Monday 27 December 2010

HLF Stage One Pass for George St Chapel

At their meeting on 2nd December, 2010 the NW- HLF approved a Stage One pass for the George Street Chapel. Oldham.
The award was for £699,300 towards the adaptation and conservation repairs of the Grade 2* former Independent Methodist Chapel, which has been empty since closing in 1990.
We have provided advice and guidance to the owners, Age Concern Oldham and updated the Conservation Plan and survey information.
A Planning Application and Listed Building Consent application are currently being appraised.
Following preparation of a Stage 2 submission we hope work will begin on repairing the building by the summer of 2011.

Tuesday 12 October 2010

Salt Sunday 2010 Visit to British Salt

Members of the Salt of the Earth Network were priviledged to be given a conducted tour of the  British Salt vacuum evaporation works at Middlewich. Thanks are due to Ron Barber (blue overalls standing next to Bishop of Birkenhead).


Display boards and objects showing the salt heritage of Middlewich were provided in St Michael and All Angles church by Kerry Fletcher, Middlewich Town Council heritage Officer, and from Ineos Enterprise, Solvay and British salt. This was as part of St Michaels Harvest Festival, with a salty flavour, and was followed in the afternoon by a service of celebration of salt led by the Bishop of Birkenhead . Link to Youtube video to follow here.

Tuesday 28 September 2010

2nd Salt Sunday

The second Salt Sunday, part of the Salt of the Earth Initiative inspired by the Bishop of Birkenhead, will be held on Sunday 10 October, 2010 at St Michael and All Angels Church, Middlewich, Cheshire. Salt will be the main theme of their Harvest Festival being held at 10am and the Bishop will lead a Service of Celebration of salt at 3pm. http://www.middlewichparishchurch.org.uk/ http://www.saltoftheearth.btik.com/

Friday 17 September 2010

NW Industrial Archaeology Conference 2010

Saturday 25th September I will be participating in the CBA NW Region Industrial Archaeology & History Conference being hosted by the Merseyside Industrial Archaeology Society at the National Waterways Museum, Ellesmere. http://www.mihs.org.uk/CBA.pdf
My talk includes sites that should be included in a new Salt Trail being researched as part of a European funded collaboration called Ecosal-atlantis . After the talk I said  would post a Google map that will include the salt making sites and links I discussed during the talk. This is now included below.

The main objective of the ECOSAL ATLANTIS  project, “Ecotourism in saltworks of the Atlantic: a strategy for integral and sustainable development” is the development of joint, integral and sustainable tourism based on the cultural and natural heritage of traditional Atlantic saltworking sites.
Links between salt making sites have been created in other areas. The ALAS project was established to preserve traditions of salt making in salinas. Work in Portugal and Spain was reported in the conference I organised at Lion Salt Works in 2003 and published in the Lion Salt Works Research Report 'Salt Works and Salinas' in 2005, principally work at Figuera da Foz, Salinas d'Annana and Friends of Inland Salinas.
The Trail may have links to sites featured in the European Route of Industrial Heritage  - ERIH  of which Lion Salt Works was a founder anchor point in the NW of England.
Annelise and I included a gazetteer of the main UK sites in our book 'The Salt Industry' published by Shire Books in 2005.  I have also posted videos of historic salt making experiments on youtube such as a demonstration on Wrangle Marsh, Lincolnshire with Tom Lane and the Heritage Trust for Lincolnshire. Other videos are included under the Saltteller and Saltfriend Channel names.

Revisit for text and google map links. These will be updated over coming days. The map will be enlarged to include all sites with a salt connection.
Click for the Salt Trail Map Link

The standard summary of salt making in Cheshire, written by Calvert and published in 1915 is now available as a download at http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924030692697

Links used in the talk (more to follow)
Cumbria web links
http://www.cumbria-industries.org.uk/salt.htm
http://www.walney-island.com/salt_works_01.htm
http://www.visitcumbria.com/wc/crosscanonby-st-john-the-evangelists-church.htm
http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/details/default.aspx?id=411241

Wirral Links
http://www.btinternet.com/~m.royden/mrlhp/local/salt/dungeon.htm
http://www.ecosert.org.uk/leaflets/Hilbre.pdf
http://www.deeestuary.co.uk/hilbre/

Cheshire Links
http://www.middlewich-heritage.org.uk/salt-and-canal.html

Salt of the Earth
http://www.saltoftheearth.btik.com/
http://www.flickr.com/groups/saltoftheearth/

Friday 27 August 2010

Video of Laserscanning - George St Chapel, Oldham

In June I set up a recording programme for Age Concern Oldham. ACO are seeking to restore the former Independent Methodist Chapel at George Street, Oldham for repair and adaptation as a heritage centre and function / events space.
A measured set of drawings was required for use by the architects and as a historic record of the building. APR Services Ltd were commissioned to laser scan the chapel and produce cad drawings.
The process was recorded by video and is now posted on Youtube. The fly-around and fly-though section at the end was produced by APR Services Ltd.
ACO are submitting a bid at the end of August to the HLF for a restoration grant. For more information go to http://www.oldham-ageconcern.co.uk/

Video link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1gul-524gY

Scanner in position below the gallery at the back of the chapel.

Saturday 24 July 2010

Butterfly Garden at the Lion Salt Works

On Sunday 25 July Cheshire and Peak Butterfly hold an opening of their buddlia collection created at the Lion Salt Works, Marston, Northwich, Cheshire.

http://www.cheshire-butterflies.co.uk/
http://www.bigbutterflycount.org/

Pictures and more information after the event.

Thursday 15 July 2010

Salt Making at Reaseheath College

It was a pleasure to be able to demonstrate open pan, brine evaporation at Reaseheath College on the 14 July. The occasion was for the turf cutting to initiate a new Food Hall at the college by the Duke of Westminster. My demonstration was one of four products being promoted under the 'Made in Cheshire' brand co-ordinated by Jane Casson of which the Duke of Westminster is patron.


The Duke had not seen this type of salt making before.
Also present was Jimmy Doherty, from 'Jimmy's Farm'. Introductions and a description about the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead were described by the Principal of the College, Meredydd David OBE.





Andrew describing the process of evaporating brine to make salt crystals top the Duke of Westminster. (Photo curtesy of Reaseheath College)

Friday 9 July 2010

ITV Countrywise

Suddenly out of nowhere a piece filmed at Lion Salt Works a couple of years ago was broadcast on ITV in a programme called Countrywise, on Monday 5th July. There is a link to the ITV iplayer where the programme will be viewable for a while.

http://www.itv.com/itvplayer/video/?Filter=155386


It shows Andrew making salt in a ceramic salt pan over a peat fire (also used by the BBC in an early BBC2 programme 'Coast') and two replica Roman salt pans over a wood fire.

Sunday 30 May 2010

Salt Making for BBC 1 - The One Show

Got a call last week to make some salt over a wood fire in a replica Roman lead salt pan for the BBC programme 'The One Show'. They were following up on the bad winter weather when all media focus was on rock salt supplies.
The producer was going to go down the Winsford Rock Salt Mine, run by The Salt Union - Compass and Minerals and wanted to talk about the origins of salt making in Cheshire - hence the Roman salt making piece.
The filming took place at the Lion Salt Works, where they also looked at the large Victorian salt pans awaiting restoration. sadly, as is the way with television they didn't have time to complete the story by visiting either of the vacuum salt works or the controlled brine fields where modern day brine is sourced.
The piece should be shown on 20th July 2010.
Andrew with presenter Angellica Bell.

Monday 10 May 2010

Curved Group

Whilst I was monitoring the dismantling of Stove House 5 at the Lion Salt Works many timbers could not be retained for re-instatement when the stove house is rebuilt. One group of these timbers was the light weight cladding timber to the upper sections of the east and west gables.
I was able to offer some of these lengths of cladding to local artist Carolyn Shepherd, who had taken part in the 1st Salt Sunday celebrations with the Salt of the Earth network established by the Bishop of Birkenhead. She has used brine, salt and timber sourced from Lion Salt Works, Solvay and the rock salt mine operated by Salt Union-Compas and Minerals.
The work is to be displayed at the degree show to be held at the Williamson Gallery, Birkenhead - 12 June to ?  and her work was selected to feature in the "Best of the Degree Shows 2010" annual publication at this link http://www.a-n.co.uk/publications/document/627569
For Carolyn's web site go to
http://www.carolynshepherd.co.uk/Carolyn_Shepherd/5.html

Thursday 6 May 2010

Flickr Group for Salt of the Earth Network

I have established a Flickr Group for the Salt of the Earth Network and act as the site administrator.
The group will to encourage followers to post their photographs which show the salt and chemical industries.
The group is part of the Salt of the Earth Network, the inspiration of the Bishop of Birkenhead, Rev Keith Sinclair.
To join the site go to the site below.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/saltoftheearth/

The Salt of the Earth Network has a web site currently at http://www.saltoftheearth.btik.com/ but that will shortly change as BT change the free hosting arrangements for community groups.

The Network will have a stand at the Cheshire Show - 22-23 June, 2010 and I am helping to organise the 2nd Salt Sunday, which in 2010 is being held at British Salt, Middlewich on 10th October.

Wednesday 24 February 2010

Salt Warehouse Features in the 2010 Winter Olympics, Vancouver, Canada

Whilst we are in the middle of watching the winter olympics being held in Vancouver, Canada those actually attending the games can visit a restored salt. 


Last year we were able to provide some information about salt packing to George Martin, then working for Commonwealth Historic Resource Management Limited, Vancouver. CHRML were working on the restoration of the salt warehouse which is now a prime feature of the Winter Olympics.

Hal Kalman kindly sent over some pictures of the warehouse taken by their architects as repair works were completed. It will have a temporary life as an Olympic facility for the 2010 Winter Olympics (it is within the Olympic Village), and will become a restaurant / pub / bakery in the heart of a new neighbourhood some months later.



Surviving salt warehouses are now quite rare, so it is nice to see this being retained within a huge area of redevelopment.
Photographs below provided by
Harold D. Kalman PhD CAHP
Commonwealth Historic Resource Management Limited
Suite 308 - 2233 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC  V6J 3H9  (Canada)
T: 604.734.7505 F: 604.734.7991
For more information contact kalman@chrml.com  http://www.chrml.com/

Tuesday 2 February 2010

Salt Making on Willow Tree Fen: 30-31 Jan 2010






















Entrance to Willow Tree Fen.








View looking towards north west towards Willow Tree Fen.
Field walking the fen.
Briefing the volunteer field walkers.

Excavation reveals a ring ditch with a saltern site in the centre. The sandy colour shows one side of the ring ditch. The other side of the ring ditch is at the far end of the machine cut trench. The hearth is in the centre.

       
We demonstrated how brine is evaporated to make white salt crystals. Given the very cold weather conditions we used our metal salt pan to show the process. We felt that the ceramic salt pans would suffer in the sub zero temperatures. We were able to show those who attended the weekend different replica ceramic salt pans and they were able to take away salt crystals at the end of the day in replica briquetage pots.
Our attempt to fire ceramic salt pans in a paper kiln were not so succesful. Due to the very cold conditions the two raw clay salt pans and the replica Adlington doll froze whilst they were transported cross country (temperatures eaching minus 6 degrees C) . The paper kiln we made fired well but the clay shattered during the firing process. We hope to be able to retry again in warmer weather conditions later in the year. David Hopkins, illustrator for Heritage Trust for Lincolnshire, stands next to the paper kiln. It was his sketches that suggested wattled and daub structures might be used as covers over salt kilns which suggested our use of a paper kiln to fire pottery as part of this demonstration day. A paper kiln was something we could build in a day and fire. We hope to try a proper wattle and daub structure over a kiln in a future experiment.
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