History
editOrigins of the name
editCrewe was named after the railway station, rather than the other way round. The town was founded as a "railway colony" in 1841 to provide houses for the employees of the railway works established shortly after the first railway lines were built in the area, though even from the start, it was called Crewe by many.[1] Crewe was situated in the township of Monks Coppenhall which, with the township of Church Coppenhall, formed the ancient parish of Coppenhall.[2] The railway station was named after the township of Crewe (in the ancient parish of Barthomley) in which it was located.[3] Eventually, the township of Crewe became a civil parish in its own right also named, rather confusingly, Crewe.[4] This civil parish changed its name to Crewe Green in 1974 to avoid confusion with the adjacent town, which had been made a municipal borough in 1877.[5] The railway station remained part of the civil parish of Crewe, outside the boundary of the municipal borough until 1936.[6] So, throughout its history, the town of Crewe has neither been part of, nor has it encompassed first the township of Crewe, later the civil parish of Crewe, and later still the civil parish of Crewe Green adjacent to it. An old, local riddle describes these somewhat unusual states of affairs: "The place which is Crewe is not Crewe, and the place which is not Crewe is Crewe."[5]
Notes and references
editNotes
edit- ^ Ollerhead (2008, pp. 7, 10, 16); Chambers (2007, pp. 76, 94)
- ^ Youngs (1991, pp. 15–16); Dunn (1989, p. 26); Ollerhead (2008, p. 10)
- ^ Youngs (1991, p. 16); Chambers (2007, pp. 76, 94)
- ^ Youngs (1991, p. 16)
- ^ a b Curran et al. (1984, p. 2)
- ^ Ollerhead (2008, p. 10)
Bibliography
edit- Chambers, S (2007), Crewe: A history, Chichester, Sussex: Phillimore, ISBN 9781860774720
- Curran, H; Gilsenan, M; Owen, B; Owen, J (1984), Change at Crewe, Chester: Cheshire Libraries and Museums
- Dodgson, J. McN. (1971), The place-names of Cheshire. Part three: The place-names of Nantwich Hundred and Eddisbury Hundred, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521080495
- Dunn, F. I. (1989), The ancient parishes, townships and chapelries of Cheshire, Chester: Cheshire Record Office and Cheshire Diocesan Record Office, ISBN 0906758149
- Langston, K (2006), Made in Crewe: 150 years of engineering excellence, Horncastle, Lincolnshire: Mortons Media Group, ISBN 9780955286803
- Ollerhead, P (2008), Crewe: History and guide, Stroud, Gloucestershire: Tempus Publishing, ISBN 9780752446547
- Youngs, F. A. (1991), Guide to the local administrative units of England. (Volume 1: Northern England), London: Royal Historical Society, ISBN 0861931270