History
The Borough of Crewe and Nantwich is one of six districts in the County of Cheshire and is located in the North West Region. It is 43,041 hectares in area with a population of 111,000. There are two principal towns, Crewe with its origins in the 19th Century with arrival of the railways and the historic market town of Nantwich dating back to Roman times as a centre for salt production. A number of suburban villages cluster around the two towns, notably Haslington, Shavington, Wistason and Willaston. These villages together with the two towns form a compact predominatly urban area where over 90,000 people live. The rest of the Borough is mainly rural with small villages where the character of the economy is dominated by agriculture. Nantwich is a thriving service centre which is a popular destination for tourists, leisure visitors and residents from its largely rural hinterland.Crewe is a major employment centre with a diversified base in manufacturing, distribution and services.
Crewe
Crewedid not come to prominence until the 1830s, when the Grand Junction Railway company chose it as the site for its locomotive works (known in the surrounding area simply as Crewe Works). GJR chief engineer Joseph Locke helped lay out the town. From a population of just seventy in 1831, the town exploded to 40.000 in 1871. The town has a large park,QueensPark, which is a product of 1880s railway politics. The railway provided an endowment towards the building and upkeep ofChristChurch. The company provided a doctor's surgery with a scheme of health insurance.The school was established in 1842. A gaswork was built and the works water supply was adapted to provide drinking water and a public baths. The railway also opened a cheese market in 1854 and a clothing factory. Nevertheless, the dominance of the railway industry was such that times of recession were keenly felt.
Nantwich
The origins of the settlement date to Roman times when salt from Nantwich was used by the Roman garrisons atChesterandStoke-on-Trentas both a preservative and a condiment. Salt has been used in the production ofCheshirecheese and in the tanning industry. Nantwich had a castle and was the capital of a barony of the earls ofChester. The salt industry peaked in the late sixteenth century when there where 216 salt houses, but the industry ended in 1856 with the closure of the last salt house. Similarly the last tannery closed in 1974, but the clothing industry remains important to the area.
Nantwich has suffered several disasters in its history. It was first recorded as an urban area at the time of the Norman conquest – the Normansburned the town to the ground, leaving only one building standing. Two hundred years later the town was attacked over a lengthy period by marauders from Wales, while in 1583 the Great Fire of Nantwich raged for 20 days, destroying most of the town, which was rebuilt at a cost of £30,000 in 16th-century money, £2,000 of which was personally donated by Queen Elizabeth I together with timber from the royal forest. During the English Cicil War, Nantwich was the only town inCheshire to declare for Parliament, and consequently it was besieged several times by Royalist forces. The final siege was lifted following the victory of the Parliamentary forces in the Battle of Nantwich on January 26, 1644.
Crewe and Nantwich
The Borough of Crewe and Nantwich was created in the local government reorganisation of 1974 by the merger of the borough of Crewe (an industrial town), the urban district of Nantwich (a much smaller and wealthier market town), and Nantwich Rural District.
