Salt Sunday 2015 - Blessing the Brine

Salt Sunday 2015 Poster

Poster for the 2015 Salt Sunday event
and the
Ascension Day song 'Blessing the Brine'
being revived by Nantwich Museum.

Blessing the Brine - a Nantwich Festival to be Revived

We have been helping Nantwich Museum to find a tune for an old, mostly forgotten song Blessing the Brine. This was reputedly sung at Ascension Day at a holiday to bless the brine well in Nantwich.
The words are recorded in Egerton Leigh's book Cheshire Ballads and Tales published in 1867. The festival was recorded by Rev Joseph Partridge in 1774 and mentioned by Thomas Pennant in his Travels written in 1784.

Our colleague in Ecosal-UK, Tom Lane, is part of a folk group in Lincolnshire and with Nigel Creasey and Teri Clarke kindly arranged a traditional folk tune to the words.

Video of Blessing the Brine recorded by Nigel Creasey and Teri Clarke.

I.

and CHORUS.

WREATHS of varied hues we bring,

Flowers of the early spring,

Hand in hand we join a ring,

Round Old Biat pit to sing, God bless the Brine.

II.

     Gather ‘Paigles,’ bring ‘Lent Lilies,’

Of ‘Sweet Nancy’ tie up posies;

Add ‘Ladies Smock’ all silver white,

‘Marsh Marygolds,’ childhood’s delight

Chorus, Wreaths &c.

III.

Bawme the Old Pit with ribbands gay,

Torn from the groves green boughs display,

Whilst we in holiday attire

Lead the fleet dance both child and sire.

Chorus, Wreaths &c

IV.

Sound the lound trimbrel, beat the drum,

Nor let the clarion’s throat be dumb,

Here let us feast, and sing, and play;

Ascension’s feast’s our holiday.

Chorus, Wreaths &c.

V.

Long since, before the Roman host

In pomp of war old Cheshire crost,

This pit our fathers’ labouring saw,

The garnered hoards from earth to draw.

Chorus, Wreaths &c.

VI.

We bless the author of all good,

For that which savours all our food;

Of gifts on man that showered are,

What gift to this can we compare?

Chorus, Wreaths &c.

VII.

The finny treasures of the deep,

The flocks that climb the mountain steep,

All food spread over plain and lea,

Without our salt would tasteless be?

Chorus, Wreaths &c.

VIII.

Pledge of true friendship, for its sake

Wild Arabs scorn their faith to break;

Nor will their truth e’er prove at fault

Towards him with whom they’ve eaten salt.

Chorus, Wreaths &c.

IX.

We envy not climes where we’re told

The rivers run o’er sands of gold,

Nor sigh we for Golcondas’s mine

Whilst we can boast our pits of brine.

Chorus, Wreaths &c.

X.

We hear in foreign lands, salt sick,

The wild herds roam in search of lick.

Who by words may dare to measure

The price of this heavenly treasure.

Chorus, Wreaths &c.

XI.

So when Ascension’s morn appears,

As years succeeding follow years,

Shall ‘Hellath Wen’ her children see

United here for mirth and glee.

Chorus, Wreaths &c.

XII.

And as our Saviour on this day

Triumphant rose from earth away,

So shall our thanks to Heaven arise,

So let our praises reach the skies.

CHORUS.

Wreaths of varied hue we bring,

Flowers of the early spring,

Hand in hand we form a ring,

Round Old Biat pit to sing, God bless the Brine.

Tune:

Nantwich Museum Comic about Salt History

The latest history of Nantwich in comic book form is published by Nantwich Museum, Cheshire
Info to follow here

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.

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