WEEK 11 - Day 42 Preparing Pan 5 for Lifting and Warehouse 1

All the steel girders were inserted beneath Pan 5 by mid morning today. These now need to have packing inserted between the top of the girders and the underside of the pan so that the pan is fully supported when it is lifted and moved.

The lifting beams will be bolted together tomorrow ready for the lift to take place early next week.

Preparatory work was completed for a final piece of laser scanning to capture data within the drying area of the earliest building on site. This is the remains of Warehouse and Stove House 1, built in the 1890's but heavily altered as other salt houses were added. The structure was heavily cut away as Stove House 2 and 3 were added to its north and south elevations.
The brick flues have been robbed out, cast iron column which should support the floor above have been lost, corroded away or have collapsed and half the roof had fallen in allowing the weather to decay a lot of the floor boards. having said all that the roof trusses are in good condition and can be incorporated into the restoration works of Phase 2. This area gives you that 'stepping back in time' feeling as you absorb the atmosphere of standing inside a Victorian salt works, and you can see how the stove house we are currently dismantling has been built in the same traditional way, to the same design - to do the same job of evaporating brine and making white salt crystals.

Some of the trusses have carpenters marks. This one is numbered 'I I' for the second truss - but is in the middle of the roof structure. So, either the frames were put up out of sequence, or the frames might have been recycled from an earlier building. Other trusses are numbered 'V' and IV'. Where a brace has been

inserted a small cross '+' has been cut unto the upright beam to indicate where it was to be positioned.

The end gable, which will be dismantled as part of our Enabling Works, has remains of lime wash on the inner surface. All the brickwork and timbers were lime washed to protect them from the salt and stop loose flakes of brick or timber from contaminating the stock piles.

Ironwork has not survived well, particularly in areas which have been damp, or wet from ingress of rain. However in this area one hatch cover still survives with its original iron ring.

WEEK 11 - Day 40 Preparing Pan 5 and Recording Stove 5 Flues

The two long 'I' beams were installed today along the north and south sides of the salt pan No.5. Each beam weighs one ton. Five lighter 'I' beams will be inserted underneath the pan and will be clamped to each of these lifting beams. The pan base is buckled through use and will have packing pieces inserted between the steels and the under surface so that the weight is carried evenly. Only when we are sure the pan can be carried safely will it be lifted. This might be later this week, or early next week, so keep logging on to see developments.

With the east gable dismantled and the brick wall removed from below it we can see how the stove area is constructed. Hot gases from below the salt pan are drawn along flues within the Stove House to dry the salt. The lower part of the flue is set within ash and cinders, lined with brick but due to the heat and fumes the bricks are very badly corroded and decayed. Many bricks have turned to powder, some are heavily impregnated with white salt crystals. The flues are carried above the ash and cinders with brick upstands to create 'ditches' between the flues. There has been a build up of salt within the ditches which is over 20 centimeters thick.
A bag wall slows the passage of gases as they pass from the the pan house into the flue system. There is a thick layer of fly ash throughout the whole structure.
Metal plates sit over the flues so that salt blocks can be placed directly over them. These metal plates have corroded heavily after twenty years in a now cold, damp unheated building covered in salt.

The inner surface of the flues have suffered the most and with e mortar having broken down many walls have simply collapsed into the ditches and flues.

Most of the dismantled timbers have now been assigned racking space within the timber store and are being graded for condition and re-use when the structure is rebuilt. Some pencil marks were seen when the trusses were dismantled, but today we found some carpenters marks cut into a beam which had been re-used as a supporting joist within the Loading Bay. There are carpenters marks in other re-used timbers in Stove House 3.

WEEK 6 - Day 23 Scaffolding and Labelling

Graham Sykes of William Anelay Ltd taking photographs inside Stove House 5 surrounded by the rising forest of scaffold poles.

Close up photographs of the upper roof trusses will be possible when the upper scaffold lifts and the working platforms are completed.

The scaffold platforms will enable us to walk within the roof space to record and label all the timbers of the roof.
The asbestos removal team will be able to reach the cement asbestos roof panels through the openings created by the removal of the plastic covered roof lights. This has be carried out carefully to avoid breaking the panels. They will be removed and bagged for controlled disposal. This work will start next week.











The vertical studding of the west end gable revealed carpenters marks pencilled onto the timbers. 'A1' is the first vertical timber of the gable end truss. Two pencil marks indicate where the first horizontal beam meets the truss.


The fifth vertical timber is pencil marked '5'.
Our numbering system was labelled up on our cad drawing last year, and prefixes each timber with a code letter and a sequential number. We also started at the south side of the west gable - so this vertical timber of Stove House 5 now has the label SH5 VT5.

Our labels are written in permanent ink on a plastic paper, securely fixed to each timber with coloured tie grips. Each truss will have a different coloured tie grip so that it can be easily be identified and located with the timber store.

You will see the racking and storage system in the timber store when the truses are taken down.