Nantwich Cheshire; The Great Fire and The English Civil War

The fifth paragraph to the first subheading, The great fire of Nantwich, advises us that "local women heard that the pub landlord had let his bears loose."

Is it known from where the bears were staying and let loose?

Anecdotal evidence suggests that the bears were let loose and ran rampage in fear through the town. There are no bears in England living in the wild so I can only assume that they died in the fire which raged for about 20 days.

Veronica, Does anecdotal or recorded history tell what happened to the bears?

The salt lakes originated in the Triassic period when the area was part of the continent of Pangaea, whose extreme continental climate simply dessicated the land with extreme summer heat.The exploitation of the salt began with the Britons, but the Romans put it on a much larger scale, so it is believed. As there was a legionary fortress at Chester, now the county town of Cheshire, after which Cheshire is named, they were in a good position to exploit the salt resources.

Indeed. Cheshire was originally a large salt lake/ marsh and as the water evaporated, salt remained.

The reason that there was a salty stream there at one time is that Cheshire has deep reserves of salt underlying some parts of it. The Cheshire salt mines are still operative and consist of huge underground caverns.

PS
The English Civil War was 1642 to 1651 and King Charles was beheaded in 1649. Thus ended the monarchy which was replaced by a Republican Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell. The Monarchy was restored in 1660.

Cheshire has always been Welsh border country . I am in the east of Cheshire and am still only 40 miles from the Welsh Border.

The name Nantwich reveals the mixed traditions of the area. Nant is a Welsh word for a salty stream, and wich is a local form of the Anglo-Saxon Latin-derivative wick, an enclosure for primarily economic purposes, maybe a sheep or dairy farm.

Why a Welsh term in England? Be aware that Cheshire is adjacent to the Welsh border and that Welsh was spoken across Western England,in parts even until the eighteenth century. There are still some English in the Welsh border regions who regard themselves as Welsh. Much of Western England was Wales until the kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia conquered it in the seventh century. The Nantwich region was taken in 626-7 by the Northumbrians, but later taken by the Mercians of the midlands.

Thank you. Maybe it is that we don't appreciate what we have here. I love Cheshire and the beauties of our countryside. Frank is very good on all things English and Irish . Just ask us if you are curious. It is interesting; I was always very curious about Ireland and then discovered I am mainly Irish by ethnicity. I think we have a subconscious yearning back to our roots. Maybe that accounts or your curiosity.