'Mid Cheshire can hold its own with pretty villages'

I have thoroughly enjoyed the challenge to get 260 weeks’ worth just out of Mid Cheshire, so eventually, further articles by me are thin on the ground; it is time for some fresh ideas to continue the series.

My wife Rose has finally allowed her name to be appended on our projects, our book Cheshire Murders and Misdemeanors is in the shops and on Amazon, and the follow-up Tragic Cheshire is with the publishers and due out soon.

So the future Looking Back articles will be researched and compiled by Rose.

In fact, her name will be heading them. So all I can say is thanks to the readers for their support.

My Facebook group titled Mid Cheshire Through Time is based on the books I have written for Amberley Publishers Through Time series.

The membership approaches 8,000, and all are welcome; the rules are no advertising, politics, swearing or abuse. So look no further if you want friendly chat, memories prodded or simply old photographs.

The George & Dragon Pub at Great Budworth (Image: Paul Hurley)

Many thanks to Nick Grant and Helen Spriggs of The Guardians for their support over the years. I will end here with one of my past scribblings about Mid Cheshire and how I see it.

Britain is full of pretty country villages, and Cheshire is sometimes overlooked; it has a reputation as a wealthy county perhaps, but not overtly pretty in a Cotswold sort of way!

That is a misconception; Cheshire has many villages and towns that can compare most favourably with the likes of the Cotswolds.

Cheshire boasts the Golden Triangle of wealthy places like Prestbury and Alderley Edge, but Mid Cheshire can hold its own with villages such as Great Budworth, Tarporley, and Church Minshull.

Church Minshull village (Image: Paul Hurley)

They say that the sense we remember best is the sense of smell; I remember from my youth the smells of the Mid Cheshire countryside, farms, and the myriad of aromas emanating from them to assault the senses most pleasingly.

The smell of the countryside, of wood smoke, cow sheds, and wildflowers. Remembering old sights such as that of a Ferguson tractor at the end of the day, the driver’s face illuminated by the little red light on the dashboard as the last load of corn is brought to the barn.

December and threshing time when the stored sheathes would be broken down and the corn extracted in the threshing machine.

Frost would decorate the trees, and ice would fill the nearby canal, black and white cottages with lights shining from the small windows and smoke drifting lazily from the chimney.

Winsford Flash (Image: Paul Hurley)

Spring with its plant life returning from its winter sleep in a mass of colours and fragrant smells. This is what villages mean to me.

Things have to change, but at the same time, some things stand still, and history is kind.

The building of modern estates has extended many Mid-Cheshire villages, and those halcyon days of old have given way too busy roads that children once used as playgrounds.

Like its namesake, Winsford in Somerset, Cheshire has many pretty areas of natural beauty, and our Winsford is about to have a shiny new shopping and social area.

So onwards and upwards. Oh, and I hope the dangerous potholes are filled, and driving can become a pleasure again.

Editor's note: We'd like to take this opportunity to thank Paul Hurley for all the many informative and interesting Looking Back articles he's done for the Guardian over the years.

His wife Rose is now taking over the column and we look forward to reading her nostalgia features in the coming weeks.