History of Northwich was the Stanley's, later Earls of Derby and stayed in the family’s hands until the late 18th century. That salt production continued throughout the centuries can be seen through John Leland's description of the town in 1540: Although Leland described Northwich as a market town, there is no surviving charter for a market or fair. A market still exists today. Between 1642 and 1643, during the English Civil War, Northwich was fortified and garrisoned by Sir William Bereton for the Parliamentarians. The salt beds beneath Northwich were re-discovered in the 1670s by employees of the local Smith-Barry family. The Smith-Barrys
Crown Hotel, Nantwich Crown Hotel, Nantwich The Crown Hotel, also known as the Crown Inn, is a timber-framed, black-and-white hotel and public house located at 24 High Street in the town of Nantwich in Cheshire, England. The present building dates from shortly after 1583. One of three buildings in Nantwich to be listed at grade I, the listing describes the Crown Hotel as "an important late C16 building." The existing hotel was built on the site of an earlier inn of the same name, destroyed in the Great Fire of Nantwich of 1583. This appears to have been constructed on an earlier industrial