Nantwich Workhouse

A building at the end of Beam Street, formerly the town house of the Mainwaring family, was used as the town's first workhouse and house of correction from 1677 to 1748; it stood on the site of the present Crewe Almshouses. The residential workhouse was replaced by 1748 by a set of three cottages on Queen Street (off Pillory Street), which housed up to 30 people in 1777. A total of £450 towards the cost was raised from several existing charities; the remainder was funded by shares taken out by 31 local men, including Sir Robert Salusbury Cotton and George Wilbraham of Delamere. Records of the Nantwich overseers of the poor for 1780–85 survive, and show that meat, grain, vegetables, malt,…

The former workhouse is a large three-storey building in red brick under a tiled roof. It has a U-shaped plan, with a long symmetrical front face and two long end wings which run away from the street. The front face has a slightly projecting central bay, topped by a pediment bearing a clock face. A bell tower and glazed porch to the main entrance have also been removed. Little of the original workhouse interior remains.