WEEK 14 - Day 53 Fencing and Wrapping

Preparations were made today for the new gates at the entrance to the salt works. A new wooden fence was installed between our entrance and our neighbours and the vegetation was cut back to help with the installation of the gates, which will be erected next Monday. The fence butts up to the Smithy building, where the salt pans, salt tools and salt boxes were made and repaired. The new fence will be shown next week.

External elevations were wrapped to help protect them over the winter from wind and rain. This the east elevation of Pan House 4.

Electric chipping hammers are having a hard time breaking up hard, dried salt deposits within the stove area of Stove House 1.

The base of Pan House 5 is also defying demolition. A third, larger machine was beaten into submission this afternoon - look out for how its special attachment copes tomorrow !!

WEEK 11 - Day 43 Salt Pan 5, Laserscan and Pan House-Warehouse 4

The team is rapidly dismantling the Stove House 5 and preparing to lift the salt pan off the furnace so that it can be shot blasted and given a protective paint. H&E Scaffolding are now taking down scaffolding and removing it from site, so we can really see that the contract is getting close to completion.



A magnetic drill was used to drill the holes in the lifting beams below Pan 5. This type of drill clamps itself to the iron beam by an induction magnet so that the steel can be drilled. Galvanised bolts were then tightened to clamp the two girders together. Wooden packing pieces will be inserted between the girders and the underside of the pan in preparation for lifting the pan off the furnace base on Tuesday, next week.

APR services returned today to fill in gaps in the laser scan survey. Parts of the stove house areas of Stove House 1 and Stove House 2 were inaccessible when the main scan was carried out earlier in the work programme.

Decayed floor beams, and the collapsed roof structures which had fallen on top of it have now been removed and props inserted below the floor beams. This is one of the older areas of the Lion Salt Works dating to about 1894.
Walkways (left) have been inserted from the Loading Bay / Packing Area to provide safe access for the architects and engineers to prepare the Phase 2 schedule of works and cost plan, prior to going out to tender for the main restoration work.
Moving south from the Packing Area you move into Warehouse 4 which has a huge crushing mill (right) used to convert dried blocks of salt back to loose crystal salt and pack them into sacks.

Moving past the crushing mill to the south end of Warehouse 4 (left) you can see that this warehouse is unusual in having an iron frame. The floor has the same hatches used to 'loft' salt from Stove 4 on the floor below. From the end of this warehouse you can look down into Pan 4 (right). Pan House 4 was built by Alan Thompson.

WEEK 6 - Day 22 Views from the Scaffolding

As we prepare to start the dismantling works in Stove House 5 here are some views of the surrounding area from the vantage point of our scaffolding at the top of Stove House 5.

Looking north at Marston Flashes, created in 1928 by the collapse of the Adelaide Rock salt Mine. Lion Salt Works pumped brine into the Brine Tank from brine streams 150 feet below ground. The Adelaide Works mined rock salt from a Bottom bed of rock salt at 300ft.
The Trent and Mersey Canal passes along the front of the Lion Salt Works and was used to bring coal to the works, mainly from collieries in the Stoke-on-Trent area of North Staffordshire
In 1888 the Manchester Guardian described this area as a 'black country' with baked earth and sulphurous black smoke polluting the atmosphere where no trees or grass could grow.


Looking south the distant tower of St Helens Church, Witton can be seen. Between Marston and Witton there were rock salt mines which collapsed causing the road to be diverted. The collapsed mines were used as land fill sites for lime waste from the local chemical works. Ashtons and Neumans Flashes are now landscaped as a Community Woodland with footpaths and cycle ways. This is a great area for bird watching with many wading species and exotics such as black swans, egrets, grebes and last year black legged stilts.


To the south west you can see the chemical works of Brunner Mond which uses brine and salt to make soda ash and sodium bicarbonate. The works is at Winnington, but looks out over the Anderton Lift, which connects the Trent and Mersey Canal to the River weaver. the Lion Salt Works shipped salt by narrow boat along the canal to transfer salt to waiting barges where it was sailed to Liverpool Docks for export overseas.



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WEEK 3 - Day 12 Scaffolding Loading Bay and Preparing Pan No5

At the end of the third week preparations are well advanced to prepare the site and buildings for the main works schedule. The grounds have been cleared of vegetation and is ready to be 'stoned up' to give a stable working surface. The old security fence has been removed and scaffolding is starting to arrive on site.

Next week the ground surface will be surveyed, and a laserscan survey will be completed in the stove areas of Pan House 1, 3, 4 and 5 and around Pan No 5.

Scaffolding has started to be erected at the north end of the Loading Bay to allow working access to the overhead walkway between Stove House 5 and the main salt works complex. The scaffold will allow safe working for survey work prior to elements being labelled and dismantled.

Pan House 5 was the last pan house to be constructed and used at the Lion Salt Works. It was built in 1965. The roof structure over the pan collapsed some time ago and was removed, but the hurdles either side of the pan remained, collapsed beside the pan at 45 degrees.

The decayed planks were first removed to reveal the supporting joists. Excess brine would seep from the salt that had been raked from the salt pan to drip into the drainage gulley below the hurdles.

Holding the 2m ranging rod is Gareth Wilkes, pupil at The Grange School, Hartford who spent this week helping at the site as part of a work experience placement. The hurdle platform would have extended from the side of the salt pan (on the right) to the outside wall which sat on top of the dwarf wall to be seen on the left. The hurdle would have enabled salt blocks to be wheeled into the brick Stove House through the door that can be seen above Gareth's head.
You can see the roof line of the Pan House where it joined the Stove House. The SE corner of the stove house has collapsed but this enables you to see the warehouse floor where the salt blocks were stored after they had been dried in the stove house (also caled a hot house - or te 'otters)

Gareth helped catalogue some of the finds that are being made during these enabling works. A variety of artefacts have been found. On the left, a milk bottle was found in the Loading Bay area, possibly dating to the 1950's. It came from Horner's Creamery at Cuddington.

Heavier and more substantial are a group of railway 'chairs found around the Brine Pump. Probably lifted from the private railway siding they are cast with the letters LMSR.