5:00pm Monday 19th July 2010
I AM from Chester and while on a visit to Northwich, bought a copy of the Guardian.
Anyway, I am interested in local history and this mystery caught my eye. So my idea of what the betting shop was is as follows: Looking at Ray Pearson’s photo in the June 30 edition of the Guardian, the Victorian building, in Castle, looks to me as the Northwich bakery where baker and family lived over the top of the bakery and shop.
The carved figures are of how the bread is made.
In the first plaque the local farmer is shown showing local Cheshire wheat into the Cheshire soil.
The second plaque shows the farmer harvesting, cutting the corn with a hand held scythe.
In the third plaque the miller’s wife is shown gathering the corn and milling it into flour, bagging up and ready for use.
In the fourth plaque the baker is using this locally produced flour daily for fresh bread.
He also would have made pies and confectionery.
MIKE DIXON Seller Street, Chester.
Ron Newton, of Rudheath says that in 1913, Eric Leather was a baker and grocer at 63 Chester Road and that the figures came from the Saxon Lane brickworks off Darwin Street. A Mrs Leather took over in 1939.
Peter Coane of Weaverham remembers it as Muskett’s grocer’s shop when he was a child during the Second World War.
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.northwichguardian.co.uk/trade_directory/