Obituary - George Twigg

George Twigg, aged 89, retired chemist and salt researcher/historian in Cheshire died peacefully on 25th November, 2016 after a long illness. His funeral was held on 5th December.

George Twigg was a chemist at BP Chemicals in Middlewich and through his work monitoring salt being made by the open pan process at Murgatroyd's Salt Works became interested in the history and development of salt making. He saw the closure of the open pan process and a transfer of production to vacuum evaporation and the phasing out of 'wild brine' pumping and the introduction of controlled brine pumping through solution mining techniques.

More to follow....

Saltcote No.4 Out Soon

Issue 2016, No.4 of Saltcote, the newsletter of Ecosal-UK will be out soon.
Link to appear here, and through our Twitter and Facebook feeds.
Drop us a line to go on our email mailing list.

Fanfare of the Salt

In 1778 Thomas Pennant, during his Tour into Wales, recorded a manuscript, then in the possession of Lewis Morris of Anglesey, of ancient music that held musical notation of a 'Fanfare of the Salt' collected by Robert ap Huw in 1620.
Robert ap Huw made a note that the music would have been played when salt was brought to the table of King Arthur and his knights.

The notation has been brought up to date by Simon Chadwick and a recording upload to Youtube.

Shire Book - The Salt Industry

The Shire Book on The Salt Industry has been reprinted with a new cover illustration.

Link to order a copy at - http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-salt-industry-9780747806486/
On demand printing.
56 page
ISBN s9780747806486

VOTE Lion Salt Works in HLF Heritage Awards 2016

Please vote for the Lion Salt Works in the 2016 Heritage Awards.

Lion Salt Works opened in June 2015 after a 30-year campaign to save the UK’s last open pan salt making site in Cheshire. The four-year restoration has turned a Scheduled Ancient Monument from a dilapidated structure into a museum, preserving a key part of our industrial history.

VOTE at the link below -
http://www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/project/lion-salt-works

Salt Sunday 8th May at Lion Salt Works Cheshire

Shakespeare - 400th Anniversary

'We have some salt of our youth in us.'

William Shakespeare, 
"The Merry Wives of Windsor", Act 2 scene 3

400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare.

Salt Commissioners 1702 to 1798

In a week when the Chancellor of the Exchequer has presented a Spring Statement/Budget I have been tracking down the Commissioners of Salt Duty appointed between 1702 and 1798.
A list was prepared in 2003 by JC Sainty and published by the Institute of Historical Research -http://www.history.ac.uk/publications/office/comms-salt 

I have been trying to find out a bit more about their background, but found many have a very low web presence. If you can find links to any of the Commissioners please leave a comment.
The office was abolished on 28 June 1798.
I number of those I have found seem to have died without leaving male heirs, without children to inherit their lives seem to have been lost.
Some have interesting histories, such as JOHN MORTLOCK, the last to be appointed in the year the office was abolished.
John Mortlock (1755-1815)  described the role of Commissioner of Salt Duty as  'a troublesome office of small value'  and having been accused by his opponents as being corrupt his response, which is recorded on a blue plaque in Cambridge, was -
"without influence, which you call corruption, men will not be induced to support government, though they generally approve of its measures"  the blue plaque qualifies this with "his bitterest political opponents never impeached his business honesty".  
John Mortlock's bank in Cambridge eventually sold out Barclays in 1896.

THOMAS EVARARD joined from the Excise and published a book using his slide rule to guage barrels - https://archive.org/details/stereometryorar00evergoog

JOSHUA CHURCHILL committed suicide by cutting his throat at his home.

Two Commissioners had their portraits painted by Thomas Gainsborough.

Currently, still NO information at all about THOMAS SUTTON and THOMAS MILNER.
Currently, still no residence or grave for JOHN DANVERS, JAMES CARDONNEL, HUMPHREY GRIFFITH and LEWIS GEORGE SCHELE.
SCHELE was only a short appointment and later appears as a debtor in the Fleet Prison.
Any help would be appreciated......



https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.728893,-1.8255367,7z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!6m1!1szKjwvuCnCd3E.kZ53ERGjbb4A?hl=en-GB

Andrew Fielding is building a map with references to salt sites across the UK.
It is being constantly updated, so is 'work in progress'.
Please send in any suggestions for sites to add to the map.

 

Salt and Light Service - Chester Cathedral 24 Jan 2016