Complementary Local History

Much of the research of history in Nantwich has focused, understandably, on the ‘big four topics’ local salt production from Roman times until its ending by the 1860s; the major fire of 1583; the Battle of Nantwich in 1644; and the story of the medieval St. Mary's Church. We believe that there is a relatively unexplored, yet complementary, narrative that delivers a broader, more diverse, historical context to the history of the town and of the people who live in it. "Nantwich Psychedelia" is one such complementary narrative.

British Psychedelic Music

Around 1967 artists and bands emerged from the British blues scene, influenced by folk, jazz and a growing sense of psychedelia, including artists such as Donovan, Pink Floyd, Traffic, Soft Machine, Cream, and the London-based Jimi Hendrix Experience. As a parallel development, already established bands such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Small Faces and The Who also began to use psychedelic rock influences inspiring the newer bands such as Procul Harum who’s “Whiter Shade of Pale” became anthemic. Commercialism of what had been a counterculture soon followed however. Now as new rock bands proliferated, the commercial fashion industry took notice, and men’s hair grew longer.

Not all people thought this change in thinking was wonderful and concerns about sexual behaviour, drug taking, and a sense of moral panic proliferated. In 1968, a year after the original ‘Summer of Love’, a witty, sceptical and eclectic Los Angeles musician, Frank Zappa, intoned with a high degree of sarcasm that“…every town must have a place where phony hippies meet, Psychedelic Dungeons popping up on every Street” Was Zappa right? Psychedelia? A commercialised counterculture? Psychedelic Dungeons…in Nantwich? What you have read so far are merely preliminary thoughts; let us expand on them in future posts!

Psychedelic Dungeons: Nantwich in the Summer of Love 1967

Psychedelic Dungeons:

Nantwich in the Summer of Love 1967