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Local Information for Northwich

Northwich is a town in Cheshire, England with a population of around 50,000. The area around it has been exploited for its salt pans since the Roman period, when the settlement was known as Condate. Brine is now pumped from under the town to the Wirral.

The town's historical links with the salt industry is celebrated in its Salt Museum which is today located in the town's old workhouse. It was in 1874 that John Brunner and Ludwig Mond and started manufacturing soda ash using the solvay ammonia-soda process in Winnington. This process used salt as a main raw material, Brunner Mond later amalgated with three other chemical companies in 1926 to form Imperial Chemical Industries, better known as ICI, which was for many years one of Europe's leading chemical companies in both chemical production and research.

By removing underground salt, the salt industry caused huge areas of subsidence, and this allegedly accounts for many old timber-framed houses in the town centre, wh...More