local. Also 7 wietch. [app. a differentiated variant of WICK sb.2; cf. ditch and dike (OE. díc), lich and lyke (OE. líc). The orig. meaning may have been the group of buildings connected with a salt-pit. The chief names of salt-making towns in which the word occurs are Droitwich (formerly Wich) in Worcestershire, Middlewich, Nantwich, and Northwich in Cheshire.] A salt-works, salt-pit, or brine-spring, in the salt-manufacturing district of Cheshire and neighboring parts; pl. the salt-making towns of these parts.
716–7. in Birch, Cartul. Sax., I. 203. Aliquam agelli partem in qua sal confici solet ad meridianam plagam fluminis quod dicunt Saluuerpe, in loco qui dicitur Lootwic et Coolbeorg.
1086. Domesday Bk., Cheshire, 268. In eodem Mildestvic Hvndredo erat tercium Wich quod uocatur Norvvich,… Ipsæ leges & consuetudines erant ibi quæ erant in alijs Wiches…. Cætera omnia in his Wichis sunt similia.
11[?]. (spurious charter) in Birch, Cartul. Sax., I. 203. Wich…. Unam portionem mansionis in Wico emptorio salis quem nos Salt-wich vocamus.
c. 1250. Matth. Paris, Chron. Majora, an. 1245 (Rolls), IV. 486. Rex insuper puteos fecerat salinarum de Witz obturari et everti.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XXXI. vii. II. 415. In Chaonia there be certaine springs of saltish water, which the people of that country doe boile, and when it is cooled agains, it turneth into salt. margin, This is the order of salt with us in our Wiches here in England. Ibid. (1610), Camden’s Brit., I. 607. These are verie famous Salt-wiches [Camden salinæ],… where brine or salt water is drawne out of pittes. Ibid., 608. The Britans call it Hellath wen, that is, The white Wich or Salt pitte.
1612. Drayton, Poly-olb., iii. 265. But that which vext her most, was, that … th’ Wyches for their Salts such state on them should take.
1613. A. Standish, New Direct., 15. In Cheshire neere vnto the Witches (where Salt is made…).
1692. J. Collins, Salt & Fish., 2. At Namptwich they have one Pit within the Town, and two without,… the Bryne being … of a weaker kind than those of the other Wyches.
1810. Lysons, Magna Brit., II. 699.
1860. W. White, All round Wrekin, 38. There lies the region of salt-mines, and of the wyches or brine springs which began to flow long before Henry III. stopped the works at Nantwich to distress the Welsh by deprivation of salt.
b. Comb.: wich-(wych-)house, a building in which brine is evaporated for making salt; wich-man, a man employed in salt-making; wich-waller, a salt-boiler; † wich-work = wich-house.
1534. (12 May) Ancient Deeds, C. 7583 (P. R. O.). Rauff Maynwaryng of Mydlewiche sendeth gretyng … that where Richard Leftwiche the younger and Margret his wyff have giffen … all their meses *wiche houses landes … to Richard Maynwaryng [etc.].
1559. Lanc. Wills (Chetham Soc., 1861), 125. My hole estate of halffe a wyche house in the Northewyche wtin the countye of Chester.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 608. Troughes … by which it [sc. brine] is carried into the wich houses.
1756. C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, II. 35. The houses in which the salt works are carried on are called also wich-houses.
1818. J. W. Platt, Hist. Nantwich, 78. Earl Edwin had a wych-house upon his estate at Aughton.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 161/2. A Salter, or Salt-Man, or *Wich-Man.
1670. Ray, Prov., 208. To scold like a *wych-waller.
1298. in Rogers, Agric. & Prices (1866), I. xix. 456. [The saltern in which the brine was evaporated is called a] *wychwerke.
