The River Wheelock is a small river in

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

in north west

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It drains water from the area between

Sandbach Sandbach (pronounced ) is a market town and civil parish in the Cheshire East borough of Cheshire, England. The civil parish contains four settlements: Sandbach, Elworth, Ettiley Heath and Wheelock, Cheshire, Wheelock. At the 2021 United Kingd ...

and

Crewe Crewe () is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census, the parish had a population of 55,318 and the built-up area had a population of 74,120. ...

, and joins the River Dane at

Middlewich Middlewich is a town and civil parish in Cheshire East, Cheshire, England. It is located east of Chester, east of Winsford, south-east of Northwich and north-west of Sandbach. The population of the parish at the United Kingdom 2021 census, ...

(), 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 1721 and the work, which included ...

Northwich Northwich is a market town and civil parish in the Cheshire West and Chester borough of Cheshire, England. It lies on the Cheshire Plain, at the confluence of the rivers Weaver and Dane, east of Chester, south of Warrington and south of Ma ...

. Alternative names for the river 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, in Astbury parish, the other two from Lawton and Rode Hall, 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 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