passed by nothing more leisurely than the odd canal barge.

and some interesting Beatles related graffitti. Perhaps they do need help here.

Along the canal bank there is a shrine to a young mother, Ellia Arathoon who was brutally murdered her just six months earlier Fortunately, her killer was caught and jailed for life

Further down the canal, I pass some children, climbing a rusty bridge structure.

Before coming to Whitby basin I get a gimpse of the Manchester Ship Canal, River Mersey, and Speke Airport over on the far bank. Speke was the very first place I went to to go on a plane back in 1974.

Finally, I arrive at Speke basin, which was built to serve the Ellesmere canal and take traffic to Wales via the Llangollen canal. The grand scheme was never completed, but the basin is now home to the National Waterways museum, and I spend a happy hour looking around its exhibits. Most interesting was FCB18, a concrete barge built during the war, to overcome shortages. They were never popular, being brittle, and difficult to steer.

There is just a narrow strip of land separating the Mersey and the Canal at this point, and I had a short walk along the accessible canal side at least so I could finish this stage on the canal.

Liverpool was clearly visible in the distance.

After that, it was a walk into the centre of Ellesmere port, a quick visit to the station told me that trains were not frequent, but it was another example of fine railway architecture, so I decamped to the bus station and caught a bus back to Frodsham

Twelve miles covered today, and a much more pleasant walk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Turn Right At Liverpool And Keep Walking- Day 24 – Runcorn To Frodsham – 29 March 2017

Three things about this walk, it was a disaster, similar to day 23  more anon, secondly, I had intended to be seamless and walk across the Silver Jubilee Bridge this weekend (June 2019), as it was closed to pedestrians last time, only the Bridge is closed for repairs now until 2020 – I still have that 1 mile gap in my walk to complete, and it rankles. Thirdly I retired a week earlier. The incoming Chairman of Trustees started getting all bolshy to mark his territory, so I told him what he could do with his job. Best decision I ever made. Plus point also, I am not restricted to a few days each week for walking, I can choose my day based on the weather – of course in a few weeks hence, I realise that I need to check the weather before leaving – else I get soaked , but hey ho, we live and learn.

Can’t say I am overimpressed with the centre of Runcorn. The uncrossable bridge looms over the local co-op as I set off from the car park

Runcorn is a new town, but does have remnants of an older past as this building shows

Yesterday (9 June 2019) I passed an old Mersey Power substation in the car on my unsuccesful crossing attempt, shoulda taken a picture, but didn’t.

Walking out of town, we have a promising start, as I walk along the Runcorn & Weston Canal, which was intended to link the Weston Canal to the Bridgewater, it didn’t get much use and fell into decay. Much of it is filled in now.

However, because of the new Mersey Gateway bridge which is still under construction, they are laying a lot of new roads. Runcorn being a new town does not cater well for pedestrians, and I am continually blocked by roadworks as I try to meander to Frodsham (I was intending going further, but the meandering defeats me).

Everywhere I turn, I find my route blocked, it takes ages to progress. It doesn’t help that all the paths are short distance too, just designed to get you around estates, not out of them, so I find myself walking grass verges on roads that don’t seem to believe in road signs.

Eventually, I get out of Runcorn and into some countryside near Frodsham It is nicer here than Runcorn, and a milepost tells me that my destination is close.

The railway is to my right as I walk into Frodsham, in a wide viaduct

I cross the Weaver Navigation, and the Weaver

We are altogether more rural now. I don’t think I was greatly impressed with Frodsham after all this, as I didn’t take any pictures, although it did look a pretty little place. Perhaps it was not photogenic.

On the way back my troubles continued, the bus to Runcorn went nowhere near Runcorn, only stopping at Runcorn shopping centre (I think if John Betjeman had seen Runcorn shopping centre , he would have diverted his friendly bombs from Slough) before I abandoned it and found my way through the urban desolation Hampton Court that is Runcorn to a taxi rank, and a taxi back to my car.

A measly 8 miles. 3 if you are a crow.

 

 

 

Turn Right At Liverpool And Keep Walking- Day 23 – Wilderspool To Widnes– 31 December 2016

New Years Eve is probably not a good day to go for a walk. Today was not one. It is a dank day, not raining but heavily overcast and not a spot of sunshine.

Making my way to the start point I cross the canal thinking I can recross it a mile or so down the path. Bad mistake that, I can’t and I end up retracing my steps from my Warrington To Fidlers Ferry day, not only on the wrong side of the Canal, but on the wrong side of the Mersey. The day just all feels like this

I even trace back down the St Helens Canal, towards Sankey power station, it’s not an uninteresting walk, but not the one I had hoped. I am rapidly coming to the realisation that it is not possible to tack near to the Canal, because of all the big industry, which is why I had hoped there would be a crossing from this side, so future walks will have to compromise a little.

The Mersey is still majestic at this point:

Passing Fidlers Ferry I see the new crossing has come on apace, although still not open, it is starting to look a little more like a bridge:

I arrive back in Widnes, at least hoping to be able to cross the bridge there, but find it is only open to motor traffic, so I have failed on that count too, My one note of optimism is that the Silver Jubilee bridge to Runcorn will reopen to pedestrian traffic in Summer 2020, although it does look like during that time, it is open to walkers at weekends. I will have to give that a go, as the walk from Widnes to Runcorn is a gap in my trail.

Needless to say I am not in a mood to see in 2017, as it turns out 2017 is a good year though.

Still I covered twelve miles today.

Copyright Allan Russell 2019

 

 

Turn Right At Liverpool And Keep Walking- Day 22 – Warburton To Wilderspool– 3 December 2016

Tram to Altrincham then bus to Warburton to recommence the walk. It’s a bit of a dull morning but the first part of the walk is easy, down the Warrington to Altrincham railway (abandoned of course). Zipping under the M6 at Thelwall, passing an apple tree  still unpicked, but bereft of leaves.

Thelwall village itself is very twee and Miss Marpleish. The post office especially so:

Thelwall has 30 listed buildings within its boundaries, quite an achievement, no wonder it looks so nice. After Thelwall, I get down to the canal again for a very short stretch at Thelwall ferry

The ferry was built as a result of the Canal, and used to be called the Penny Ferry, it still operates 365 days per year. Unfortunately I am not long on the canal, and it’s back into the village to pass a couple more listed buildings. Including the Grade I listed church.

After a short diversion I do get back to the canal at Latchford locks.

Crossing the canal here was a bit hairy, as you can see there is no guard rail along the lockside, and it is a deep drop into quite nasty murky water. Latchford itself appropriately means boggy stream ford in old English. The canal is wide enough here, with a passing place for two ocean liners to pass each other. Thats 1950s style liners, not the modern ones.

 

I number these images when I load them up. Appropriately the murky water shot chances to be number 666!

I choose not to cross, mainly because my route continues on this side. I will make the mistake of crossing later on, and end up on the wrong side. However under Latchford viaduct (1893) and onwards.

The viaduct is considered unsafe and is closed. The last goods train ran in 1985 over it, but it was closed to passenger traffic in 1962.

Warrington is about the only stretch of the canal that is accessible for any distance. It is also heavily bridged, being a major town, there being three swing bridges which still operate over the water.

My walk finishes at Wilderspool, with a view back down the canal.

Eight miles covered today.

 

Turn Right At Liverpool And Keep Walking- Day 20 – Peel Park to Eccles – 21 October 2016

Tram and train to Salford Crescent, then walking along the Crescent, the buildings here reflect how prosperous Salford once was and even what commerce and industry thrived here:

 

I have never been on this stretch of the Irwell, even though it is inner city (I suppose intra city is a better description as it does define the border between the twin cities), but there is sign of revival with cranes,  the new build comes I guess for more appartments to feed the demand for Manchester’s job market. There was some controversy around branding the Chapel Street Salford renovations as Manchester, they still have not got over the racecourse I described last time.

They have greened the area around here, and although it doesn’t look it in the picture, the park to my left gives a pleasant air to the walk, and what once was Ewan MacColl’s Dirty Old Town, looks spruced up and preparing for the future, I wish her well.

Another bridge , but this time not praising a local Alderman

But in the middle, I see I have spoken too soon:

Staying on the Salford side, it is strange to see familiar landmarks peeping out from unusual angles.

There are a few birds on the river, plenty of ducks, and even a solitary heron:

As I am approaching Manchester, the river becomes harder to follow, and I think how good an idea it would be if they could build a riverside walk through the canyon of the buildings, it would have to be suspended, but it could open up a interesting walk through the centre. After all the technology is there, as is some of the infrastructure.

The Irwell from the Cathedral once was used for pleasure trips to Pomona and beyond, and that was when it was an unpleasant sewer, so it is not so far fetched, river taxis did make the journey recently, but I think they died for lack of council support.

Crossing into town at Wellington Bridge, I have to make my way around Victoria, which straddles the Irk at this point, and blocks off access to the Manchester side.

Just after Victoria there is the Palatine building. This has now been demolished by Chethams who never liked it, but it was built as a Railway Hotel to serve the newly constructed Victoria Station, it was not the first of its kind, but certainly was one of the earliest, The top floor was accessible by a long ramp and was used to stable horses! Children at the school could see horses peeking out of the windows. A shame it has gone, I am not sure that demolishing it has improved the view of the school, just given them a better view of the river.

It’s then a zig zag across town as I try to keep as near to the river as possible, but as you can see, we will never get a riverside like other cities as people built right against it.

Little bits of history can be found in surprising statues. Joseph Brotherton (1783-1857) was Salford’s first MP, and helped establish Peel Park,  campaigned against the death penalty, opened a fund to support victims of the Peterloo massacre, see even my walks coincide with my Heatons blogs, having met Hugh Hornby Birley recently. His wife Martha wrote the first Vegetarian Cookbook – Vegetabel Cookery.

Having done so much for Salford, the council gave him a statue in Peel Park, but then dismantled it in 1954 and sold it for scrap in 1969. Fortunately the scrap dealer was aware of his importance, and the rivalry between the cities, so he persuaded them to buy it, and now he looks balefully across to the city he once represented which thought so much of him that they scrapped his statue.

The Spinningfields part of the River has been opened up as that area becomes Manchester’s answer to Canary Wharf (and it is growing quickly, every time I visit there is more there to do and see. There are restaurants along the riverside here and even a river walkway.

A little further along though is the Mark Addy, once a thriving pub for city types, and one which sold mammoth cheese ploughmans (totally impossible to finish in one sitting , they gave you a doggy bag), but damaged by floods in 2015, so looking folorn and closed though.

There are plans to reopen it, but apparently it will be a while, even now three years after this picture it is still closed.

A little further down there are works in progress for the Ordsall Chord, to link Piccadilly and Victoria stations, thankfully this is now open.

The Bridgewater joins the river at this point, via the Hulme Locks branch canal.

Further down the river, having left the city, there is building work on Pomona Island, I know they are flats, and people wanted to leave it wild, but it was a tip, and life is once more breathed into Pomona, which once was a big leisure area for the good folk of Manchester

I am not sure where the Manchester Ship Canal starts, but the river is certainly becoming wider.  I take a quick diversion to take a photograph of Ordsall Hall, which stands almost lost in inner city Salford, dating back to 1251. Legend has it that the gunpowder plot was hatched here.

The route back at the river has been renovated, but apparently not very well.

One last look at the cityscape of Manchester,

And then it is onward to Salford Quays, which is fortunately not so derelict.

It is a little more populated here, there is even someone doing Tai Chi on the river path

I award her a Blue Peter Badge for effort

I guess my question as to the start of the Irwell is answered ahead as I see locks ahead

but no, it is still river beyond this point, but there is Centenary Bridge, opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth on 1 December 1994

After that it was a short walk into Eccles, a look at the church, and back to the tramstop next to Morrisons, aka Bettabuys in Coronation Street.

14 miles covered today, quite a good walk. A heck of a lot to see, and much I had never seen before, even though I have been visiting Manchester for all of my 60 years, and also how much has changed in the short time since I made this walk, the Palatine gone, the Ordsall chord up, Flats on Pomona Island, many more flats built, and cranes everywhere.

Copyright 2019 Allan Russell

Turn Right At Liverpool And Keep Walking – Day 6 Fidlers Ferry To Hale – 21 October 2015

It’s a drizzly morning as I arrive at Fidlers Ferry once more. The river is high

I can’t follow the river at this point, so it’s back onto the canal, which becomes navigable at this point (there is a branch out to the river) although some of the boats seem to have given up the ghost.

It’s easy going today, the towpath shadows the course of the river and I catch glimpses of it through hedges.

The canal passes Fiddlers Ferry power station which looks ominous in the low cloud. It is rather monotonous walking past here, as it is visible from long away – you can see it from the Peak District – I spotted it from the top of Goyt Valley last week. I don’t know why but the place seems to be spelt with one “D”, but the power station with 2 “D”s

The cranes constructing the Mersey Gateway bridge are visible as well, but shrouded also in low cloud. The works divert me off the path into the centre of Widnes.

I have never been to Widnes before, always thinking it a dull Mersey suburb town, however, the centre is very attractive. I pass an old ICI building.

I’m only putting this up, because I did a lot of work for ICI Organics in the early 1980s and this building has been demolished for the Gateway works when I return down this path in 14 months time. The top if you can see it is inscribed “ICI General Chemicals”. The building served as the research laboratory, and is commemorated by a blue plaque at the Catalyst Museum in the centre.

In the centre , the canal reaches the Mersey, and makes for a fine vista over the sweeping river and railway bridge. It’s really much nicer than I expected it to be. I reach Runcorn on the other side in about 18 months and I can’t say the same for that place.

A walk through the old town gives equal rewards. Widnes has long relied on the Chemical Industry – the first factory was built there in 1847, it continues to be a major employer, and Catalyst, the only science museum in the UK devoted to Chemistry is based here.

Past the bridge the path continues towards Liverpool. I have a chat with a local remarking how impressive the whole area is around the river. He concurs but with a caveat. I am shortly to pass a pig rendering plant, and will know as soon as I approach by the smell

He’s right

Still, the muddy estuary and bridges over culverts and tributaries makes for nice photographs.

From here to Hale, I cover ground quickly, and can tell by low flying airplanes that I am near John Lennon International (or Pete Best airport as it used to be called). At Hale I make a note of my bus stop and return to Warrington via Liverpool (well it’s easier !)

Copyright 2018 Allan Russell