Sandbach

Coordinates: 53°08′46″N 2°22′01″W / 53.146°N 2.367°W / 53.146; -2.367

Sandbach (pronounced sand-batch  pronunciation ) is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The civil parish contains four settlements; Sandbach itself, Elworth, Ettiley Heath and Wheelock.

Sandbach is perhaps best known as the original home of Foden and ERF lorries, though neither company now exists in the town, 12-times National Brass Band Championship winners, Foden's Band, the ancient Saxon Sandbach Crosses, and Sandbach services on the M6 motorway.

History

Known as Sanbec in 1086, Sondbache (also Sondebache) in 1260, and Sandbitch in the 17–18th centuries, Sandbach derives its name from the Anglo-Saxon sand bæce, which can mean "sand stream" or "sand valley".

Traces of settlement are found in Sandbach from Saxon times, when the town was called Sanbec. Little is known about the town during this period, except that it was subjected to frequent Welsh and Danish raids. The town's inhabitants were converted to Christianity in the 7th century by four priests: Cedda, Adda, Betti and Diuma. The town has an entry in the Domesday Book from 1086, at which time it was sufficiently large to need a priest and a church. The entry states:

Sandbach (Acher)

The Sandbach is a river in the counties of Rastatt and Baden-Baden in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. From its source it runs, initially as the Bühlot, northwestwards within the Northern Black Forest, then out onto the Upper Rhine Plain heading north-northeast at first before swinging northwest again to its confluence. Its mouth lies 29.1 kilometres below its source near Iffezheim, where it discharges from the right into the lower reaches of the Acher which are known as the Altrheinzug ("Old Rhine Course").

Geography

The source region of the Sandbach lies near the Black Forest High Road (B500) between Hundseck and Unterstmatt on the Hochkopf at a height of about 855 m above sea level (NN).

The Sandbach, in its upper reaches called the "Bühlot", flows steeply downhill in a northerly direction, meeting several small streams such as the „Rotwässerle. At its confluence with Wiedenbach, which joins from the direction of Sand and has a tributary, the Gertelbach on which are the Gertelbach Falls beloved of hikers, the Sandbach changes its direction to the northwest. Here it runs through the municipality of Bühlertal, where it is joined from the left by the streams of Grünebächle and Eichwaldbächle and, from the right, by the Liehenbach and other small brooks. In addition, in Bühlertal, it crosses the lake of Bühlot-Bad, named after the local name for the Sandbach.