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 tow ...

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 ...

. 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 The River Dane is a tributary of the River Weaver that originates in the Peak District area of England. The name of the river (earlier ''Daven'') is probably from the Old Welsh ''dafn'', meaning a "drop or trickle", implying a slow-moving river. ...

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 ...

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 Sw ...

, 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 from ...

, 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 Warmingham is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the River Wheelock (at ), north of Crewe, south of Middlewich and miles west of Sandbach. The parish also include ...

, Sutton Mill, Wheelock Mill, and not far off falleth into the Dane 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 {{England-river-stub