|
IT IS normally Andrew giving information
after a visitor to "A Dabber's Nantwich" website has asked a
question. Here, Andrew is seeking the help of website visitors after
finding himself in need of information.
Andrew writes: “I have been
asked about the history of The Dowery,
in
Barker Street, Nantwich.
I have some . . . Among other things, I remember being weighed at the
clinic there when I was around five years old which would be around
1950.
"The clinic ran from at least the mid 1930s up to at
least 1972 and I would like to find out more about it.
"It
was run by Cheshire County Council and was, of course, before the
National
|
|
Health Service, which didn’t come in until 1948. I know that Mr Sheasby, the school dentist, was based there.
"I haven’t found out why it is called The Dowery. Certainly
the historian, James
Hall, who wrote a History of Nantwich, never mentions the name, so I think it is a late naming."
More recently, Cooper
Taylor accountants operated from
The Dowery. It is
now occupied by a firm
of solicitors.
Do any website visitors have any reminiscences of the clinic at The Dowery
or The Dowery itself? We would love to hear about them.
|
Members of staff of The Dowery pose
for a picture at the rear of the building around 1940.
Note the ornate gatepost in the
background, right.
There
are 60 nursing personnel pictured and we can name two.
Dora
Green is
fifth from
the left in
the front
row and
Muriel
Gilford is
third from
left in the
second
row from the
back.
l
More names
here
The picture
is from
Andrew's
personal
collection.
|
Left and below: convalescing
soldiers and
their nurses in the rear garden of The Dowery during the First World War.
In the foreground is the River
Weaver - at different levels in different seasons.
The river still flows past the
building, although The Waterlode - the town's inner ring road - has
been constructed between the garden and the river since the pictures
were taken.
Pictures courtesy of
Nantwich Museum |
|
A modern image of the front of The
Dowery. The late 17th century building has a Dutch gable as a
feature of its rendered front.
At the rear of the property, a
bend in The Waterlode as it heads for the bridge over the River
Weaver between High Street and Welsh Row, cuts through what was the
right-hand side of the garden in the wartime images above. Trees
now shade a footpath constructed where
the soldiers and nurses are pictured.
On the other side of the inner
ring road, in the
garden, there are more trees and parking spaces
for the cars of the staff of the firm of solicitors now
in The Dowery.
|
