IN RESPONSE to columnist Jeremy Craddock’s request for little known facts about Northwich.
About 15 years ago I wrote to the Guardian about the distinguished musicologist Percy Young, born in Northwich in 1912.
My letter appeared and drew a response from Don Marshall, the then Mid-Cheshire road safety officer, who said he remembered Percy Young as a boy, going on to say that he was born in Victoria Road, Northwich, in a house near to where the old Brine Baths used to be.
He was active right to the end, finally succumbing to pneumonia after a fall eight days short of his 92nd birthday. He is buried in York. He was married twice with three sons and a daughter from his first marriage, but I can’t unearth any information on them.
He attended my alma mater, Sir John Deane’s Grammar School, going on to impressive academic achievement and a career in several disciplines.
Percy Young gets a mention in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Music, no mean feat.
Do you think it might be worth trying to pinpoint his exact birthplace? He is just as important to the history of Northwich-born talent as the esteemed Robert Westall.
Ted Yarwood Address supplied
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