ON occasions, people living in Winsford Cheshire have received mail meant for Winsford in Somerset. But where is this other Winsford? Few have heard of it, and fewer still have been there.

There are many Buckland’s, Carlton’s and quite a few Newtown’s in Great Britain. But there are only two Winsford’s. These two, however, are similar in name only.

Winsford in Somerset is situated on the edge of the Exmoor National Park, and it is arguably one of the prettiest villages in the country. It obtained its name from its location as it sits astride the river Winn and a ford over the river is located there. It is one of the few remaining true ‘fords’ in the country.

Narrow lanes approach the village, and on entering it, one is met with a picture postcard scene. A thatched public house called ‘The Royal Oak’ dominates the Village Square with a war memorial and cobblestone Packhorse Bridge almost opposite. The road from the ford leads up to the Norman parish Church of St Mary Magdalene, which stands, proudly on a hill overlooking the square. The church is ancient with a history going back to the 12th century, and its 90-foot tower can be seen for miles around.

After passing through, a short journey along another narrow lane takes the traveller to the National Park with miles of moorland and picturesque countryside.

Although a very small village, Winsford in Somerset does boast one famous son. Ernest Bevin who was born into poverty there in 1881, the son of a farm labourer.

The house in which he was born bears a plaque commemorating the event. He went on to be the Minister of Labour during the last war, and the young miners were nicknamed ‘Bevin Boys’.

Winsford in Cheshire, on the other hand, is a sprawling overspill town with more than one industrial and housing estate sitting astride the Cheshire plain.

It too derives its name from a ford, this time on the River Weaver. The details of this are lost in antiquity, and there are no definite records of how the name came about.

It is believed that there was a man called Wynne who had a ford named after him. Alternatively, another suggestion is that the original name for the town was Wainsford as there was a ford there that farmers crossed with their hay wains.

The river was later made navigable, and Winsford became a shipbuilding centre. The main parish church is the 14th-century church of St Chad’s, which rather unusually is sited in a valley away from other buildings.

Winsford is famous for providing nearly all of the country’s rock salt. This comes from its sprawling underground network of tunnels cut during the removal of this rich seam of salt. These tunnels beneath Mid Cheshire are lit by electricity and from the light, the salt crystals that make up the floor walls and ceilings twinkle like stars. The salt is transferred to conveyor belts for conveyance to the surface where it forms into large piles to await the delivery wagons from around Britain.

Winsford did not suffer from the effects of wild brine pumping in the last century to the same degree as Northwich. Some of the older buildings, however, do look somewhat lopsided, and the town has two large and picturesque lakes called Flashes that were caused by subsidence.

Winsford in Cheshire had a dearth of famous residents, a notable exception being Sir John Swanwick Bradbury who in 1925 was created the 1st Baron Bradbury of Winsford. He was born in Crook Lane in a house that like Bevins birthplace bears a commemorative plaque. As the First Secretary to the Treasury in WW1, he gave his name to the banknotes that bore his signature. They became known throughout the country as Bradburies.

Perhaps a lesser-known fact about Baron Bradbury was that from 1919 to 1925 he was the Principal British Delegate to the Reparation Commission in Paris. It was the draconian demands upon Germany by this Commission that contributed to the downfall of democracy and the ascent of National Socialism in Germany, Hitler and the Second World War.

Winsford in Somerset is a pretty chocolate box village with a small population on the edge of a major national park. Winsford in Cheshire is more of an industrial centre with a population approaching 40,000 and located near major cities.

Parts of it are far less attractive than its Somerset namesake.

Closer inspection, however, reveals that Winsford in Somerset may be on the edge of the Exmoor National Park. But Winsford in Cheshire is on the edge of the most beautiful and picturesque countryside that make up mid Cheshire and the Cheshire plain. To sit at the side of the Winsford Flash and not be enthralled by the beauty of it is to miss the best that nature, with human assistance, has to offer.

A village and a town with the same name but both quite different, both, however, have their famous sons and their indisputable reasons for just being there.