Nantwich

Nantwich, a market-town of Cheshire, on the Weaver, 4 miles SW. of Crewe. It has some quaint old timber houses; a fine cruciform parish church, Early English to Perpendicular in style, with a central octagonal tower, 110 feet high; a Gothic town-hall (1858); a market-hall (1867); a grammar-school (1611); and brine-baths (1883). The Halen Gwyn ('white salt town') of the Welsh, Nantwich was once the second largest town in Cheshire, the seat of 300 salt-works in Leland's day, a number reduced to 100 through the discovery of better brine-pits in other parts of the Weaver's valley in 1624, since which date the industry has gradually quite died out. Boot and shoe making now is the principal industry. A great fire (1583), and its siege by the royalists under Lord Byron (1644) are the chief events in its history. Pop. (1851) 5424; (1881) 7495; (1891) 7412. See works by Platt (1818) and Hall (1885).