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
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