NANTWICH, a market-town of Cheshire, situated on two railway lines and on both sides of the Weaver, 20 miles south-east of Chester and 36 south-south-west of Manchester. There is water communication by the Grand Junction Canal, which near it joins the Ellesmere Canal. Thç town, which consists of three main streets, is somewhat irregularly built. The principal buildings are the church of SS. Mary and Nicholas, in the Decorated Gothic style, with octagonal tower; the grammar school, founded in 1611; the town-hall, in the Gothic style; and the new market-hall, which replaced the old one in 1867. There are several almshouses and other charities. The ancient castle, erected by the Normans, was in ruins before the time of Henry VII., and there are now no remains of it. The principal industry is the manufacture of boots and shoes; there are also several clothing factories. The population of the urban sanitary district in 1871 was 6673, and in 1881 it was 7495

Nantwich, which is said to have existed in the time of the Romans, was originally called Halen Gwyn, the white salt town. In Domesday it is entered as the part possession of the king and Earl Edwin, to whom its numerous salt springs supplied a considerable revenue. It was erected into a barony by Hugh Lupus, first Norman earl of Chester. The town suffered severely from fire in 1438 and in 1583, from a kind of mad ague in 1587, and from plague in 1604. In the reign of Henry VIII. it possessed three hundred salt-works, but, on account of the discovery of salt in 1624 at a district of the Vale of Weaver more convenient for water carriage, the industry rapidly declined, and is now wholly discontinued. Brine baths have been erected (1883) behind the town-hall.