WINSFORD  , an

urban district in the Northwich parliamentary division of Cheshire, England, on the river Weaver, 6 m . S. of Northwich, on the London & North-Western railway and the Cheshire lines . Pop . (1901) 10,382 . In the town, which is only second to Northwich in this respect, large quantities of salt are raised and conveyed to Liverpool for exportation; being shipped in flats down the Weaver, which has been rendered navigable by an elaborate system of locks . Rock-salt is procured, as well as that obtained from the brine-pools . Boat-building is an important accompanying industry, and more than half a million tons of salt are shipped annually . Owing to the pumping of the brine, large tracts of land have been submerged, and there is thus a constant danger to houses . The iron bridge across the Weaver, which was built in 1856, had to be raised thrice in the following twenty-six years . The town has received much benefit from philanthropists, Sir Joseph Verdin providing a technical school, and Sir John Brunner a guildhall and other buildings .