Open-pan salt making from lead using wood as a fuel. In Britain they established towns for salt production at Droitwich in Worcestershire, and Nantwich, Middlewich and Northwich in Cheshire. In the early Middle Ages these developed into the 'wich' towns of Cheshire. Small 'wich' houses containing several lead pans to evapourate the brine into salt, clustered around brine springs within each of the towns. The open-pan process continued largely unchanged throughout the medieval period. A 17th-century German wood-cut by Georgius Agricola shows the process in detail. Excavated evidence has uncovered wooden rakes to draw salt crystals to the side of the pan, and
Townwell House, Nantwich Townwell House, Nantwich Townwell House is an Early Georgian town house in Nantwich, Cheshire, England, located at number 52 on the north side of Welsh Row (at ). It dates from 1740, and is listed at grade II*; in the listing, English Heritage describes the building as "important" and highlights its "good central entrance". Townwell House is one of many Georgian buildings on Welsh Row, which Nikolaus Pevsner calls "the best street of Nantwich". Number 83, on the opposite side of the street, is also listed at grade II*. The house was constructed in 1740. As the name suggests, it