The stories that were making the headlines 100 years ago in Northwich...

100 years ago

THE parish council was warned not to underestimate the ‘great value’ of tar on the roads, as stone shortages threatened to stop the improvement of the town’s network.

The alderman, Mr Richardson, had been to London where the Road Control Board had given the town just half of what was needed.

The council agreed that the roads had been greatly improved by tar spraying, with work being carried out by German prisoners.

When a councillor told the committee he did not think they recognised the importance of tar, he was told ‘we have put on all we could’.

RESIDENTS were rapped for their ‘carelessness’ in misplacing ration books, with the Food Control Committee warning them there would be a charge of a shilling for any future replacements.

50 years ago

MARBURY Hall was hit by dry rot, and approval was granted for its demolition.

The 18th century building was described as having had a ‘chequered career’, with legend telling of the Marbury Ghost – an Egyptian lady who gallops through the moonlit woods on a white horse.

AN Antrobus poultry farmer described the hatching of a four-legged chick as ‘a five million in one chance’.

The bird was spotted in amongst the Thellow Heath Poultry Farm’s 50,000-plus chicks by farmer Tom Harrison’s 17-year-old son, Christopher.

25 years ago

THE British Waterways Clock and Bell Tower was given a new lease of life thanks to intricate repairs.

The tower was dismantled and painstakingly reassembled during 12 months of work.

It was hailed as an ‘extraordinary example of fine waterway architecture’.

A ‘STORMY’ debate was held over plans for a Morrisons warehouse at Lach Dennis.

Vale Royal council’s planning committee members went head-to-head, despite campaigners’ boycott.