MYSTERY PHOTO #1

We believe this photograph to be out of copyright. If you own the copyright, or know who does, please let us know.

There are close on 200 photos in the Paul Hough collection and I recently spent a whole evening going through them in order to identify and label them. I knew, or could work out, what most of them represented but, as is inevitable with such a large collection of pictures, one or two were difficult to identify.

Here's one of them.

At first I hadn't a clue as to just which part of Middlewich this photo represented, so labelled it 'Mystery' and moved on. On taking a second look, however, I think I may know where the scene depicted in this photo is (or rather was).

I think it's the site of the current Tesco supermarket at the top of Southway. The building with the two windows, just in shot to the right, looks very much like F Coupe's Orchard Works, as seen in this 1972 shot.

The building immediately to the left of that, peering through the trees, looks like the top part of the shops and flats which run along present-day Southway. The roof of the 'industrial building', at the end of the row, since  replaced by Charlotte Rose florists, can just be seen partly masking  the windows of the flat above what was then Vernon's furniture shop. The building just to the left of the now vanished building in the centre of the photo is, I think, Barclay House.

That large building in the centre, which I've never seen before, seems, from this angle at least, to be divided into one large-ish house and a couple of cottages. If  I'm right about this, the tree just to the right of this building would be approximately where that present-day Tesco 'Pagoda' structure is, close to the public conveniences.

So what do we think? Am I on the right track, or not?

SEE ALSO: SOUTHWAY and TESCO ENTRANCE 1960s AND 2011

Facebook feedback:

• Susan Johnson 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  You may well be on the right track here Dave. Bit before my time but I do recall as a youngster that there used to be several very old buildings next to Alhambra etc that went from Wheelock Street and up to towards top of Southway, rememberthem being knocked down as were bit derelict. So the one on right of photo could be one of them? and the pathway that runs in front of it & in front of building foremost on left of photo could be what is Southway now? Just a thought!
• 
  
  

  Dave Roberts Thanks for that, Sue. I'm trying to find a photo I'm sure I posted on the 'Diary' which shows those old buildings at the bottom end of Southway, but it's not showing up in the index. I vaguely remember what the area was like but, as I say, that building in the middle of the photo is new to me.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  • • Peter Cox I agree it very much looks like F 
      Coupe & Sons.
      
      
      Clifford Astles 
      

      Dave, some more info for you re the above Photo of F Coupe & Sons, Orchard Works, Middlewich, Cheshire. The land it was built on was a small field and orchard. The field had a donkey on it some of the time,and the actual field either belonged to the large house (not in photo here, but was behind the Orchard building and was probably knocked down to build the building as it was positioned at the end, and in front of the older buildings in the picture. The "alley" which is still there today ran from the left hand side of the picture, then went in front of the old houses shown, down to Wheelock Street. The archard was often "raided" by myself and friends (from Sutton lane) when we went to the "pictures" at the Alhambra, which was the main source of entertainment for the town's youth , in those days. It would costs Nine old pence ( 2.0 pence in todays money).We would have to sit on benches at the front, not proper seats. We would also go to the mens toilet, un-lock the fire exit, and let the rest of the troup in without paying !!! There were 3 prices, 9 pence, one shilling, and one shilling and six pence for the best seat at the back.