by Nick Colley, chairman of Northwich and District Heritage Society

FROM about 1880 most new buildings in Northwich town centre were built using a heavy timber frame bolted tightly together to combat the problem of subsidence which caused traditional brick buildings to crack and collapse.

The idea was if the ground subsided underneath the timber frame would lean into the hole, which could be filled in and the frame jacked up.

However, sometimes these timber-framed buildings were not just lifted, they were sometimes moved to a new location.

In the Bull Ring there stands an impressive black and white timber framed building that until recently was a bank.

When this was first built in the early 1900s it was a cafe called King’s Cafe. It not only served food and drink but was also used for trade union meetings and lectures and talks.

By the early 1920s the Bull Ring was suffering badly from subsidence. There was a pub called the Vine Tavern that was sinking and the road surface had been raised so that its ground floor doors and windows were now below the level of the ground.

The pub closed in 1921 and was sold to the local council who eventually demolished it.

The King’s Cafe was also suffering, and by 1926 the road had been lifted again and the cafe was entered down a flight of steps.

At this time it had been decided the road outside needed to be widened, but the cafe was in the way.

The only options were demolition or to attempt to move the building and its neighbour. The site of the Vine Tavern was now empty so a plan was put together to move the buildings to the vacant site.

At the end of July 1926 work began - to begin with the buildings were cleared of internal furniture and doors and windows were secured before the lifting process began.

Using hydraulic jacks they were lifted up in the air and then using timber rollers and greased slides were moved along the road to be repositioned to where the Vine once stood.

Incredibly they had been lifted more than eight feet up and 40 feet sideways before being set down on new foundations.

The buildings weighed more than 150 tons and the move took seven days, all without a pane of glass breaking or a roof slate breaking and without any twisting to door and window frames. Everything remained intact and undamaged.

If you compare the photographs you can see in the older view the building is closer to, and in line with Town Bridge, in the later one it is further away and at an angle.

For more local history photographs visit the Northwich History Past and Present Facebook group