Crewe | |
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Town | |
Crewe town centre looking towards the Market Hall |
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Crewe shown within Cheshire | |
Population | 72,863 + (2011 Census) |
OS grid reference | SJ705557 |
• London | 147 mi (237 km) SE |
Civil parish |
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Unitary authority | |
Ceremonial county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | CREWE |
Postcode district | CW1, CW2, CW3, CW4, CW98 |
Dialling code | 01270 |
Police | Cheshire |
Fire | Cheshire |
Ambulance | North West |
EU Parliament | North West England |
UK Parliament | |
Crewe /kruː/ is a railway town and civil parish within the borough of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The area has a population of 72,863. Crewe is perhaps best known as a large railway junction and home to Crewe Works, for many years a major railway engineering facility for manufacturing and overhauling locomotives, but now much reduced in size. From 1946 until 2002 it was also the home of Rolls-Royce motor car production. The Pyms Lane factory on the west of the town now produces Bentley motor cars exclusively. Crewe is 158 miles north of London and 35 miles south of Manchester.
Although the name Creu first appears in the Domesday Book, the modern urban settlement of Crewe was not formally planned out until 1843 by Joseph Locke to consolidate the "railway colony" that had grown up since around 1840–41 in the area near to the railway junction station opened in 1837, even though it was called Crewe by many, from the start. Crewe was thus named after the railway station, rather than the other way round. The name derives from an Old Welsh word 'criu', meaning 'weir'.
Crewe was founded in the township of Monks Coppenhall which, with the township of Church Coppenhall, formed the ancient parish of Coppenhall. The railway station was named after the township of Crewe (then, part of the ancient parish of Barthomley) in which it was located. Eventually, the township of Crewe became a civil parish in its own right also named, rather confusingly, Crewe. 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.