Nantwich Cheshire Plain around the town. "Nant" comes from the Welsh for brook or stream. "Wich" and "wych" are names used to denote brine springs or wells. In 1194 there is a reference to the town as being called "Nametwihc", which would indicate it was once the site of a pre-Roman Celtic nemeton or sacred grove. In the Domesday Book, Nantwich is recorded as having eight salt houses. It had a castle and was the capital of a barony of the earls of Chester, and of one of the seven hundreds of medieval Cheshire. Nantwich is one of the few places
The Rookery, Nantwich dating originally from the 15th and 16th centuries at the end of Hospital Street, which include Churche's Mansion, number 116 and numbers 140–142. These buildings survived the fire of 1583, which destroyed the town end of Hospital Street together with much of the centre of Nantwich. The Rookery is believed to stand near the site of the medieval Hospital of St Nicholas, which gives Hospital Street its name. The Rookery is a large detached Georgian building of two storeys, in red brick with stone dressings under a tiled roof. The front façade faces Millstone Lane and is set well back