History of Northwich the salt from the brine. Salt pans and 1st-century brine kilns have all been found around the Roman fort. The association with salt continues in the etymology of Northwich. The "wich" (or wych) suffix applies to other towns in the area - namely Middlewich, Nantwich and Leftwich. This is considered to have been derived from the Norse, "wic", for bay and is associated with the more traditional method of obtaining salt from evaporating sea water. Therefore, a place for making salt became a wych-house; and Northwich was the most northern of the Wich towns in Cheshire. The existence of Northwich
Nantwich 82-seat Nantwich Players Theatre, which puts on about five plays a year. The name of Jan Palach Avenue in the south of the town commemorates the self-immolation of a student in Czechoslovakia in 1969. Nantwich is on the Cheshire Plain, on the banks of the River Weaver. The Shropshire Union Canal runs to the west of the town on an embankment, crossing the A534 via an iron aqueduct. The basin is a popular mooring for visitors to the town. It joins the Llangollen Canal at Hurleston to the north. The town is approximately four miles south-west of Crewe and 20