Nantwich (ˈnæntwɪtʃ ) is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. It has among the highest concentrations of listed buildings in England, with notably good examples of Tudor and Georgian architecture. It had a population of 14,045 in 2021.
The origins of the settlement date to Roman times, when salt from Nantwich was used by the Roman garrisons at Chester (Deva Victrix) and Stoke-on-Trent as a preservative and a condiment. Salt has been used in the production of Cheshire cheese and in the tanning industry, both products of the dairy industry based in the Cheshire Plain around the town. Nant comes from the Welsh for brook or stream. Wich and wych are names used to denote brine springs or wells. In 1194 there is a reference to the town as being called Nametwihc, which would indicate it was once the site of a pre-Roman Celtic nemeton or sacred grove.
In the Domesday Book of 1086, Nantwich is recorded as having eight salt houses. It had a castle and was the capital of a barony of the earls of Chester, and of one of the seven hundreds of medieval Cheshire. Nantwich is one of the few places in Cheshire to be marked on the Gough Map, which dates from 1355 to 1366. It was first recorded as an urban area at the time of the Norman Conquest, when the Normans burnt the town to the ground, leaving only one building standing.
The town is believed to have been a salt-producing centre from the 10th century or earlier. The Norman castle was built at the crossing of the Weaver before 1180, probably near where the Crown Inn now stands. Although nothing remains of the castle above ground, it affected the town's layout. During the medieval period, Nantwich was the most important salt town and probably the second most important settlement in the county after Chester. By the 14th century, it was holding a weekly cattle market at the end of what is now Beam Street, and it was also important for its tanning industry centred in Barker Street.
A fire in December 1583 destroyed most of the town to the east of the Weaver.
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Northwich is a town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It lies in the heart of the Cheshire Plain, at the confluence of the rivers Weaver and Dane. The town is about east of Chester, south of Warrington, and south of Manchester. The population of the civil parish was 20,924 in 2021 and the wider built-up area (which also covers parts of several other civil parishes) was 50,531.
Wrexham (ˈrɛksəm ; Wrecsam ˈrɛksam) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the county of Denbighshire, and later the county of Clwyd in 1974, it has been the principal settlement of Wrexham County Borough since 1996. Wrexham has historically been one of the primary settlements of Wales. At the 2021 Census, it had an urban population of 44,785.
Crewe (kruː) is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. The civil parish of Crewe had a population of 55,318 in the 2021 census. The larger Crewe built-up area, which also covers parts of the adjacent civil parishes of Willaston, Shavington cum Gresty and Wistaston, had a total population of 76,437 in 2021. Crewe is perhaps best known as a large railway junction and home to Crewe Works; for many years, it was a major railway engineering facility for manufacturing and overhauling locomotives, but now much reduced in size.