SOUVENIRS of your visit to the museum and Nantwich - such as the Civil War cannon (left) - can be bought from the small shop area at the desk within the main gallery. Postcards and stationery items can also be bought here. There are many excellent books, packed with local information, on sale, such as the ones below.

l It is perfectly safe to buy the cannon. It is actually a pencil sharpener! 

A RECENT addition to the Museum Shop shelves, this book looks at the story of salt production throughout the county from a number of aspects - the history, the location of the salt works, the workers, salt tax, etc. There are excellent colour photographs to accompany Andrew and Annelise Fielding's text. There are also useful appendices, including a glossary of salt terms, and places to visit to learn more - including Nantwich Museum, of course. Nantwich's part in the salt story merits several mentions.

Price: £5.99. 

TWO Nantwich videos are available in the Museum Shop. The first is our own "Ship Ahoy - The raising of the Nantwich salt ship" which follows the story from the rescuing of the ship from the Nantwich mud through to its "launch" in the Museum - including behind-the-scenes footage. 38 minutes, 4:3 ratio, DVD or VHS tape, PAL, colour. £5.95.  

THE second is a video tour of St Mary's Parish Church, including parts of the church not normally seen by visitors. 40 minutes, 4:3 ratio, DVD only, PAL, colour. £6.95.

"Park Road Bowling Club - The First Hundred Years" is the title of this book by Museum Trust member, Derek Hughes. It follows the story of the club from 1906 to 2006.

   The club, on the corner of Park Road, is on land that was once the site of the Brine Baths Hotel, now a housing estate. Pictured right are modern day bowlers, from the book.

   The price is £2.   

"Lost Houses in Nantwich" recalls many buildings in Nantwich that are no more than a memory to some people. Using photographs from the Museum and other sources, Andrew Lamberton and the late Robin Gray have produced a book with 160 pages packed with long-lost views and specially-written descriptions of the buildings, together with information about what stands on the site today. The price is £16.99.

THE story of the Malbon family from Cheshire started just after the Norman Conquest of 1066, and their history is told in "The Malbons, Eight Hundred Years of Family History." Some of the family lived at Bradeley Hall, Haslington, near Crewe, until 1726. During the First Civil War in England in the 1640s, one of the family, Thomas Malbon wrote a Parliamentarian record of the conflict - "Memorials of the Civil War in Cheshire and the Adjacent Counties". The Malbon family story is told by Canadian author, Barbara Lynch, who researched the story over seven years. The museum has a limited stock of the book, which is priced at £16.50.

Jane Stevenson's book "Nantwich: a brief history and guide" (left), tells the story of the market and floral town of Nantwich.  Written by one of the Museum's volunteers, it is the ideal book for anyone newly arrived in town or visitors who simply want to get to know more about us.

"Firefighting in the Borough of Crewe and Nantwich" (right), compiled by Crewe firefighter, Gareth Roberts, covers Crewe, Nantwich, Audlem and Crewe Railway Works fire brigades. There are chapters on the decades from the war years to the 21st century, complete with photographs. Proceeds from the sale of the book go to the Fire Services National Benevolent Fund. 

"An Historical Account of the Town and Parish of Nantwich; With a particular Relation of the remarkable Siege it sustained in the Grand Rebellion in 1643" (breath) is the title of this book, written in 1774 by Joseph Partridge. This is a new edition of the work with some notes from Hall's "History of Nantwich" added. 

The Brine Baths Hotel in Nantwich was a centre for people who wished to indulge in baths fed from the hotel's own brine spring. It has been demolished and the land is now a housing estate. Derek Hughes (again) tells the history of the hotel and some of the people who worked there.

Other books on sale in the shop include:

lThe story of Wybunbury and its 18 townships - near to Nantwich - is told in a book on sale in the shop entitled simply "Wybunbury".   

lFor details of "Rhythms of Life - Dorothy Bradford", the illustrated book on the work of the Nantwich artist, click here.

lTo read about Peter Jones' book on Lieutenant Richard Illidge (1637-1709) of Wybunbury, near Nantwich, click here.

The Museum Shop has many other items on sale, including this Ordnance Survey Map of Nantwich in 1908. The large scale map, published as The Godfrey Edition, will be a valuable aid for anyone researching their family history, or who wishes to know how the town streets were laid out at the start of the 20th century.