Snow Hill as it used to be - seen from the air

THIS aerial view is a larger version of that in a letter on the "This and That" page following a request for a picture of houses in Snow Hill.

    Not surprisingly it has been supplied by Andrew Lamberton. It can be found in Lost Buildings Around Nantwich - in the appendix of Nantwich town pictures. 

   The view extends from Snow Hill at the top to High Street at the bottom.

   Note Johnson's the printers just up from the bottom of the picture, on the right. 

Today, Snow Hill is mainly a car park, and the hill has been levelled out.

A row of houses

Here are some of the interesting details from the picture above, starting with the row of houses in Snow Hill. On the "This and That" page, Cecilia Tomlinson says "Numbers 2, 4 and 6 had gardens and the rest of the houses were terraced."

The old Town Hall

This is only half of the old Town Hall next to the River Weaver (to the left) that I remember. It then housed a DIY supplies place, although it had two other uses before that. Firstly, it was the local meeting place - as the Town Hall - and then a motor accessories store. It was demolished in 1972 to make way for The Waterlode.

   This section of the larger picture is next to the "hill" picture above. You can perhaps see a detail (a wall?) at the bottom right-hand edge of this section.     

The hill

I only vaguely remember this house, with its gable end, at the foot of the "hill".

   But I remember very well the slope in front of it. That to me is Snow Hill, although the name takes in a large area from Swine Market to the Baths and beyond. The "hill" can be seen at the foot of the wall next to the house.

   In my schoolboy memory the slope seemed much larger - and a steeper area - than it appears here. A matter of scale, I suppose - with me being shorter then!

The Zan

Finally, we have the Zan store at the end of the Oat Market. On the Snow Hill development page, I show the twin gables part of the building, but the larger part, facing up High Street towards the Square, is the better known half of the store (at least in my memories).

   You will realise there isn't a door in the twin-gabled part, the only entrance being that facing the camera at the bottom of the picture.

THE houses on the left of this 1962 picture - provided by Paul Simpson - had seen better days, but the washing shows that the terrace was still occupied at that date.

   The familiar sight of the old Town Hall in the far distance will help to locate the two rows of houses on Snow Hill.

   The houses on the right are semi-detached and not another terrace - as can be seen in the small picture right, a segment of the main picture above.

   I wonder what the posts in the right foreground of the main picture were?

   Of the main picture, Paul comments: "I remember the slope. Tommy Field had his garage down there, then moved to the Crescent Garage later on."

ANDREW Lamberton corrected Paul, saying: "It was Jack Field not Tommy. I think Tommy is his brother, and used to have an electrical shop in Hospital Street on the corner of Spring Gardens before moving to premises in Pillory Street."