DROITWICH, a municipal and a parliamentary borough of England, in Worcestershire, on the Salwarpe, a left-hand tributary of the Severn, about seven miles by rail N.N.E. of Worcester. With the exception of its modern extensions, the town is built in a straggling and irregular fashion; but it numbers among its public edifices a courtchamber and market-house, two churches—St Andrew’s and St Peter’s—several chapels, and a hospital established by Lord Keeper Coventry, the revenues of which maintain about forty men and women, and educate about 100 young persons of both sexes. The principal occupation is the manufacture of the salt obtained from the brine springs, or wyches, to which the town probably owes both its name and its origin; and the annual quantity obtained is about 116,000 tons. These springs were known to the Romans, who had a station on the spot, as was shown by the remains of a villa, with some interesting and valuable relics, dis covered during the formation of the Oxford and Wolverhampton railway. In Domesday-book mention is made of a tax levied on the salt, which must consequently have been manufactured in the 11th century. A charter was bestowed on Droitwich by King John. The population of the municipal borough, with its area of 1849 acres, was 3504 in 1871; that of the parliamentary borough, with its area of 27,577^acres, was 9510.