Davenham before the A533 bypass was 'a different kettle of fish'

Readers of a certain vintage may well remember the village before the Davenham and Bostock Green Bypass opened in 1997, and the protracted battle, stretching back decades, to get the project off the ground. 

London Road, which runs through Davenham's centre, was the main trunk road between Middlewich and Northwich when both towns were centres of a thriving salt-based chemical industry.

The bypass returned Davenham to the quiet village it once was (Image: Paul Hurley)

Heavy-laden lorries shuttling raw material and equipment between industrial sites had little choice but to drive through the village, and back then, traffic calming measures were very much a thing of the future.  

Lyn Priestly moved to Davenham from a quiet village on the outskirts of Bristol in 1989 with her husband and two young children. 

Moving from so far away, they viewed their house just the once, but perhaps it would've been wiser not to have done so at the weekend.

Davenham has been lucky to hang on to much of its old-world charm (Image: Newsquest)

Lyn told the Northwich Town Heritage project: “It was very strange when we came to view the house because it was a Sunday, and there was hardly any traffic on London Road. It was just so quiet.

“We liked the house and bought it. But when we moved in, unbeknownst to us, the traffic during the week was like the M6.

“One of the things we really liked about the house was the fact our two children, who were 11 and seven at the time, would be able to go across to the post office where they had all the jars of sweets.

St Wilfred's Church in Davenham adds much to the village's charm and atmosphere (Image: Newsquest)

“Just a leisurely little walk across the quiet road, or so we thought, with their pocket money to get a little magazine and some sweets.

“But then when we moved in, the reality was a completely different kettle of fish.  

“The first time I tried to cross London Road after we moved in, it took me about 15 minutes before I could find a gap in all the hurtling lorries going by.

“There were no speed restrictions  coming through the village, and the lorries would come hurtling down. You’d be convinced they’d crash into the few shops we have on the bend coming through.

The A533 bypass turned Davenham into an 'absolute haven' after decades being used as a rat run for heavy-laden lorries (Image: Newsquest)

“After we’d been here about a week, I was talking to one of the neighbours – nice man called Con – who told me there were plans in the pipeline for a bypass for Davenham.

“He said it bad been delayed and delayed, and whether it would ever come about or not, he wasn't too sure.

“Eight years later, it was finally built, and Davenham became an absolute haven. It was as I would've imagined it before we moved in, walking around the village.

“My hairdresser used to live in Winsford and work in Northwich, and it’d take her more than an hour to drive a few miles because of the incredible traffic.

“Of course, that all changed when the bypass arrived.

“There’s a lesson there. When you move to a new area, don’t take anything for granted.”