Qualla: Crewe

Crewe: Introduction

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alex Liivet from Chester, United Kingdom, CC0. The old riddle, repeated by local historians for well over a century, runs like this: the place which is Crewe is not Crewe, and the place which is not Crewe is Crewe. It is not a joke. It is an accurate description of the town's geography. The original village of Crewe lay east of the modern town, in the parish of Barthomley. When the Grand Junction Railway opened its station in 1837, the directors built it on farmland not in Crewe township but in the neighbouring township of Monks Coppenhall. They called the station Crewe anyway, because that was the name of the nearby hall and the nearest community of any size. The town that grew up around the station took the station's name. The original village, now called Crewe Green, formally changed its name in 1984 so that the postman would stop getting confused. The town of Crewe, in other words, is named after its own railway station.

Read more: Crewe on Qualla

Image: Alex Liivet from Chester, United Kingdom | CC0

Crewe: The Town That a Junction Built

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Christopher Hilton, CC BY-SA 2.0. Joseph Locke, chief engineer of the Grand Junction, drew up a plan for a new settlement around the station in 1840. The railway company built most of the early houses through the 1840s and 1850s, a planned industrial colony with terraces, churches, schools and a co-operative stor...

Read more: Crewe on Qualla

Image: Christopher Hilton | CC BY-SA 2.0

Crewe: Where the Bentleys Are Made

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jaggery, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Pyms Lane factory on the west side of town has built motorcars since 1946, originally for Rolls-Royce, then for Bentley, and only Bentley since 2003. The split happened when BMW won the rights to the Rolls-Royce brand and Volkswagen kept Bentley, which kept the Crewe factory....

Read more: Crewe on Qualla

Image: Jaggery | CC BY-SA 2.0

Crewe: Why Trains Stop Here

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Steve Daniels, CC BY-SA 2.0. Crewe station is one of the most important interchanges on the British railway network. Twelve platforms in use, served by Avanti West Coast for the inter-city services to London Euston and Glasgow, by Transport for Wales for Cardiff and Wrexham, by London Northwestern for Birmin...

Read more: Crewe on Qualla

Image: Steve Daniels | CC BY-SA 2.0

Crewe: Beyond the Tracks

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Stephen Craven, CC BY-SA 2.0. There is more to Crewe than the railway and the car factory, though both shape almost everything else. Queens Park, restored at a cost of £6.5 million in 2010, is the town's main green space, with walks, a play area and a boating lake. The Grade II-listed Edwardian Lyceum Theatre...

Read more: Crewe on Qualla

Image: Stephen Craven | CC BY-SA 2.0