WEEK 14 - Day 55 Dismantling West Gable & Final Work to Stove House 5

The unsafe sections of the west gable of Stove house 1 were dismantled today. The area will be protected by sheeting over the winter.

The curved section of wall may incorporate the original garden wall of the entrance to the Red Lion Hotel, after which the salt works was named can be seen more clearly now. At this height the wall curves and has a sleight batter as it rises from the road level. it is also one and a half bricks wide.

The final remnants of Stove House 5 were removed from site this afternoon, all the parts not being saved for reuse that is.

There will be some before-and-after photographs posted next week to show how the site has changed over the last fourteen weeks.

WEEK 14 - Day 54 More Cleaning, Digging and Dismantling

Having drafted in a hydraulic pick the base of Pan House 5 finally gave in and was broken up ready for removal. The last lorry movements carrying the debris will leave for the landfill site tomorrow.

The gable of Warehouse 1 is now being carefully dismantled with each section of brick being stored on separate pallets. The wall has been repaired over many years - it was part of the original works dating to 1894 but has been rebuilt and a loading doorway bricked up. Each part of its history can be read by looking carefully at the different bricks and mortar sections. The inner and outer bricks from each phase are being stacked separately so that they can be rebuilt in the full restoration phase later next year.

As the salt works expanded Henry Ingram Thompson constructed a new Pan House and Stove House along the edge of Ollershaw Lane, joining it to the earlier warehouse by cutting out a section of the roof on the south side. This image is taken from within the much larger Warehouse 3, looking north to the roof structure of Warehouse 1. The gable being dismantled is to the left, fronting Ollershaw Lane.

Further shot blasting to clean the salt pan removed from Pan House 5 took place using recycled glass pellets, so that it can be painted. The weather is fantastic with warm autumn sunshine, excellent for getting all these final jobs completed.
A careful evaluation of the whole site was also undertaken today to identify any further pockets of contamination that might still be on site.

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 14 - Day 52 Painting Salt Pan 5 Starts

Today the protective paint was started to be applied to the cleaned salt pan removed from Pan House 5.
This is the undercoat after which two top coats of a zinc paint will be applied.

You can see that the side end plate at the stove end of the pan dates to its earliest phase when the plates were still being riveted to the angle iron which attaches the side plates to the bottom plates (left). The images upper right shows that the side plates are welded

The lifting rings, which enabled the pan to be lifted using a jigger arm are also welded to the side of the pan. The detail (bottom right) shows the rivets joining the end plates, again at the stove end of the salt pan.