A RADIO Northwich series delving into the history of the town 'from a storytelling perspective' has reached the Victoria era, in which the town boomed.
Northwich Now and Then's Industrial Revolution and Victorian period episode, on Friday, July 3, explored the town’s profound transformation through the 19th century.
Resident DJ and broadcast journalist, Mike Cooksley, was joined by local historian and prolific author, Paul Hurley, who used to write a regular history column for Northwich & Winsford Guardian.
The programme began by exploring how salt production in the town boomed at the beginning of this period when salt deposits were discovered away from the town centre.
Paul then explained how these discoveries, plus huge improvements in technology at the time, marked the beginning of a process which turned Northwich into what we know today.
He said: "The big salt barons became fabulously wealthy, but the new large-scale production caused serious problems in the form of underground chasms.
"On the upside, it made Northwich the salt capital of Great Britain, if not the world.
"Brunner Mond’s Winnington plant opened in 1873, which went on to be ICI, one of the largest and most successful companies in the world.
"It even had its own ships and railway, including thousands of wagons.
"There were also two shipbuilders here – Yarwood’s and Pimlott’s – despite being well inland, to service to booming salt industry’s enormous transportation requirements.
"It spelt the end of the old way of salt mining with a pick and shovel.
"But the subsidence issues this caused were so bad, people were known to have got up in the morning and have go upstairs to get out of the house because it had simply sunk.
"People started constructing buildings with crossed timbers so if they subsided, they wouldn’t collapse as a whole, but in bits.
"The buildings could also be jacked up and levelled again.
"The first library, built in the late 1800s, only last until about 1912, when it succumbed to subsidence.
"It had been presented to the town by Verdins, also salt barons."
Next, Mike was joined by Hannah Ryder, manager at the Lion Salt Works Museum, to discuss day-to-day life in Victorian times.
Hannah talked about how Northwich’s industrial boom impacted day-to-day life for families in the town.
She said: "For working-class people, who lived close to the centre of the town, conditions weren’t great.
"They would’ve been exposed to a lot of pollution, and a lot of noise.
"Families were a lot bigger then with maybe five or six children, sometimes all living in one room.
"Both parents would have needed to have worked, and sometimes even the children too.
"Many worked in the salt industry, or in boat building, or on the canals. There were plenty of jobs available in Northwich in the nineteenth century, which was quite fortunate.
"The unlucky one would have faced hard, labour-intensive routines.
"Victorians from all social classes valued productivity. They would’ve got up very early. But they also loved a drink.
"Men, women, and children all drank.
"One of the oldest pubs in Northwich is The Bowling Green, which is next door to what was Northwich Union Workhouse, now Weaver Hall Museum.
"The middle classes – mostly managers and professionals – lived further out in places like Davenham, but there weren’t very many of them around here.
"Their entertainment was balls, soirees, theatres, and music, but they might well have travelled into Manchester or Liverpool for these."
Northwich Now and Then returns to Radio Northwich on Friday, August 7, with its fifth episode, focusing on the town during World Wars One and Two.
The show airs at 1 pm.
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