BBC Radio 4 - Open Country - 21 August 2014

BBC Radio 4 - Open Country

BBC Radio 4 programme Open Country talks about Cheshire Salt on Thursday 21 August 2014 at 15.00
repeated Saturday 23 August at 6.05am.
Felicity Evans taks to Andrew Fielding, Ecosal-UK; Kerry Fletcher, Midlewich Town Council Heritage Office; Chris Hewitson, Cheshire West and Chester, Lion Salt Works and goes below ground to the Winsford Rock Salt Mine, Compass and Minerals.

Salt Making at Saltfleet - Rained Off - 10 August 2014

Our demonstration day at Saltfleet was disappointing. Having built the hearth on a sunny Saturday afternoon in preparation for the demonstration day we were aware of the dreadful weather forecast given for the following day.  The whole country was braced for the aftermath of hurricane Bertha.
On the Sunday clouds were developing and the wind picking up as we lit the fire at 9.30am - the brine heated up and by 10.30 salt crystals were beginning to form. But that was the best of the day and as the wind got stronger the rain began sweeping across the field in torrents..... At 11am the Saltfleet Gala Day was cancelled!
Our salt hearth is built with bricks, but represents a clay hearth which might have supported clay pans found at Ingoldmells, Lincolnshire
Video to follow -

Each salt pan would have been supported in three clay pedistals.

Balls of wet clay allowed each pan to be set horizontally.

The first salt crystals forming in the clay salt pans.

  

Saltmaking Demonstration - Saltfleet - 10 August 2014

We shall be using our replica Ingoldmells Roman ceramic salt pans on Sunday 10 August at the Saltfleet Gala Day, Lincolnshire.
We will be part of the Heritage Lincolnshire and Lincolnshire Coastal Marsh Grazing Project displays.

Contribution to BBC Radio 4 - Open Country

Spent today with Felicity Evans and Mark Smalley of BBC Radio 4's Open Country programme contributing to a 25 minute programme about salt making in Cheshire. Also taking part were Kerry Fletcher, Heritage Officer at Middewich Town Council and Chris Hewitson archaeologist at the Lion Salt Works. Mark and Felicity later made a visit underground at the Winsford rock salt mine operated by Salt Union Compass and Minerals.
The starting point was the country park created around the remains of collapsed rock salt mines at Ashton's and Neumann's Flashes between the town centre of Northwich, the Lion Salt Works at Marston on the Trent and Mersey Canal, River Weaver and the the Anderton Boat lift that links the canal and the river.

Ashton's Flash

Neumann's Flash

Andrew Fielding, Mark Smalley and Felicity Evans

Our First Blurb Book - The Wreck of the Halsewell

Link to the Blurb Bookshop

 

 
 
 

    The Wreck of the Halsewell by William D. Wilson
    |
    Make Your Own Book
 
 

Books in Process of Publication

We have been experimenting with editing our research for publication on demand through Blurb.
A number of books in the pipe-line -

The Wreck of the Halsewell: With a Glossary of Terms by William D Wilson

The Timber Framed Buildings of Northwich, Cheshire. A&A Fielding

Thomas Birtles' Photographic Survey of Northwich, Cheshire 1891-1892. A&A Fielding

The Memoirs of John H Cooke: An Honourable Gentleman. A&A Fielding

Details of each to follow soon.

We have also been writing a book for Age UK Oldham about the history and restoration of their recent HLF funded work to restore and modernise  a former Independent Methodist Chapel - George Street Chapel.

Back Copies of The Mundling Stick Now Online

The Lion Salt Works Project has made available all the back copies of the newsletter, The Mundling Stick written by Andrew Fielding whilst he was Project Director of the Lion Salt Works Trust employed by Vale Royal Borough Council. The newsletter was a quarterly publication produced from 1995 until Andrew left the project in 2010.

Councillor Stuart Parker, Executive Member for Culture and Economy, said: “The Mundling Stick newsletters are a real asset to the historic story of the Lion Salt Works.

“They illustrate the vital role the Trust has played in bringing us to where we are today – with the £8.8m restoration of this unique historic site well underway.

“I am delighted that the newsletters can now be accessed online. Not only is this fascinating resource more accessible to a wider audience, it is also preserved for future generations.”Trust Chairman Nick Hunt said: “The Lion Salt Works Trust have always regarded the Mundling Stick as a primary way of communicating the salt heritage story to local and wider interest groups.

“It will be an invaluable archive in understanding how the Salt Works came to be regenerated.”