EXACTLY 36 years ago there was an air of excitement in town as work started preparing the ground for the long awaited new civic hall.

Passing Suffield Street today the shutters are down at the Civic Centre, it’s finally closed its doors for the last time leaving many townsfolk with only happy memories. No doubt the same was said when the popular Co-op Hall on Long Street, closed.

The new Arena will now cater for the town’s requirements while the old building stands ready and waiting to be demolished.

Looking back you could say that the Co-op Hall was the first type of civic amenity. The hall, with its distinctive clock made by Smiths of Derby, dated back to 1871.

It all began when the Co-op acquired two shops on Long Street, a barbers and a bankrupt grocers, which overlooked the market ground. Both properties extended to Water Street, known locally as Leah Holden Street after a woman who kept a beerhouse, the Nags Head. Both shops were owned by a plumber and glazier from Heywood, Joseph Taylor, also known as ‘Billy Putty’. He did not hesitate in signing on the dotted line when offered the sum of £1,000 to close the deal. The famous Co-op Hall closed in the mid 1960s when the building was reduced to a single story outlet, visible today.

With the Co-op Hall history and the baths ballroom providing entertainment only for a winter month, a new civic amenity was required.

Councillor Kevin Hunt stated at the time: "Middleton is a cultural wasteland, we now find ourselves devoid of any place to cater for pursuits. Nightly a mass exodus takes place from this town. Our young people find nothing in which to develop their creative potential. We have no shortage of pubs, bingo hall and snooker tables."

He added: "One thing lacking in this town is a theatre."

Middleton Town Council included plans for a council chamber and civic amenities to be part of the proposed new Town Hall at Parkfield, but it was the government of the day which rejected the idea.

I believe that I am correct when I say that it was Alderman Frank Sansom, MBE JP, chairman of the Libraries and Watch Committee, who was the driving force in promoting the need for the leisure facilities. A few years later when work started on the cleared market ground he said: "It was the realisation of a dream."

Contractors Henry Boot got more than they bargained for while preparing the foundations for the new hall. The former market ground was found to be ‘bad ground’. Previously a mill lodge occupied the site and a mill race flowed along Fountain Street, which was later culverted, causing the site to be waterlogged. Today the Civic Centre stands on water and sand. Workmen found water just one metre below the surface of the market ground. To enable piles to be sunk two pumps worked constantly transferring 50,000 gallons of water an hour from the civic site to be re-pumped back underground at the side of the baths building. This was a safeguard against damage to the swimming baths.

Workmen commented at the clarity of the water, which was cold and clear, fit to drink. Today the building is supported by 191 piles, forty feet in depth and each filled with a ton of cement.

Next week we feature the building of the superstructure.

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