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Lock Street Memories

From Jean Shallcross

Dear John ( ed-Hitchenson) - Very many thanks for all the emails you have recently sent (they have given us a laugh) and many apologies for not replying sooner to your request about the Showrooms. It is nice to have the photos of all the Showrooms, it certainly brings back memories of some of them. The Lock Street photo of the long service awards ceremony, has Dot Goulding being presented with an award, she was the caretaker at Lock Street when I was there (1967-71) but she must have been at Lock Street some years to get an award, she is standing in front of Bob Edgeley who took John's post in the Drawing Office when John went to Sandiway House about 1961.
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MEMORIES OF LOCK STREET, NORTHWICH - JOHN SHALLCROSS

I started work at Lock Street as an apprentice in August 1944 in Sam Preston's team. and I retired on 31st December 1989 wiith almost 46 years service. My claim to fame was I caught a fish in the cable store cellar during the 1946 floods!!

I knew a lot about Northwich Showroom's early years when it was based at Lock Street. At the end of the war Billy Leslie was Manager and Miss Trampleasure was Cashier for electricity accounts. In the 1950's and 60's the Showroom Manager was Les Smith from Derby, he was a St. John Ambulance man, and formed a First Aid team which competed in the Electricity Council First Aid Competitions with some success - his team was Smith, Boden, Hampson, Brindle and Shallcross. During the 1950's male teams trained with male patients and ladies with lady patients but the Board's organizing Doctor changed the patients around and the Northwich Team co-opted Mary Tomlinson, a Showroom Assistant, as the training patient and all the "jelly fingers" were wiped away.

As things got back to normal after the war, a Demonstration Room was introduced next to the showroom with Miss Williams being appointed as the Demonstrator for the Board, Miss Williams married Eric Hillage, the Board's Commercial Artist, who in the 1950;s and 60's was based at Sandiway House. At that time the Board hired out cookers and grills and the showroom had a single story building in Lock Street which was damaged by subsidence (it was affectionately known as "Dizzy Cottage"). 3 members of staff worked in "Dizzy Cottage" Dick Williams and two ladies, and when items were returned from hire and needed refurbishment, they would be submerged in large acid baths to remove all the years of fat spillage. There was also a bench in the workshop where Bob Senior and the apprentices repaired irons, kettles etc., people brought these small items into the showroom for repair and anything left before noon was ready by teatime.

1955 saw the end of DC in Northwich, also in the mid 50's the network was stretched to the limit because a lot of homes converted from gas to electricity putting them on pre-war systems, so there was about five years work building substations in town and farms and small holdings were transferred from generators to mains supply. The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food had asked the Government if farms could be put on supply for a £3.10s. connection fee to help them to get on their feet following the war. On completion of the DC/AC changeover and network strengthening, MANWEB went on to standardize on three voltages 33kV, 11kV and MV. This was adopted in Northwich in 1955 as .1 - 3 core 11kV and .2 - 4 core feeders between substations, it was an extremely busy time.

In 1958 Northwich network was stable and it was time to introduce 33kV to the town - a 33kV cable with its associated pilot and telephone cables. A cable was connected to Line 94 at Riddings Lane substation and laid via Hartford, Chester Road, Castle, Lock Street and a crossing of the River Weaver at Leicester Street car park (a distance of two and a half miles).. A large substation was built where 33kV was transformed to 11kV and connected to the new Northwich network, This standardization carried on in the rural areas, odd voltages being replaced, including the unique 3.3kV overhead on Bostock Hall Estate with its tenant farms at Whatcroft.

John Jones and Bob Parry designed a light 11,000v line which was accepted by the Electricity Council and is now known as 1320 Construction - but that is another story!!
For contact please email Ed Quinn on the following e-mail.
Email: huntscross2@gmail.com