A Letter from Nantwich

Updated March 2021

Work progresses on former gasworks site

WORK on a new use for the site of the town's gasworks - an unofficial, and unsurfaced, car park - began with the felling of the trees.

The long-awaited project will eventually house a 20-bedroom hotel, 10 artisan shops, four restaurants, 28 apartments and 60 car parking spaces.

The first six months of the project involved

the clean-up of the site which was contaminated by activities at the gasworks. Building the new premises will follow, with completion due after two years.

The main entrance to the parking area was off St Anne's Lane, with an access from Welsh Row. The site was also accessed down a narrow alleyway further along Welsh Row, but this will be widened with the demolition of a former restaurant in Welsh Row.

Three Nantwich brothers, the Messrs Schofield, are the driving force behind the development and local architects Bower Edleston are the experts behind the design.

Vision for Nantwich Ltd (a video of the project)

o For a talk on the gasworks see here

The former gasworks site looking towards Welsh Row (left) and the town centre (straight ahead). In the foreground is the area where the copse of trees stood. This image was how it looked after it was cleared for work to start on the site clean-up. Picture by Andrew Lamberton

THE ORIGINAL ITEM FROM DECEMBER 2015

The former site of the gasworks was used as an unofficial car park off St Anne's Lane. Facing the site are some of the houses in St Anne's Court.

To the right of the image are the rear of premises in Welsh Row. The former restaurant is to the right of the image but closer.

Left: The copse next to the car parking area was part of the site offered for sale. This is as it is seen from St Anne's Lane and St Anne's Court. The path on the right of the image leads to the bridge over the River Weaver in Riverside.

Pictures: A Dabber's Nantwich

TWO gasometers - or gas holders - are pictured here on the gasworks site on the bank of the River Weaver in 1938.

Above these, to the top left of the image can be seen St Anne's Church and school with the Manse (the square building) above it.

The future site of the Millfields housing estate is the field behind the Manse - in the top left of the image.

Welsh Row arcs its way round the top right corner of the image, and just in from the right and a little more than half way up the image is the now-demolished Whitehall with its large garden behind it.

The image is the copyright of Historic England and supplied by Britain from Above (Aerofilms images). Strict reproduction and use conditions apply.

To access this picture, and others of Nantwich, on the

Britain from Above website click here

Civic Society calls for survey on car parks | St Anne's Court

More pictures of Nantwich from the air | Whitehall

Footbridge over the River Weaver

Another project by the Schofield Brothers

One of the town's magpie (black and white) buildings gets a facelift