Salt Sunday and Blessing the Brine

Pics from todays Salt Sunday event.
Video to follow.

Salt hearth and Ecosal-UK table at Salt Sunday 2015.

Left to right
Andrew Fielding, Ailsa Booth, John Booth and Tom Lane.

John and Ailsa Booth sing the Nantwich
Ascension Day song 'Blessing the Brine'
Salt Sunday 2015

Graham Dodd, Trustee, Nantwich Museum.

Salt Making in the Snow

A practical exercise during a snowbound weekend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGMRwGcbssk

Salt Making at Saltfleetby

July 22 a great summers day, for a change in 2012, with a demonstration of salt making in replica ceramic salt troughs based on an excavation at Langtoft, Lincolnshire. A 'Hands on History Workshop' as part of the Lincolnshire Coast Marshes Gazing Project.

Tom Lane, AP Services adds more peat underneath the salt pans.

Watching salt crystalize.

Replica Iron Age salt pans, based on excavations at Langtoft, Lincolnshire.

Ref: Lane and Morris A Millenium of Salt Making describes the Langtoft site and the difference of salt making techniques over time.

Video of Salt Making Demonstration at Newlyn Art Gallery

Finally finished the video made during our Ecosal field trip to Cornwall, where we took part in Newlyn Art Galley's Museum at Night event as part of the Penzance Convention. Share the experience here.

Salt Making Demo at Saltfleetby, Lincs

Our next salt making demonstration is at the Prussian Queen, Saltfleetby, Lincolnshire.

Museums at Night - Salt Making at Newlyn Art Gallery

Wasn't able to upload photos during the night as wi-fi didn't reach to the outside areas of the museum.
Lit the peat fire at 7.30pm on the 19th.



Leaflets available from the ECOSAL partner salt museums in Portugal, Spain and France.
This is possibly the first time a replica of the Trebarveth salt hearths have been fired since they were used during the Roman period.
During the evening margharitas were served
Salty tales were told
and a stop-motion film was made using white salt crystals on a black board. 'Through the Gaps'
Local blog record of the event at its start and at 2am.

Stop motion film using salt crystals on a black board filmed with a video camera.

Simon Jaques,Museum Manager and Cat Gibbard, Education Officer with the salt made during the night.

Salt Making at Newlyn Art Gallery

19 - 20 May, 2012    8pm to 8am

A&A Fielding will be leading a salt making demonstration at the Nelwyn Art Gallery over the night of 19 May as part of the Museum's Museums at Night project.   culture24 link

Cat Gibbard the Education Officer has been working with different groups looking at salt as a theme.

Work throughout the night with Amanda Lorens to create an animation of tales in a salt landscape. To sustain our audience and participants there will be a variety of fruits from the sea, from the edible to the aural available, including a series of salty tales, told throughout the night. The Studio Cafè Bar will be open from 5pm until 12midnight serving Margaritas and a range of tasty morsels.




There will also be information about the project to create a route of traditional salt making linking sites in Portugal, Spain, France and the UK.

Young people will be creating new work in the space during a two week programme exploring the science, mythology and importance of salt and the processes by which it is extracted from the sea.

Salt making at Anderby Creek, Lincs 25 March 2012

On Sunday, 25 March we spent the day making salt at Anderby Creek with Tom Lane and Katie Green of Archaeological Project Services. The event was organised by artsNK.

Not an ideal day, despite the high spring temperatures across the whole of the UK, our part of the Lincolnshire coast was blanketed in a thick sea mist. So we spent the whole day trying to keep warm, whilst inland people basked in temperatures of 23 degrees.

The soft sand was not the best ground to dig a trench, but we did manage to make some salt crystals by the mid afternoon. This was the first time we had used peat as a fuel. It did really well, giving a slow steady heat without flaring up and over heating the ceramic salt pans. We used two types of pan - one set based on a type found at Ingoldmells, near Skegness, that used hot air ducted underneath the pans, and  another pair of small pans with peat burning directly underneath them.

There was a good mix of specialist visitors who already new a bit about salt making and members of the public who found our demonstration by accident because they were visiting the beach with their dog or their children (or both). Youtube - Salt Making at Anderby Creek

Our next demonstration is at Newlyn Art Gallery, Cornwall over the night of 19-20 May, as part of their 'Museums at Night' event for 2012.

Display panels produced by Archaeological Project Services to describe evidence of salt making uncovered by their archaeological work at different sites.

Transforming a section of the beach into a salt making site.

Checking the salt and monitoring the temperature.

Salt made during the demonstration, which lasted from 10.30 to 16.00

The dismantled salt hearths with remains of the ceramic floors and pedestals that were used to support the salt pans. 

Two small salt pans (left) and eight 'Ingoldmells' type ceramic salt pans cleaned and ready to pack up and take home at the end of the Anderby Creek demonstration day.

Salt Making Demonstrations in 2012

Just preparing three salt making demonstrations for this year.
Two in Lincolnshire with Tom Lane and the Heritage Trust of Lincolnshire and Archaeological Project Services. At Anderby Creek on Sunday, 25th March, 10am to 4pm to be organised by ArtsNK and Saltfleetby on Sunday, 22nd July at the Prussian Queen pub as part of the Lincolnshire Grazing Partnership Project.
The third salt making day will actually be a night time experience working with Newlyn Art Gallery, Cornwall during their Museums at Night project over the night of 19-20 May, 8pm to 8am.

Details to follow shortly.

The Cloud Bar is a site designated by the Cloud Appreciation Society as the first official cloud watching site in the UK.

Salt Making at Middlewich Roman Festival MMXI

Raking salt

Lost in steam

"How do you get the salt in the water?"

Salt Making at the Middlewich Roman Festival MMXl

Ermine Street Guard at the Middlewich Roman Festival MMXl 

Visitors looking at how the firebox heats the salt pans

Raking salt from the replica Roman salt pans

Salt Making at Middlewich Roman Festival Sat-Sun 24-25 Sept

I will be leading Kerry Fletcher's volunteers in making salt as part of the Middlewich Town Council's latest Roman Festival.
Pictures of setting up on Friday 23 Sept to follow.
Salt making demo pics to follow over the week end and a video to be uploaded at the end event.

This will also be a part of the establishment of the Cheshire section of the UK Ecosal-Atlantic Route of Traditional Salt Making.

Salt Making Demonstrations September 2011

We shall be demonstrating how to make salt at two events in September - at Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire and Middlewich, Cheshire.

NOTE August - sadly the Bathing Beauty Festival won't have our salt making demo. artsNK discovered that they could only pay Heritage Lincolnshire a total of £1,000 for their contribution - which included our participation - which they couldn't stretch to cover the costs of four people, materials and travel expenses, so they had to decline to participate. Shame, as it sounded like a good event. But, the artist who is the salt arch will still be there. Obviously they pay artists more money than archaeologists! or he works really cheaply!!
You will still find us at the Middlewich Roman Festival over the following weekend though.

Bathing Beauties Festival  - the longest linear coastal arts festival in Europe  16-17-18 Sept 2011
We will be making salt with Heritage Lincolnshire alongside the artNK installation on Sat 17 Sept using replica ceramic salt pans discovered at Ingoldmells.

artsNK - Structures on the Edge

artsNK are an innovative arts development team based in the South of the county, working on the follow up project to the original Bathing Beauties Beach Huts commissions, a series of new public art works, Structures on the Edge.

Visit their space on the promenade for a range of fun activities from making salt to wind socks, musical instruments to salt installations, inspired by the artists designs; 

A dramatic wind tower that draws in  the sound and power of the wind and a seaside space created out of Salt.

To quote their brochure "Salt Licks acts therefore as an ante-chamber that allows one to leave the mental and social space of the journey behind for another more contemplative space in closer connection with nature." 

Bathing Beauties Festival


The Roman Middlewich Festival MMXI  24-25 Sept 2011
We will be salt making alongside the Ermine Street Guard demonstrations.


More info to follow.


Roman Middlewich Festival MMXI

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)