DOWN THE LINE
A nostalgic journey along the old branch railway
from Waverton (Chester) to Whitchurch

A sheer delight with over 160 old photographs featuring Whitchurch, Malpas, Tattenhall, Broxton, Waverton and ‘Hill Country’, including Burwardsley, Harthill, Peckforton and Bickerton Hills.

The railway scenes are superb, notably one of Broxton Station, spread across two pages.

A chapter is dedicated to the local cheese industry, recalling when the Chester-Whitchurch-Nantwich triangle was the epicentre of Cheshire cheese-making; the Whitchurch Cheese Fair and champion local cheese-makers of former times are featured. Elsewhere we learn of the branch line’s first death, within three weeks of opening, on a crossing at Grindley Brook; the twenty-two carthorses called upon to get early construction back on track; and the very last passenger train with its own ‘undertaker’ to oversee the last rites.

And, as well as Wilfred Owen, who actually discovered his ‘poethood’ in Broxton Hills, there are revealing accounts of the Bickerton Copper Mines, the Candle Workshops, the Peckforton Water Works, Tattenhall’s long-forgotten Boys’ Home, the great fire at Carden Hall, Bishop Heber and Thomas Brassey.

RETURN TO INDEX PAGE