1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Winsford

WINSFORD, an urban district in the Northwich parliamentary division of Cheshire, England, on the river Weaver, 6 m. S. of Northwich, on the London & North-Western railway and the Cheshire lines. Pop. (1901) 10,382. In the town, which is only second to Northwich in this respect, large quantities of salt are raised and conveyed to Liverpool for exportation; being shipped in flats down the Weaver, which has been rendered navigable by an elaborate system of locks. Rock-salt is procured, as well as that obtained from the brine-pools. Boat-building is an important accompanying industry, and more than half a million tons of salt are shipped annually. Owing to the pumping of the brine, large tracts of land have been submerged, and there is thus a constant danger to houses. The iron bridge across the Weaver, which was built in 1856, had to be raised thrice in the following twenty-six years. The town has received much benefit from philanthropists, Sir Joseph Verdin providing a technical school, and Sir John Brunner a guildhall and other buildings.