The 37th North West Regional Industrial Archaeology Conference (NWIAC 37) will be on Saturday 23rd September 2017. CBA North West have teamed up with the Saltscape Landscape Partnership and the Centre for Applied Archaeology at the University of Salford to bring you the latest regional research on the archaeology of the salt industry.

The last regional conference on this theme was in October 2002 and that led to the ‘Brine in Britannia’ monograph, which CBA NW published in 2005. Like then, this conference will be hosted by the Lion Salt Works and thanks to HLF support will be free. The talks will focus mainly on the post-medieval industry, and will include the results of two seasons of work by Salford University at the Ollershaw Lane Salt Works site, opposite the Lion Salt Works.

Details of the North West Regional Research Update project will be available on the day, along with draft copies of the Post-Medieval and Industrial resource chapters.

Online booking can be found here:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/northwest-industrial-archaeology-conference-2017-tickets-36688714934?ref=estw

NWIAC 37 Saltscape Programme

9.30 Registration, tea coffee.

10.00 Introduction

10.10 – Andrew Fielding: Archaeology and Salt in Britain – latest research10.40 – Mike Nevell: The Archaeology of Salt in Cheshire11.10 – Sarah Cattell: Excavations at Ollershaw Lane salt Works, 2016 to 201711.40 – Chris Wild: The Murgatroyd Brine Pump12.10 – David George: Salt in West Cumbria12.30 – Roy Forshaw: Salt in the Merseyside area: recent work

13.00 – 14.00 lunch14.00 – Tour of Ollershaw Lane Salt Works15.00 – Tour of – Lion Salt Works4pm Summary and Questions, tea and coffee

Bid to AHRC in Partnership with Salford University

Our next grant application should be submitted by the end of this month.
It is to the Arts and Humanities Research Council and aims to describe all different process of salt making from 1500, create a 'trusted sources' archive and reconstruct all the process and major sites using 3d graphics using the University's THINKlab.

There is a growing need for this approach as more and more publications carry on repeating outdated publications and ones that are just WRONG -

• Agricola's illustration do not show salt making in the Saxon period! They show illustrations of salt making described by someone from Saxony, Germany.
• A publication of 2006 quotes a reference of a publication dated 1920 attributing the discover of rock salt in 1670 as having been made in Droitwich, when it should have been in Northwich!
• A celebrity chef described how white salt was made in Cheshire from rock salt by taking the liquid out of the rock. A bit of a difference to the operation of evaporating brine made under ground by rainwater soaking through the ground and dissolving rock salt.
• The historic use of rock salt to strengthen sea water in the eighteenth century was not an 'adulteration of sea water' it was a realistic opportunity to make white salt using less fuel.
• Salt has not been 'mined' in Cheshire from the Roman period. It was made from extracting brine from natural brine springs that were enhanced by digging wells.
• Is a 'leaden' salt pan made of lead, or is it just heavy?
• A 'salt ship' found in Nantwich was used to store brine in, and is not a log boat!

Our work is desperately needed. Please leave comments here in support of the application.
Thank you.

HLF Bid Failed

Sadly our bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund was unsuccessful.

We have requested a better feed back than the refusal letter, as it seemed that our bid did not satisfy any of the criteria required for the particular type of grant award we were requesting.
It seems that what we want to wont meet the criteria for Your Heritage, Resilient Heritage or Sharing Knowledge - doesn't pay for translations and that digital publications are not a high priority.

We have as yet not been given feedback that the case officer ever downloaded and read the digital reports we posted in a shared dropbox folder, or that any of the committee ever had the opportunity to read it either.

We thought that the digital formats (i-book, epub, pdf and html5) explained well how the approach we proposed was cutting edge and inline with how information exchange and organisations would use digital technology in the future. It was also able to show how the guidance provided by the HLF for the use of digital technology in Heritage Lottery projects was outdated - having been written in 2012. Things have moved on a lot since then in the digital world!

Comments Requested about Translations

Ecosal-UK is applying for grants to help develop a UK Salt Network.
Can you send us your opinion about a particular for some of the work? - transaltions.

One application is designed as a community collaboration, pooling information about salt making and cultural associations of salt in a particular region of England. The completed work will be published in a free to download multi-touch, enhanced i-book, 250 pages.

We requested funds to translate the completed i-book into foreign languages - specifically Portuguese, Spanish, French and German (apologise to other countries not included in this list). This would enable a specific engagement with the Traditional Salt Route of the Atlantic and the European Route of Industrial Heritage.

Feedback about the application suggested that "having a number of translated books could affect the value for money your project offers, as (our) funding should be used to support projects where the primary recipients are based in the UK."

Naturally the project partners we will be working with are all based in England.

• The completed work will produce an i-book in English that will promote the salt heritage of many sites covering multiple periods and different methods of production. 
• It will include audio, video 3d graphics, photo galleries and widgets commonly found in i-books and will also include hyperlinks to web sites that will promote the sites, museums and businesses who worked on the collaboration. 
• In producing the book participants who have not used i-books before will receive training in how they work and how they are made. 
• Groups and individuals will be encouraged to continue working together with Ecosal-UK to sustain a Salt Network that can be extended to other regions in the UK.
• Ecosal-UK and the UK Salt Network will work to make links with overseas salt museums and salt sites.

Can you send some comments about :-

1. Should translations of our salt heritage i-book be seen as 'value for money' by the funding body?

2. Does translated material primarily benefit the foreign reader?

or, 

3. Does translated material primarily benefit the originating body, through making its information available to a wider audience?

4. Should there be more British heritage books translated into foreign languages?

5. Do British based projects assume everyone will read their material in English?
6. Do overseas readers mind reading British publications in English?
7. If you provide translation of your works, how do you pay for them?
8. How might I get funding to translate this type of publication. Or perhaps just use web based translations despite their limitations with technical details?

Please post your reply in the comments box below for all to read, 

or email andrew.fielding (at) ecosal-uk.org.uk 

10th April 2017

Two New Grant Applications

We have two new grant applications in play.

The first is an application to the HLF NW in partnership with the Council for British Archaeology to help develop the Salt Network. This would use the North West of England as a case study. It would also help to feed information into the updating of the North West Region's Archaeological Framework.
The principal focus is to bring together a diverse collection of sites, individuals and organisations with an interest in the history of salt making and its cultural associations.
The project would enable all collaborators to work together to create an interactive e-book which would not only help with future research by creating trusted sources but would help create a tourism trail based on our salt heritage which Ecosal-UK would manage and maintain.
A possible starting point for a UK Salt Network and Salt Route was proposed during the Ecosal-Atlantis project in 2011. See the Pages section - Ecosal-Atlantis - UK Salt Sites.

The second is a bid to the Arts and Humanities Research Council being prepared by Ecosal UK in partnership with the Centre for Applied Archaeology at the University of Salford. This would be for a three year research project to create a national time-line for the history of salt making, to go back to all archive sources and to collate all the existing survey data, regional frameworks and coastal zone surveys with reference to salt making from AD 1500. The project would hold four workshops and create innovate 3d graphical reconstructions of all the different salt making sites and the processes and techniques used at them.

We have our fingers crossed.

Salt Sunday 7th May 2017

Salt Sunday will be celebrated by the Bishop of Birkenhead on Sunday 7th May 2015.

Bishop Keith Sinclair, Bishop of Birkenhead send you a personal invitation to attend at The Lion Salt Works, Marston, Northwich, Cheshire 1.30 - 4.00pm

Geodiversity One Day Conference Friday 23 June 2017

One Day Conference
Free
Lion Salt Works Museum, Northwich
Friady 23 June 2017

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1-day-free-public-geodiversity-conference-tickets-31222901539?aff=erelpanelorg