WEEK 15 - Day 59 End of Enabling Works

Today is the last main work day of the Enabling Works. We still have a few tidying up jobs to complete, but William Anelays Ltd will hand back the site to Cheshire West and Chester Council on Monday 9 November 2009.
Lionel is on holiday from today but will post updates on his return. In particular look out for the new entrance gates.
Many thanks to all our contractors and sub-contractors for helping the work programme be completed. It was a daunting task but has been completed with grateful thanks and appreciation. Lionel would also like to extend a special thank you to Site Manager, David Marsh who kept everything running smoothly, on time and with great humour and dedication to achieving a first rate job. A full list of all who participated in these Enabling Works will be posted later.
Thank you.
Despite the rain on this morning we got a great send off with a rainbow over the Brine Tank. We all look forward to starting Phase 2 - the full restoration works - in 2010.

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 13 - Day 51 Clearing Salt, Stove House 5 and Laying Paths

Salt can set like concrete once it gets into the fabric of a building and is baked hot and stays dry.
Within stove Hose 1 we had to chip out the remaining salt with a percussion hammer.
The flue walls in this area have been robbed out many years ago but the remains of the walls indicate the layout of the flues and ditches which ducted the hot fumes from the Pan House to the chimney built on Ollershaw Lane.



Meanwhile the big digger spent a fourth day removing the ash, cinders and flue walls from the dismantled Stove House 5.
Over 100 tons of material has been removed from site. The materials which made up the infill of the stove house were themselves waste products of the Lion Salt Works. Henry Thompson used waste cinders deposited at the south side of the site that were raked from the earlier pan houses over decades of salt making.

Alongside all the dismantling and removal of contaminants we are also being constructive and looking to the future. Sue Beesley and Isabel Brookes have begun the creative landscaping that will transform the south west corner of our salt works into a tranquil butterfly garden in partnership with George Martin and the Butterfly Conservation gardening volunteers.

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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