The River Wheelock is a small river in
Cheshire
Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...
in north west
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. It drains water from the area between
Sandbach
Sandbach (pronounced ) is the name of a historic market town and a civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East, Cheshire, England. The civil parish contains four settlements: Sandbach itself as the largest, Elworth, Ettiley Heath a ...
and
Crewe
Crewe () is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. The Crewe built-up area had a total population of 75,556 in 2011, which also covers parts of the adjacent civil parishes of Willaston ...
, and joins the
River Dane at
Middlewich
Middlewich is a town in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, east of Chester, east of Winsford, southeast of Northwich and northwest of Sandbach. The population at the 2011 Census was 13,595. ...
(), and then the combined river flows into the
River Weaver
The River Weaver is a river, navigable in its lower reaches, running in a curving route anti-clockwise across west Cheshire, northern England. Improvements to the river to make it navigable were authorised in 1720 and the work, which included ...
in
Northwich
{{Infobox UK place
, static_image_name = Northwich - Town Bridge.jpg
, static_image_caption = Town Bridge, the River Weaver and the spire of Holy Trinity Church
, official_name = Northwich
, country ...
. Alternative names for the river have were recorded in 1619 as ''Sutton Watter'', ''Sutton Brooke'', and ''Lawton Brooke''.
Early recorded variations of the name Wheelock have included ''Quelok'', ''Qwelok'', ''Whelok'', ''Whelocke'', with later forms using ''Wheelock Watter'' and ''Wheelock Brooke''. The name is said to mean "winding river" and it is reported to have based on the Old Welsh word ''chwylog'', the ''chwyl'' part of which means "a turn, a rotation, a course", with an adjective suffix of ''og''.
The river has given its name to the large village of
Wheelock.
Origin
In his book ''The History of Cheshire'' (1778), Daniel King ''et al'' write:
:"The Wheelock is also engendered of three small rivers, which spring not far from
Mowcop Hill. The first cometh from
Morton Hall
Morton Hall is a small village in the civil parish of Swinderby , in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated south-west from the City of Lincoln, and is centrally located between the nearby larger villages of Swind ...
, in
Astbury parish, the other two from
Lawton and
Rode Hall
Rode Hall, a Georgian country house, is the seat of the Wilbraham family, members of the landed gentry in the parish of Odd Rode, Cheshire, England. The estate, with the original timber-framed manor house, was purchased by the Wilbrahams fro ...
, and meet together not far from Sandbach. From whence it passeth to the town and manor place of Wheelock, belonging to Mr. Liversedge; to Elton, where it taketh in the Fulbrook, that cometh out of Oke-hanger Mere; and then goeth to
Warmingham, Sutton Mill, Wheelock Mill, and not far off falleth into the
Dane
Dane or Danes may refer to:
People Pertaining to Denmark
* Dane, somebody from Denmark
* Danes, an ethnic group native to Denmark
* Danes (Germanic tribe)
Other people
* Dane (name), a surname and a given name (and a list of people with the nam ...
at Croxton. This is here to be noted, that like as the water which falleth down on the west-side of Mowcop engendereth the Wheelock, so doth that which falleth on the east-side make the very head of the famous river of Trent. The whole course of the Wheelock is about twelve miles."
Notes and references
Notes
Bibliography
*
*
Rivers of Cheshire
Rivers of Staffordshire
2Wheelock
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