Seven lost Warrington buildings we wish had been treasured

From the Victorian splendour of the Town Hall and Golden Gates to the jewel in the crown of Walton Hall.

The Cheshire Lines warehouse and the grand frontage of the old Crosfields buildings are a nod to Warrington's industrial past.

However many buildings are no longer with us.

Some were abandoned or destroyed by fire and some fell victim to council planners.

Here are seven of the buildings we miss the most.

Missed buildings

The cabinet works and Garnett Water Tower

Built on Barbauld Street in the town centre in 1906, Garnett’s Cabinet Works fell vacant for more than 60 years.

Work started on demolition in 2018 and the land is currently for sale for redevelopment.

The Italian Renaissance style water tower was the most distinctive feature that of the factory that used the latest scientific and labour saving devices to build large scale furniture.

Missed buildings

The Bay Horse pub

The popular pub was on Winwick Street and still is thought of fondly by many in the town.

Built in the mid 1850s it was a former Greenall Whitley pub before it was pulled down, although it was closed when the demolition took place.

Jan Kubelik, the Czech violinist, was one of the famous faces to stay at the Bay Horse around the turn of the 20th century.

While it was also a popular watering hole for many past players from Warrington RLFC.

And it was especially the hub of a thriving community in Warrington town centre at the turn of the 20th century. It was illegally demolished in February 2005.

Missed buildings

Crosfields Theatre

This pictures shows the former Crosfield's Centenary Theatre from 1980.

The much-loved theatre would eventually close in 1991 and the land is now the site of Lidl. The theatre was offered to the council in 1985 but it turned it down on the grounds it already had Parr Hall.

Burtonwood hangers

Burtonwood airbase hangers

They were a familiar sight alongside the M62 until they were pulled down to make way for Omega.

From 1942 the American GIs became a popular sight about the town. USAAF Burtonwood’s role in the Second World War was to keep the allied planes flying, especially in the bombing raids leading up to the D Day landings.

In the summer of 1944 this was the largest factory in Europe, assembling bombers from pre-packaged kits from America with more than 18,000 people based there.

The noise of engines from the test beds were heard day and night.

Warrington forged close links with their American wartime allies and the town’s VJ Day celebrations in August 1945 had a special resonance.

Missed buildings

The Ritz, ABC and Mr Smith's

Whatever it was called to you, the art deco building on Bridge Foot was iconic in Warrington.

Much loved as The Ritz and ABC cinema it gained a new life as Mr Smith's nightclub in the 1980s and 90s.

However a fire saw it demolished in 2015. It is now used as a car park with plans in place for it to be apartments.

Orford Hall

Missed buildings

The residence of John Blackburne esquire, present-day Battersby Lane provided a grand southern approach to the hall, which was home to the Blackburne family.

The hall itself was largely rebuilt around 1716 while John Blackburne (1693 to 1786) created its magnificent park lands.

The family sold up and leased the hall and by 1871, one William Beamont, the first mayor of Warrington, had moved in.

When the Cheshire Lines railway arrived in 187, it made the hall and its grounds a less tranquil environment and it faced an uncertain future.

Arthur Bennett eventually persuaded the council to buy the hall from the Blackburne family as a memorial to Warrington’s soldiers of the First World War.

Indeed in 1917, then mayor Peter Peacock promised that ‘after the war the council will formulate a scheme for the use of the hall and grounds’.

However in the post-war austerity, and without Bennett’s championship, the hall decayed and was eventually demolished in the mid-1930s, although the park survived.

Horse and Jockey in Warrington

The Horse and Jockey

This pub on the corner of Kerfoot Street and Winwick Road was much loved.

Latterly a Greenall Whitley pub, it was demolished in the 1980s to make way for McDonalds, the first drive-thru to open in town.