Sandbach is mentioned in Bradshaw’s illustrated handbook for tourists in Great Britain and Ireland:
Crewe to Stockport and Manchester
SANDBACH Cheshire
POPULATION, 5,259
Distance from station, 1½ mile
HOTEL — George
MARKET DAY — Thursday
FAIRS — Easter Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday after Sept 11th and Dec 27th
This is a town occupying a very pretty situation on the banks of the river Wheelock und embracing within its prospect a panorama that extends from the Welslı mountains in the west to the Derbyshire hills in the east. It has no distinct manufacture of its own but shares in the silk trade to a small extent, whilst being on the verge of the salt region, it derives some additional traffic from that proximity. Lord Crewe is the owner of the place. Its Grammar School is a well known institution.
There are some excellent brine springs; St Mary’s old Church, and a fine old Cross in the Market Place.
From Sandbach a line 9 miles long was opened Ist July 1868 to MIDDLEWICH and NORTHWICH on the Cheshire Midland, and from thence to ACTON in connection with trains to Warrington and the North.