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.
A blog for those interested in the heritage and culture of traditional salt making in the UK.
Showing posts with label Lion Salt Works. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lion Salt Works. Show all posts
Sunday, 3 July 2016
Wednesday, 4 May 2016
Wednesday, 10 September 2014
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.
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.
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| Murgatroyds Brine Pump, Middlewich. |
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| Lunch at The Big Lock, Middlewich. |
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| Lion Salt Works, Marston, Northwich. Salt van can be seen on the right. |
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| Chris Hewitson describing the restoration works inside the Lion Salt Works. |
Saturday, 23 August 2014
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
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
Thursday, 17 July 2014
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.
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.
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| Ashton's Flash |
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| Neumann's Flash |
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| Andrew Fielding - Ecosal-UK with Mark Smalley and Felicity Evans from BBC Radio 4's Open Country |
Tuesday, 4 February 2014
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.”
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