MANY photographs survive showing Wharton Hill but this is my only photo showing the houses on top of it.

The inhabitants did not have to travel far as Hill Street, or Winsford Hill as it was known, had its own pub and chip shop.

The Jolly Sailor was just 50 yards from the North Western at number four, from 1853 until the beer house was compulsorily closed in 1917.

The Stannicliffe Bros Brewers of Macclesfield received £1,160 compensation and the poor landlady Amanda Young just £40.

At number one, from around 1900, was William Hobson fish dealer, later to become Pheobe Hobson's chip shop, which I can remember well into the 1950s, across the road from the North Western.

Beer houses were established in the 1830s as the Government of the time wanted to see more beer drunk than spirits.

The first photo taken in the 1920s shows the entrance by the cobblestones to what is now Kingsway, which was built in 1937 and named after King George VI who was crowned in that year.

If you look across the road to the right of the hill you can see the entrance to Over and Wharton station, which was opened to passengers in 1882.

It also served half a dozen sidings to salt works.

The branch line itself was no more than a mile in length and joined the main line at Wharton Bridges.

The station also had a goods yard and at its peak had two trains a day running to Runcorn.

A brochure in my collection from 1922 also shows that it was possible to travel from Over and Wharton station to 23 holiday resorts including Blackpool and the lakes.

The station closed to passengers in 1947 and the photo taken in 1914 shows stationmaster Fred Martin and staff standing by a LNWR 242 tank pulling a single car railmotor train.

Over and Wharton was utilised right up to the 1980s by ICI where the rock salt was transported by Bill Young and others from the mine to the station to be loaded on to wagons and then on to the main line.

The station buildings burned down in the 1970s and the new bypass follows the exact route of the rail track up to Wharton Bridges.

The platform in view remained up to the building of the new road.