About Crewe in Cheshire
, England
Crewe is a town in Cheshire, England. The population of the town at the 2011 Census was 71,788. Crewe is perhaps best known for its railway junction and as a major railway engineering facility.
Crewe was founded in the early 19th century as a railway town and remains notable as a major railway junction. It is also known for its large engineering works which once employed over 10,000 people. The town is twinned with Bruges in Belgium, Mülheim in Germany and with Burkey in the United States.
Crewe is located on the edge of the Cheshire Plain, in the south of the county, about 10 miles (16 km) east of Chester and 15 miles (24 km) south of Warrington. The town is near to the Welsh border and is only about 20 miles (32 km) from Liverpool.
The town of Crewe was founded in 1837 as a railway town, and was named after the nearby village of Crewe which was already established. The village of Crewe was named after the River Croe which flows through it.
The Crewe area has been settled since the Bronze Age, and there are a number of Bronze Age burial mounds in the vicinity. In the Domesday Book, Crewe was listed as Criu, and had a population of about 100.
Crewe was originally built as a stop-off point for travellers on the London to Holyhead coaching route, which used to pass through the nearby village of Nantwich. But when the railways came to Crewe in 1837, it soon became a major junction and engineering works.
The first rail line to reach Crewe was the Grand Junction Railway in 1837, which ran from Birmingham to Warrington and then on to Liverpool. The London and North Western Railway (L&NWR) soon followed, reaching Crewe in 1842.
The L&NWR built their own works in 1843, which became one of the largest locomotive factories in Britain. In 1857 they built their first steam locomotive, "The Iron Duke", which was followed by many more over the next few years.
In 1854 Crewe was chosen as the site for a new college to train engineers for the L&NWR, which opened in 1857. The college soon had over 500 students, making it one of the largest technical colleges in Britain at that time.
In 1894 Queen Victoria visited Crewe to open a new extension to the works, which had been built to designs by Sir Nigel Gresley, the Chief Mechanical Engineer of the L&NWR.
During World War II Crewe was an important target for German bombers due to its railway engineering works, and many bombs were dropped on the town causing much damage and loss of life.
After nationalisation of the railways in 1948, the engineering works were taken over by British Railways Engineering Ltd (BREL), and continued to produce locomotives until 1986 when production finally ended.
Today Crewe is still an important railway junction, with lines radiating out to all parts of Britain. The engineering works have gone, but there are still many other businesses in Crewe employing over 10,000 people.
