Saltcote 2014 newsletter No.2

Saltcote 2014  No2

http://issuu.com/ecosaluk/docs/saltcote-2014-no2/1

Second Newsletter in Preparation

Just finishing off the second Saltcote newsletter.
Should be emailed out bend end of the week.
Any last submissions?

STRA Workshop 13-14 November

Bid to Europe - wellbeing, salt and tourism

Bid for an EU grant, to help with promoting the heritage of salt, failed when we couldn't even get the application completed - because not one of the nine organisations from five countries would commit themselves to act as the Lead Partner and take responsibility for managing the paperwork and financial form filling on behalf of the whole project.

It's a risk averse world. But it has meant that a possible 250,000 euros now isn't available to help promote the heritage of traditional salt making in Spain, Portugal, Germany, UK and Bulgaria. Thats about £56,000 lost to the UK salt projects to help tourism, the ECOSAL-UK Salt Network and SMEs in Cumbria, Cornwall and Wales.

Winsford Salt Fair Regatta 2014

The Winsford Salt Fair 2014 features a regatta of narrowboats and also commemorates the sacrifices of World War l made by men of Winsford.

Tour K - AIA - Nantwich, Middlewich and Northwich

On Wednesday 10 Sept 2014 Andrew Fielding led a tour of the salt landscapes of Cheshire, visiting Nantwich, Middlewich and Northwich.
It was a hot and sunny September day and was a highly enjoyable day accompanying 50 members of the Association for Industrial Archaeology.
The tour left Chester at 9.30 arriving at Nantwich Museum at 10.30 where the group was received by Graham Dodd and shown their exhibits of lead salt pans and a rare,wooden 'salt ship', a hollowed out tree trunk used as for brine storage.
We arrived at Murgatroyds Brine Pump at 12 noon to be guided around the site by Kerry Fletcher, Heritage Officer, Middlewich Town Council and three of her volunteer guides. The group then strolled along the Trent and Meresy Canal to have lunch at The Big Lock.
We moved on to Northwich at 14.15 to visit Ashtons and Neumanns Flashes, a country park created around the area of collapsed rock salt mines on the north side of Northwich, before walking the short distance to the Lion Salt Works at Marston to be given a guided tour of the almost completed restoration works at the last surviving open pan salt works built and operated by the Thompson family, which also is situated on the Trent and Mersey Canal.
Many of the founder members of the AIA had visited the Lion Salt Works when it had been operational and had a good appreciation about the difficulties of preserving and restoring a salt making site where all the component parts have suffered through dilapidation or the aggressive and corrosive nature of the process and the materials. The AIA have made a special grant to the Lion Salt Works Trust towards the restoration of the salt van which sits at the entrance to the site.

Murgatroyds Brine Pump, Middlewich.

Lunch at The Big Lock, Middlewich.

Lion Salt Works, Marston, Northwich.
Salt van can be seen on the right.

Chris Hewitson describing the restoration works inside the Lion Salt Works.

Talk at AIA Conference Sept 2014

Andrew Fielding gave three talks to the Association for Industrial Archaeologists; 2014 Conference.
The first was a general introduction on salt. The second  was a presentation on the unique timber framed buildings of Northwich designed to withstand subsidence caused by brine pumping and rocksalt mining. The third covered the formation of ECOSAL-UK as a legacy of the Ecosal-Atlantis project and as part of the Traditional Salt Route of the Atlantic.
Andrew was also able to display a draft copy of the book he has produced with Annelise Fielding about the set of photographs taken of Northwich in 1891-2 at the passing of teh 1891 Brine Compensation for Subsidence act of 1891. It will be available from A&A Fielding Ltd or directly from the on-demand publisher Blurb in October.

Ingoldmells Style Salt Pans Demonstration at Saltfleet, Lincolnshire

Creating Dry Land - publication in 'Water History'

Creating Dry Land in SE Lindsey
Iain Simmons

Water History

September 2014, Volume 6, Issue 3, pp 211-225

Salt Heritage Open Days 2014 - Northwich, Nantwich, Middlewich, Winsford

Follow the link Middlewich Salt Heritage 2014 for the events programme in Winsford and Middlewich for September and October Salt Fair and World War 1 Events.
A Salt Trail walk is planned by Nantwich Museum on Sat 13 Sept.
The Lion Salt Works and Butterfly Garden will be open on Sat 13 September

BBC Radio 4 - Open Country

BBC Radio 4 programme Open Country talks about Cheshire Salt on Thursday 21 August 2014 at 15.00
repeated Saturday 23 August at 6.05am.
Felicity Evans taks to Andrew Fielding, Ecosal-UK; Kerry Fletcher, Midlewich Town Council Heritage Office; Chris Hewitson, Cheshire West and Chester, Lion Salt Works and goes below ground to the Winsford Rock Salt Mine, Compas and Minerals.

Sel-athlon -23 August 2014 - L'Ecomusee du Marais Salant

Salt making Demonstrations at Saltfleet, Lincolnshire 10 Aug 2014

We shall be demonstrating our replica Ingoldmells ceramic salt pans at the Saltfleet Gala Day on Sunday 10 August.
We will be part of the Lincolnshire Coastal Grazing Marshes Project and Heritage Lincolnshire displays.

Video made on the day - which was sadly washed out by the back end of Huricane Bertha.

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Contribution to BBC Radio 4 Programme 'Open Country'

Andrew Fielding contributed to a BBC Radio 4 programme about the heritage of salt making in Cheshire for the BBC Radio 4 programme Open Country.
Also contributing were Kerry Fletcher of Heritage Officer at Middlewich Town Council and Chris Hewitson from the Lion Salt Works. Mark Smalley and Felicity Evans followed up the visits to Ashton's and Neumann's Flashes, Lion Salt Works and the Anderton Lift (making the link between the River Weaver and the Trent and Mersey Canal) by going underground at the Winsford rock salt mine operated as a Compass and Minerals company.

Ashton's Flash

Neumann's Flash

Andrew Fielding - Ecosal-UK  with
Mark Smalley and Felicity Evans from BBC Radio 4's  Open Country

Meeting for the Formation of a Salt Group for Iberia

Salt Sunday - May 2014

The Bishop of Birkenhead again led a celebration of salt and chemicals in Cheshire at his annual Salt Sunday today.

Bishop of Birkenhead with Kerry Fletcher, Middlewich Heritage
and Sifta Sam.

Invitation to Construct a New Saltcote for Halen Mon

Halen Mon are inviting expressions of interest from suitably experienced main contractors to undertake construction of this new 990 square metre building at Brynsiencyn, Anglesey, NW Wales.
 See http://halenmon.com/modules/blog/article.aspx?id=52&title=an_invitation 
Deadline to apply Midday 14th March 2014. Contractors satisfying the initial basic criteria will be invited to tender by March 18th with the start on site date May 2014. Project supported by Coastal Communities Fund,Welsh Government, Sustainable Development Fund and Halen Mon.

Climate Change

We are worried about damage the recent storms are doing to our coastline and to salt making sites.
Please let us know if you have any photographs of damage.

English Heritage produced a report in 2012 highlighting the threats from sea level rises and climate change.
Download link - Climate Change and the Historic Environment

Digital Back Copies of The Mundling Stick

The Lion Salt Works Project has made available all the back copies of the newsletter, The Mundling Stick written by Andrew Fielding whilst he was Project Director of the Lion Salt Works Trust employed by Vale Royal Borough Council. The newsletter was a quarterly publication produced from 1995 until Andrew left the project in 2010.

Councillor Stuart Parker, Executive Member for Culture and Economy, said: “The Mundling Stick newsletters are a real asset to the historic story of the Lion Salt Works.

“They illustrate the vital role the Trust has played in bringing us to where we are today – with the £8.8m restoration of this unique historic site well underway.

“I am delighted that the newsletters can now be accessed online. Not only is this fascinating resource more accessible to a wider audience, it is also preserved for future generations.”Trust Chairman Nick Hunt said: “The Lion Salt Works Trust have always regarded the Mundling Stick as a primary way of communicating the salt heritage story to local and wider interest groups.

“It will be an invaluable archive in understanding how the Salt Works came to be regenerated.”

Talk to Frodsham History Society, Cheshire

THE HISTORY OF TRADITIONAL SALT MAKING IN THE UK

Andrew Fielding will be talking to the 

Frodsham & District History Society 

on 

Monday 3rd February 

at 7.30pm.

meet at the Main Street Community Church, main street, Frodsham Cheshire WA6 7DF

Wales and the Sea

Andrew Fielding attended a presentation this morning in Bangor, North Wales by Maritime Heritage Wales Ltd about their project 'Wales and the Sea.

More info about this to follow. Just wanted to get the picture up on line asap.

Haen Mon on Awarded EU Protected Status

Alison Lea-Wilson from Halen Mon said; “We’re absolutely delighted that Halen Mon is the first Welsh PDO status and joins the other greats of Welsh Lamb and Beef and Pembrokeshire Early Potatoes. Consumers can now be 100% sure that when they buy Halen Mon Anglesey Sea Salt they are getting a product which has been harvested and packed in Anglesey.”

http://www.halenmon.com/modules/blog/article.aspx?id=45&title=halen_mn_wins_eu_protection
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-25733449

Coastal Erosion of Salt Sites and Salt Marshes

The weather in the UK has been very aggressive over the past month with pulses of Atlantic storm surges sweeping across the Atlantic. There has been widespread flooding and coastal erosion. Most spectacularly has been the effect of the waves at Aberystwyth esplanade.
Ecosal-UK is writing round to all our contacts to get an impression about how salt making sites and salt marshes have stood up to the intense effects of high spring tides, deep low pressure systems and storm force SW winds.
If you have any images or observations please send them in to saltmaster@ecosal-uk.org.uk