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.