Nantwich

Town in Cheshire, England, 7 km/4 mi from Crewe; population of Crewe and Nantwich (1991) 99,500. Industries include the manufacture of footwear and clothing. A market town in the heart of a fertile region, Nantwich was formerly a centre of the salt industry. The 14th-century parish church, much restored, dominates the town centre.

After a disastrous fire in 1583 the town was rebuilt with money provided by a national subscription sponsored by Queen Elizabeth I. Some houses, and the Crown Hotel, date from the period immediately after the fire. Churche's Mansion, a Tudor manor house built in 1577, is located on the edge of the town.

Salt deposits here are said to have been known by the Romans, and the town's brine springs were noted in the Domesday Book of 1087. Nantwich's salt industry was at its most productive in medieval and Tudor times but declined from the 17th century onwards.