SALT MAKING SITES IN CHESHIRE
George Twigg
Background
About twenty five years ago the Keele Local History Class at Sandbach produced the now well known Township Field Name Map based on the 1840 Tithe Apportionment. Of particular interest was a row of interesting field names alongside the River Wheelock and driven through by the Trent and Mersey Canal in 1775. These fields which were part of the Abbeyfields estate provided evidence of long forgotten 16th 17th century industry in this length of the valley. There are two Wich House fields, a Brine pit field, a Kiln field and Croft and rather distractingly alongside the Brine Pit field was a Bleach field and Bleach meadow. Was the bleach field still engaged in the traditional tenting or did it happen to be next to a salt works since by the 1780’s the tenting operation was being speeded up by the use of hydrochloric acid made from salt with sulphuric acid? Hitherto sulphuric acid itself had been used in the tenting operation. By 1790 the production of chlorine bleach solution began increasingly to replace the whole tenting operation. We have still to discover whether the Abbeyfields Estate sponsored an early chemical industry, but the Sandbach map prompted a search of other tithe maps with likely brine spring locations. Such a search was of course dependent on the availability of the map table at the record office. The results of this search of the late 1980’s, together with data from other sources, at that time on 5.25inch floppies in BBC Basic, were finally put together in 1994 for use by the Cheshire SMR and the text has been subsequently transcribed into DOS.
The project was reawakened in about 1998 with the publication of John Dodgson’s last volume of Cheshire Place Names, [Part V Section 2]. This contains the main index and finally the Introduction in which Dodgson has kindly listed all townships which contain a salt related place name. Most were already familiar from the earlier search but there were new additions to our list where the existence of brine springs was geologically possible and hence worthy of investigation. This was further prompted by Philip Morgan who was working on the Medieval Section of the New Historical Atlas of Cheshire.
The first requirement was the location of the salt related field name on the tithe map and obtaining its grid reference. This was kindly done by Doreen Mason in the course of her regular visits to the Cheshire Record Office. The results of this more recent search have yet to be gathered together to form Appendix 2 of the present text as The Lost Salt Sites of Cheshire. The town works of Northwich and Nantwich are not included in this survey.
CONTENTS
1:1 Salt making sites outside Middlewich, Nantwich, Northwich and Winsford
1.2.1 Cheshire Record Office Family Collections
1.2.2 Cheshire Record Office - Solicitor and Business Deposits
1.2.4 University of Keele Library Archives and Special Collections
2:1:1 Iron Age, Roman and Medieval Middlewich
2.1.4 The 1778 Survey of Salt Making Sites in Middlewich
2.1.6 Weaver Navigation Salt Shipment Records
2.1.7 Comparison with Salt Office Records
2:1:8 19th and 20th century Middlewich
2.1.9 1908 Survey of Middlewich Salt Sites
2:2:1 Out of town Saltworks linked with Middlewich
A1.1 Agreement between Aman's Salt Works and the Murgatroyd's Ammonia Soda and Salt Syndicate. The brine shafts dug at the two works give a precise location for the King Street geological fault.
Appendix 2
A2.1 The Lost Saltworks of Cheshire.
A2.2 Further more recent searches, prompted by the recently published Part Five of John Dodgson’s Place Names of Cheshire with its introduction and full index.
PART I Out of town saltmaking
1.1 SALT MAKING SITES OUTSIDE MIDDLEWICH, NANTWICH, NORTHWICH AND WINSFORD
This section lists and locates the rural or "out of town" salt sites of Cheshire. In this context Winsford rates as a salt town. The four towns contained many salt works in their respective heyday and each require individual listing.
The 19th century salt works of Middlewich, Northwich and Winsford are well identified on the 1875 and 1908 editions of the 25inch Ordnance Survey but the pattern of development in these towns during the 18th century is less certain. All three towns continued to observe the medieval Rules of Salt Making into the Early Modern period. But new technology - a change from wood fuel to coal and from lead to iron pans was forced on the industry in the early 17th century. Nantwich salt makers resisted change and a 1690’s High Court Action virtually bankrupted the town. Only two or three saltworks survived into the 18th century.
The "out-of-town" salt making sites are invariably located in a river valley where this passes over a wet rock salt head. In such locations brine springs or patches of salt marsh will have been identified in ancient times but records of the establishment of a salt works by the local landowner before the early 17th century have yet to be tracked down.
The listing of the known “out of town” salt making sites, which follows, is grouped according to the river catchment in which the particular site is situated.
1.1.1 DEE VALLEY Catchment
Except for its Wych Brook tributary, which is considered below, the Dee catchment area is geologically separated from the Cheshire-Shropshire rock salt basin by the Mid-Cheshire sandstone ridge which forms the Beeston, Peckforton, Bickerton range. Nevertheless there are records of brine springs at Aldersey (SJ4657) and near Eaton Hall Estate. The Aldersey salt spring or marsh survived into this century and has been noted for its halophyte flora. I understand that this has now disappeared due to field drainage. The Eaton brine pit's occurrence depends entirely on an Eaton Hall charter listed in Geoffrey Barraclough's Charters of the Norman Earls (Record Society Vol.126). In this the Latin text contains the place name “Saltpit” which is in the vernacular.
1.1.2 WYCH BROOK VALLEY
Dirtwich, Lower (SJ487444) and Higher (SJ496435)
The Domesday return records a salt house in the lost Anglo-Saxon manor of Burwardeston. This has been identified with the present day townships of Iscoed in Clywd and Wigland in Cheshire. Named as Fulewich in late 11th century Foundation Charter of St Werberg’s Abbey, it became Dirtwich by the 17th century. Salt making sites have been located in both Clywd and Cheshire and 16th century documents imply that there could have been as many as ten individual salt works at that time. There is firm documentary evidence for at least four salt works. Salt was last made at Lower Dirtwich in the 1850's.
The Wych Valley at this point passes over a two-mile wide strip of wet rock salt head where the lower bed of Northwich Halite was exposed by glaciation. Here, as has been observed at other out-of-town locations, the brine springs, and hence salt making, tend to occur at the edge of the wet rock head. Higher and Lower Dirtwich roughly mark the limits of the wet rock head and hence the occurrence the two groups of salt works.
Lower Dirtwich (SJ487444)
Lord Kenyon's Salt Works according to the 1838 Tithe apportionment, and salt making eventually ceased in about 1856. The Tithe Map shows the salt works itself to have been on the Wigland side of the river while the brine pit and pump house were on the Iscoed side. In the river between there are the remains of the stonework which formed the weir and the foundation for the undershot waterwheel which provided power for the brine pump.
The brine pit was about 12 feet across, was brick lined and had been covered over with a brick arch. It had been abandoned and had disappeared from living memory by 1983.
In September 1983 the brick arch suddenly collapsed to reveal the brick-lined pit; full of brine to an overflow level about 4 foot above the water level in the river. I examined the pit in April 1984 and found it contained about a 50 foot depth of brine. Since the pit now contained the collapsed brick arch and earth cover the working depth would have been somewhat greater. The brine still contained about 15% sodium chloride was clear and produced an acceptable quality salt on simple evaporation. An analysis is on file. After several years the pit became a source of embarrassment to the farmer, being alongside a public footpath and near to the road and the adjacent Brine Pit Cottage where there were children. The pit was filled to make it safe, allegedly with sand but this has nevertheless stopped the brine flow.
The Kenyon family papers so far deposited at the Clywd Record Office contain no documents relating to the salt works, but I understand that many records remain in the care of the present Lord Kenyon. Salthouse deeds in the Cholmondely papers at Chester date back to the 14th century. In the 16th century much of the lands at Dirtwich were held by the Breretons of Malpas, with salt houses at both Higher and Lower Dirtwich.
(SJ488443)
The first series of the 1:25000 OS Map denote the presence of a "brine spring at this spot”. In fact this is a brine pit of considerable depth. In April 1984 I inspected the site and measured a depth of 80feet down to debris which must have inevitably collected over the years. The brine pit takes the form of a round pool about 20 feet across. It is shallow around the edge but at the centre there is the brine well which is about four feet across. It has been like this since beyond living memory and it must be more than two centuries since salt making ceased at this location. The Tithe Map marks the spot with a Brine Pit Field and a Brine Pit Meadow, but there is no indication of ancient occupation. These are the only salt related field names in either Lower or Higher Dirtwich but there is a "wich field" about a mile away along the road to Tybroughton which may have been used for hay, grazing or a coppiced source of wood fuel. No documents relating to this site have been found.
Higher Dirtwich (SJ496436)
An ancient salt making site on the Wigland bank of the river at Higher Dirtwich. Deeds relating to this property which go back to at least the early 16th century are held in the Cholmondeley papers, the earliest deed in English being dated 1543. From that time a complete succession of deeds cover the leasing of the salt works until its closure and final sale in around 1780. A deed of 1706 contains a map which fixes the exact location of the works. For almost a century from the mid-17th C it was jointly owned by the Bridgman and Cholmondeley families.
The 1611 Inventory Post Mortem of Randle Brereton of Malpas, last of the male line, includes 10 brine pits or salt houses at Higher and Lower Dirtwich. The Bridgman-Cholmondely salt house was one of these.
(SJ496435)
Salt making site in Iscoed immediately across the river from the Bridgman-Cholmondeley works listed above. The site was disturbed at the beginning of the 20th century when the road bridge was built and the road to Tybroughton and Eglwys Cross was moved back from the river bank to create the small meadow in which there are now two saline springs. These no doubt mark the location of two ancient brine pits. Some of the adjacent property was owned by Lord Kenyon in 1838 and this would suggest a salt works was still at this location in the 18th century.
(SJ497435)
A brine spring which forms a saline hollow at this spot marks the site of another brine pit in Iscoed and presumably of another salt works. No documentary evidence for this has yet been found.
(SJ495435)
Several saline pools survive in this meadow on the Wigland bank of the river adjacent to the present-day houses and gardens which occupy the site of the Bridgman-Cholmondeley salt works. The location of saline hollows in a large open meadow without plot boundaries possibly indicates early salt making. However, there is some suggestion of a "Great Brine Pit" at Higher Dirtwich; maybe a common brine pit north of the river. Some of the later leases for the Bridgman-Cholmondeley salt house refer to the possibility of loosing the brine in the brine pit which the 1706 map places inside the works and a reference to tunnels causes me to wonder whether the well within the works was fed through a culvert from a "Great Brine Pit" in the nearby field. The 1706 deed refers to the use of a brine pump at the pit inside the works.
1.1.3 WEAVER VALLEY
Bickley, Baddiley, Audlem and Adderley.
Henry Holland's 1811 map of the Brine Springs of Cheshire places brine springs at the above four locations in the upper Weaver valley. All are geologically plausible but have not been investigated.
Combermere Abbey (not sure where)
The sudden appearance of a brine pit in the grounds of the abbey in 1535 was a local sensation. The brine was made into salt by the monks and this brought protest from the Nantwich salt proprietors where the abbey owned salt houses. Reported in Leyland's itinerary.
Austerson (SJ669484)
According to James Hall, in around 1625 the Needham family established a saltworks here with coal heated iron pans. A "Wich House Field" gives the likely location. A brine spring is recorded in the Memoirs of the Geological Survey but their grid reference does not appear to be correct.
Hatherton (SJ671479)
Salt works allegedly established by Sir Thomas Smyth in about 1625. (Hall) Across the river from the Austerson works and slightly upstream. Approx location given by a "Brine Pit Field" in the Tithe Map.
Coole-Pilate (SJ663466)
Brine Pits Farm and a recently filled in brine pit. No field names and no documentary records encountered but probably 17th or 18th century.
Hankelow (SJ664466)
The current 1:25000 OS map shows a second brine pit on the Hankelow side of the river from Brine Pits Farm where there is also Brine Pits Wood. No Documentary records found so far, probably 17th-18th century.
Shrewbridge (SJ649509)
A new salt works constructed by Viscount Cholmondeley in 1693 on Shrewbridge Meadow; west of the river and outside Nantwich township. It seems likely that the works closed due to flooding in the early 18th C. A detailed account book for 1693-ca1700 (250pp) and several leases are in the Cholmondeley papers at Chester. [DCH/Z/35]
Spurstow Spa (SJ575548)
Mineral spring with claimed medicinal properties. Popular in 18th century. According to Ormerod’s analysis, not saline; mainly sulphates of Na and Mg etc.
Winsford Brine springs exploited since the mid-17th century. Location of the first salt works not known. Winsford was part of the Salt Office's Middlewich Collection and Salt Tax returns will list salt makers of Winsford after 1690 as part of Middlewich. The Winsford saltworks are to be listed as a separate chapter.
Leftwich (SJ658735 approx.)
Leftwich Eyes Saltworks was established in1669/1670 by Earl Thomas Rivers on fields south of River Dane and outside the Northwich town boundary. Four years of detailed production accounts (1770-1775), letters and documents to about 1722 in Cholmondeley Collection. [DCH/J/112 and DCH/J/113]
Winnington and Anderton Saltworks here are outside the nominal "wich". Important in 19th century after nearby Northwich saltworks were affected by subsidence and will be listed as part of urban Northwich. Well documented on 19th century OS maps.
Crewood (SJ572763 approx.)
This was the upper reach of the tidal river and in the 17th century, before the Navigation, boats were grounded at Pickerings Wharf (Called "Pickins" in both 17th and 20th centuries.) for the transhipment of salt and coal between boat and packhorse or wagon. Could have been site of salt warehouse. [Gibson and Waterworth, History of Kingsley, pp78-79]
Frodsham (SJ529784)
The nearest port to Northwich and used for shipment of Northwich salt since the middle ages. This is where the boats were loaded and Northwich saltworks owners had established quayside warehouses in 17th century. A rock salt refinery was established here in the 1690's. Salt activities ceased in first half of 19th C.
1.1.4 DANE VALLEY
Above Middlewich the River Dane itself passes over the dry rock head and as would be expected, brine springs have not been encountered in the valley above this point.
Boreholes seeking brine were put down in the early 20th century on sites at Dunkirk Farm and Vine Cottage, near Alum Bridge over the Croco at Holmes Chapel.
The rivers Wheelock and Croco join the Dane at Middlewich and the ancient salt works of Middlewich were alongside the Croco, where it flows above the wet rock head and near the King Street geological fault.
Sandersons Brook, a tributary of the Croco, continues above the wet rock head and salt works pumping wild brine were established alongside Sanderson's Brook at Cledford at the end of the 19th century.
These works can be readily identified on the 1908 edition of the 25inch OS: -
Electrolytic-Alkali Co. (SJ714648)
This company was established in 1899 as a major installation based on the Hargreaves-Bird brine electrolysis cell. Two brine shafts were sunk on the site and this early integrated chlor-alkali plant included a multi-effect brine evaporation plant which was the first commercial vacuum salt plant in the UK. Salt and chemical making ceased in about 1929. Taken over by Steventons for sanitary-ware manufacture in the 1930's and these operations have continued until the present day. Now Ideal-Standard.
Bowfields Saltworks (SJ716643)
The 1908, 25inch OS map shows the Bowfields Saltworks as two parts. That part nearest to Middlewich (i.e. to the north) was erected in 1899 by J Verdin-Cooke and Co., Liverpool Salt Merchants of St James's Street. The part to the south may also have been Verdin Cooke in 1908 or still green field, but was occupied by a new company, the Middlewich Salt Company, which was backed by Cerebos Salt Co Ltd of Greatham in County Durham. (They wanted a foothold in Cheshire) I have not researched the exact sequence of these events but by the 1930's the whole site, including the Tetton Works (below), was operating as the Middlewich Salt Company with Cerebos as parent company. By the mid-50's the name was formally changed to Cerebos. Now Rank, Hovis, McDougall, Bisto or Centura?
Tetton Salt Works (SJ720643)
Tetton Salt Works was established by John Sheffield in the 1890's. The date needs clarification but I expect it was after the formation of the Salt Union in 1888. Sometime between 1910 and 1919 John Sheffield’s lease to Tetton Works presumably expired and he moved to a new salt works at Rookery Bridge, Ettiley Heath, near Sandbach. At the time this was referred to as Rookery Bridge Salt Works but locally was always "Sheffield's Works". (See below)
British Salt Limited (SJ716644)
The modern vacuum salt works on this site occupies part of the old Electrolytic Alkali land and the site of the old Verdin-Cooke block of common pans. The works was established in 1969 to replace the old British Soda works at Rookery Bridge and the Amasal Works at Stafford both of which were closed in about 1969. Also closed down were the two Cerebos vacuum salt plants, one at Greatham and the other on the Middlewich Salt Company's site at Cledford.
Initially this was a 75%/25% split between British Soda and Cerebos but since the RHM takeover British Salt has been wholly owned by Staveley Industries, the parent company of British Soda.
Salt is supplied by conveyor belt to the adjacent RHM salt packing plant.
Brine for the British Salt plant comes by pipeline from the controlled pumping field at Warmingham.
Murgatroyds Salt and Chemical Co. (SJ730630)
Integrated chlor-alkali works which came on stream in 1950. Production of vacuum salt and chemicals originally from natural brine pumped from the Murgatroyds Salt Works Shaft in Brooks Lane, Middlewich. Initially sponsored by the Government's Finance Corporation, it became 51%/49% jointly owned by DCL and Fisons in 1954. Wholly owned by BP Chemicals in 1967 and Hay's Chemicals since 1984. Vacuum salt plant closed in 1977 and white salt now bought in from British Salt and Salt Union. Now Albion Chemicals.
1.1.5 WHEELOCK VALLEY
Warmingham (SJ702613)
British Salt Company's controlled pumping brine field at Hill Top Farm.
Elton Township (SJ724587)
Iron-age site discovered at Railway Farm in 1992 by the British Gas resident archaeologist during the laying of the 36 inch main.
Sandbach Township - Ettiley Heath
Sheffield' Salt Works (SJ732601)
Works established by John Sheffield before 1919. Merged with Palmer Mann in 1926, taken over by British Soda in 1959 and closed down and demolished in 1972. Site now housing estate.
Palmer Mann and Co., Sifta Salt Works. (SJ735605)
Land purchased 1919. After an initial period as merchants a salt making works erected ca 1923. Palmer Mann had taken over the management of Lawton Saltworks for the Commercial Salt Company in about 1920. In 1926 the two companies merged with Sheffield’s Salt Works to form Cheshire United Salt Co. Palmer Mann and Co managed the whole salt making operation.
In 1959, Cerebos became the majority shareholder in Cheshire United Salt, (ie. Palmer Mann), their main aim being the acquisition of the Palmer Mann brand names; Sifta Salt and Sifta Sam etc. The whole works at Ettiley Heath was sold to British Soda and continued to operate as part of the adjacent Glacier Salt Works. Closed down and demolished 1972. Site now the Moston Road industrial estate.
British Soda Company, Glacier Salt Works. (SJ728601)
Land purchased in 1917 by Staveley Iron and Chemical Co of Chesterfield to erect a salt works. Construction commenced ca 1920. Major customer for the salt was the new brine electrolysis plant at Staveley. Glacier Works closed and demolished in 1969, following the start-up of the new British Salt plant at Cledford. The site became Crewe Chemicals in 1970, later to become MTM Chemicals and now United Phosphorous.
Sandbach - Hind Heath
Hind Heath (SJ739594 and SJ744593)
Salt works established in 1693 on the Hind Heath estate in Sandbach township. The tithe map shows locations marked by "Brine Pit Field" and two "Wich House Fields". There are adjacent "Wich Fields" across river in Wheelock township. The canal passes over the probable sites of these salt works. Documentation is to be found in the Ford of Abbeyfields papers at the Cheshire Record Office.
Wheelock Township
Lime Kiln Lane Works (SJ749591)
Salt Works established in about 1790, alongside the recently constructed Trent and Mersey Canal. Site now HJ Lea's mill. See Wheelock Iron and Salt Co below.
Wheelock Iron and Salt Co. (SJ748592)
Occupied, in about 1860, the site of Lime Kiln Works and the larger site north of the canal where an iron works was erected and common salt pans heated by the hot gases from the adjacent iron furnaces. Acquired the Wheelock "Old" Works in 1870's or 1880's. Closed down soon after 1888 when the company became part of the Salt Union. The site was occupied by Cheshire Concrete Ltd but is now a housing development.
Wheelock "Old" Works (SJ753593)
Salt works established alongside the railway and east of the silk mill. The North Staffs Railway came through to Sandbach in 1851 and this salt works was a post-railway development. Became part of the Wheelock Iron and Salt Company in 1870's (?) and part of Salt Union in 1888. Kept working until closed down in about 1911. Works not demolished until the mid or late 1920's. Site landscaped and now a meadow.
Canalside Works (SJ755592)
Salt works constructed soon after the construction of the canal in 1775. Supplied with brine from the spring in Hassall Township which was on the site of Thomas Stephens's mid-17th century works which had presumably been demolished to make way for the canal. Became an inn in the mid 19th century and up to the 1940's. Now a farm.
Hassall Township
Thomas Stephens's Salt Works (SJ761592)
Salt works established by Thomas Stephens in the mid 17th century, sometime before 1690. Based on ancient brine springs to the north of the river. Presumably demolished to make way for canal.
Whitehall Works. (SJ761591)
Established in about 1852 by James Simpson Leake near the site of the earlier Thomas Stephens works and probably using the same source of brine. On the triangular plot of land formed between the canal and railway. Purchased by James Blackwell and ultimately became part of the Salt Union. Closed down in about 1922. Now much landscaped and part of the golf course.
Betchton Township
Malkins Bank Works. (SJ763591)
Established about 1790 following the construction of the canal. Acquired by James Blackwell in 1850's and ultimately became part of the Salt Union. Now part of the golf course.
Wheelock Top Works (SJ767588)
Salt Works built alongside the canal and between the canal and the railway. Not appearing in the 1838 Tithe Award but its layout and lack of railway access suggests it was established before 1851. Lack of documentation and initial ownership not certain. Owned by James Blackwell in the 1860's and ultimately became part of Salt Union. Probably closed down at the same time as the Whitehall Works. The name "Wheelock Top Works" is a potential source of confusion. See 1875 and 1908 25inch OS maps. Now part of the golf course.
Brunner Mond Sandbach Works (SJ764590)
Ammonia Soda Works established 1873 on the plot between the Malkins Bank Salt Works and Wheelock Top Salt works. Not a salt making site but pumping natural brine which is converted into sodium carbonate etc. Process licensed from Solvay, initially by Gascoigne, Kearne and Richards but taken over by Brunner Mond in 1880. Closed down ca. 1930 and demolished in 1932. Now part of the golf course.
Roughwood Works. (SJ777584 and SJ781579)
The later Roughwood Works was alongside the canal at Hassall Green and established in the 1780's or 90's following the canal's construction. The turning bay for a canal basin can be seen by the road bridge. It replaced the original Roughwood Works which was in nearby Roughwood Hollow and was established in 1693. But the Tithe Apportionment leaves the impression that this could have been the site of earlier salt working. Brine was pumped from the original brine shaft in the valley bottom to a reservoir in the field by the canal locks and across the road from the new works. "Reservoir Field" on Tithe Map. The site of the new canalside salt works is now a meadow and garden.
The potential sites of the old Roughwood Works in the valley bottom are now largely covered by the railway embankment constructed in 1851. There is here an "Engine Field" and a "Wich house Field", the latter in Alsager Township. The Engine Field not covered by the railway contains a salt marsh that could well be the site of the 1693 brine pit. A steam engine was used to pump the brine from the valley bottom to the reservoir.
Odd Rode and Church Lawton Townships
Lawton Salt Works (SJ806569)
Salt works established in 17th century by the Lawton family on the south (Church Lawton) side of river. The works were leased by the Lowndes family of Bostock House, the site of the moated Hassall Manor (Now under the M6) and later of Hassall Hall
(SJ805571)
Later developments on the Odd Rode side where a new Salt Works was established in 1778 following the completion the canal. By Edward Salmon and William Penlington, who had married the Lowndes heiresses. Lawton Salt Works was taken over by the Broughton family in about 1790 and traded as Broughton and Sutton, James Sutton having been manager of the Lawton Salt Warehouse at Shardlow. After several changes in proprietor the lease was eventually taken over by the Salt Union in 1888. New lease went to the Commercial Salt Company in about 1909 which merged with Palmer Mann in 1920's. Henry Seddon of Middlewich bought the freehold in about 1922 but failed in two High Court Attempts to eject Palmer for alleged infringement of lease.. Works eventually closed following subsidence in 1926. Massive subsidence occurred in 1937. Site landscaped in 1980 and now a meadow.
(SJ801574)
North of the river in Odd Rode there is also a "Wich House Field" and a "Rock Pit Field". There was a brief period of rock salt mining around 1780. But the wich house field could be a 17th century development.
1.1.6 BOLLIN VALLEY
Dunham Woodhouses (SJ719879)
A new salt works established by the Booth family of Dunham Massey around 1630. Equipped with an iron pan and burning coal. Leaseholder a coal pit owner of Leigh.
Contemporary deeds include field names that enable the site to be located on the Tithe Map. Salt Office certificates have survived which were issued at Dunham Woodhouses in the 18th century.
Agden Saltworks (SJ710871)
Established alongside the Bridgewater Canal in the early years of the century. Possibly 1906. Became part of J Manger Ltd of Stafford, who in turn became part of Amasal. Amasal taken over by British Soda in about 1960 and the works was closed down in about 1962. Now Agden Boatyard.
Heatley "Original" Works (SJ698883)
First works to be established at Lymm. In Reddish Lane, possibly 1904-5. This was a small works and I suspect it was taken over by Charles Moore Company (see below) who pumped brine from the site. Was certainly part of the Charles Moore estate in 1950. Was subsiding when inspected in 1974.
Charles Moore Works (SJ 701882)
Salt works established south of and alongside the railway in 1906. Borehole went down 300-400 feet but brine level was often near the surface and occasionally artesian well with slight gushing. A vacuum plant was erected in the 1930's. Company associated with yeast and adhesives manufacture in Liverpool and became part of Distillers Company in 1930's. Works closed down in 1950 because of critical problems due to subsidence. As a direct result of this closure Distillers acquired a 51% holding in Murgatroyds Salt and Chemical Co in 1954. Charles Moore site partly subsided but was a depot for secondhand chemical plant in 1974.
Verdin Cooke Works (SJ701884)
Established by J Verdin Cooke and Co in 1908 as their second works. The first was at Cledford, Middlewich. Connected to railway by a spur with a level crossing over Birchbrook Road which also connected to a coal wharf. The works was closed down in 1926 and demolished in 1933. I suspect the closure was a result of the Middlewich Salt Company (ie. Cerebos) take over of Verdin-Cooke and a major expansion of the Cledford, Middlewich site. Not sure about present status of the site. Open land in 1974.
1.2 DOCUMENTARY SOURCES
References to Cheshire salt making in Roman texts which have been confirmed by on-site archaeology show that the centre of Cheshire salt making in the Roman period was Salinae, the Roman Middlewich. Apart from this the earliest documentary record of salt making in Cheshire is the Domesday Book.
Domesday returns record Anglo-Saxon salt making at four locations in the county. These four "wiches" being Norvvich, Mildestvic Wich, a Wich in Warmundestrou Hundred (which became Wich Malbank) and the fourth wich also not named in Domesday but identified in late 11th century charters as Fulewich. The latter un-named Domesday salt house was in the lost manor of Burwardeston which has been identified as the present day township of Iscoyd which in the 13th century became part of Maelor Saesneg, the detached part of Flintshire. Salt making in Anglo-Saxon England was a taxable commodity and hence a valuable source of revenue for the King. Likewise the objective of William’s survey of 1086 was an up-to-date assessment of the taxable value of his realm.
The making of salt at other locations where brine springs had been identified was presumably an estate venture, meeting the needs of the lord’s household and the workers on the estate. To what extent some illicit cottage saltmaking went on is not certain. (Compare use of hand grinding stones.) Such activity would presumably find its way into the manor court records.
An early documentary reference to the existence of a salt pit near Eaton is found in a charter of 1177-80 and there is possibly sufficient topographical guidance in this text to reveal its present day location.
[Barraclough, Charters of the Norman Earls, No.158, Record Society Vol. 126] This is outside the known area of the rock salt beds and there is a record of another brine spring at nearby Aldersey which is also to the west of the Bickerton Hills. Dodgson in his Cheshire Place Names suggests that in the 12th C this location would be adjacent to the tidal Dee and hence could be making sea salt. But “salt pit” is not a sea salt making term.
The map of Cheshire which accompanies Henry Holland's paper of 1811 [Transactions of the Geological Society Vol. I, pp38-62] locates "situations in which Brine Springs have been found". The map is generally a useful source but is unreliable in that the location of the red spots is on the wrong side of the river at so many locations where the exact position is known. Hence it cannot be assumed to be right at locations where this information would be of interest. The map locates brine springs in the upper Weaver valley, at Bickley, Baddiley, Audlem and Adderley for which exact locations have not yet been investigated.
There are reports of other brine springs beyond the limits of the major Cheshire-Shropshire rock salt basin which could be from the remnants of once larger deposits, in the same way that the Cheshire-Shropshire basin is itself the remnant of an even larger deposit. There are records of early modern salt making at several sites in southern Shropshire and production records survive for the Kingley Wyche saltworks in the parish of Preston-on-the-Weald Moors, near Wellington (SJ676148). [Shropshire Sites and Monuments Record SA/1369; also SRO 625/1-22; 676/2-27.] See J M B Stamper, The Shropshire Salt Industry, Trans. Shrop. Archeol. Soc., LXIV, 77-82, 1985, and also Julie Stamper's (nee Humphries) Univ. of Southampton Dissertation, January 1983.
In Cheshire numerous deeds survive which relate to individual salt houses in the four wiches. These date back to the 12th century and where family collections have remained intact can sometimes be linked with a succession of later deeds. This enables the deed to be associated with a known site.
Wich house deeds are to be found in collections at the Cheshire Record Office, John Rylands Manchester University Library and Keele University Library. A large number of Middlewich deeds collected by William Vernon in the 17th century have been transcribed by Joan Varley in Volumes I and II of The Middlewich Chartulary (Chetham Vol. 85 and 88).
1.2.1 CHESHIRE RECORD OFFICE FAMILY COLLECTIONS
ACKERS OF WHEELOCK.
This collection contains the deeds of the manors of Hassall and Wheelock 1647-1744 and later deeds and documents relating to properties in Wheelock and transactions with Brunner Mond and the Salt Union, the last being dated 1919 and relating to land leased by them from the Shakerley-Ackers family of Great Moreton Hall. I am not sure about the connection between the Shakerley-Ackers of Moreton and the Shakerley of Somerford (see below).
BAKER-WILBRAHAM of RODE.
A branch of the Wilbraham of Nantwich family starting with the purchase of the Odd Rode estate in 1668. Have not exhaustively searched the collection and it may contain documents relating to saltmaking sites known to have existed in Odd Rode, Betchton and Alsager townships.
CHOLMONDELEY.
Major collection not yet completely classified by the Record Office. Catalogue is periodically extended and has been searched up to 1990. Contains numerous medieval and later deeds for salt houses at Dirtwich, Nantwich and Middlewich. These include the only deeds so far found to salt houses at Dirtwich. The collection contains the only known copies of the 1624 Survey of the Walling Lands of Nantwich which defines the area of the town occupied by salt houses in the medieval period.
Accounts relating to Earl Thomas Rivers’s newly constructed salt works at Leftwich Eyes, Northwich by Earl Rivers, for a four year period (1671-1675) and further miscellaneous documents dating up to the early 18th century..
Account Book for the Shrewbridge Meadow Salt Works, newly constructed by Viscount Cholmondely in 1693 and covering the years to ca 1701 with miscellaneous papers to ca 1711. ca 250 pages of detailed accounts.
DELVES-BROUGHTON.
The Delves-Broughton papers are a potential source of early deeds relating to salt making sites in the Weaver valley above Nantwich and the Lawton Salt works at Rodeheath held by the Broughton family between ca. 1790 and ca. 1922. As yet I have drawn a blank and the Lawton Salt works documents were probably transferred to Henry Seddon when he acquired the freehold in about 1923. I also failed to find any documentation relating the salt works at Austerson apparently held by the Delves estate in the 17th century.
LEICESTER-WARREN OF TABLEY.
The collection at the Cheshire Record Office, as listed in their Guide, contains medieval deeds to properties in Northwich which no doubt includes salt houses. There is a further collection of Tabley papers at the John Rylands Library.
NEEDHAM.
The Needham papers were unavailable for searches at the time but are apparently now accessible. I would expect them to contain papers relating to the salt works allegedly established, in about 1625, by the Needham family alongside the River Weaver at Austerson. This works was attributed to Thomas Delves in Lord William Brereton's 1675 list of salt works.
SHAKERLEY.
Major collection of documents which has been recently purchased by the Record Office comes from the estate of the late Sir Arthur Bryant who married into the Shakerley family and who acquired the papers when Somerford Hall was demolished in 1926. Not yet catalogued and access is limited. Contains William Vernon's manuscripts and notebooks. The Middlewich Chartulary is based on William Vernon's Notebook M, which had escaped from the collection and discovered in a Liverpool bookshop. According to Joan Varley, who had access to the Arthur Bryant papers, there is a similar notebook devoted to Nantwich deeds.
There will be other salt related papers in this collection. These will include Middlewich and Northwich deeds and possibly early deeds relating to potential salt making land in Wheelock. The collection also contains notes and transcripts made by Arthur Bryant.
TOLLEMACHE.
The Cheshire estate papers of the Tollemache family of Helmingham, Suffolk. Acquired by marriage with the Wilbrahams of Woodhey in 1680. Deeds, surveys and rentals relating to properties held in Nantwich by this branch of the Wilbraham family. Including numerous wich house sites in the town.
VERNON-WARREN.
Contains the Venables and Vernon papers relating to properties in Kinderton, Middlewich. Some are probably salt related.
1.2.2 CHESHIRE RECORD OFFICE - SOLICITORS AND BUSINESS DEPOSITS.
Solicitor's deposits frequently contain deeds and documents relating to properties. These are mixed collections and a comprehensive search of the whole of each collection is necessary. For example, an unexpected find was documents relating to salt-bearing land adjacent to Lawton Salt Works and the Shirleywich Salt Works which have been deposited by Fletchers of Northwich.
The Cheshire Record Office Guide, published since my last search, contains an interesting item beneath the caption "Anonymous Solicitor". This refers to the papers of the Ford family of Abbeyfields, Sandbach which include deeds back to the 17th century. The Ford lands include the sites of the late 17th century salt works at Hind Heath where there is a Brine Pit field and two Wich House fields. Hopefully these Ford papers will include the deeds to this site.
Business papers are held at Chester which relate to Brunner Mond, Salt Union, and Murgatroyd's Salt Works. These relate to salt making sites that are well documented.
1.2.3 JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY.
LEICESTER OF TABLEY PAPERS.
Still unsorted in 1991 but not thought to contain salt related documents.
LEICESTER OF TOFT PAPERS.
Contains a 16th century list of Northwich salt houses, with their owners, customs and rents. (Leicester of Toft 500)
GREY of DUNHAM MASSEY PAPERS.
The papers of the Grey Family, Earls of Stamford, contain 17th century deeds relating to a salt works at Dunham Woodhouses, and then in the holding of the Booth family of Dunham Massey. This was a new salt house with iron pan with coal from Lancashire as the fuel. The correlation of field names in the deeds with field names given in the 1838 Tithe Apportionment enables the site of the salt works to be located somewhere upon two adjacent fields. Documents ref JRL/EGR1/1/4/14, JRL/EGR1/1/5/5, JRL/EGR1/1/5/10, JRL/EGR1/1/5/11.
1.2.4 UNIVERSITY OF KEELE LIBRARY ARCHIVES AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
RAYMOND RICHARDS COLLECTION.
This collection contains the papers of the Chetwode family of Nantwich and the papers of the Sneyd family of Keele. These contain numerous deeds of properties in Nantwich which include wich houses.
1.2.5 OTHER SOURCES.
Document collections still in private hands are an unexplored source of information. The Kenyon Family papers are not all deposited with the Clywd Record Office or the National Library of Wales. Lord Kenyon owned the last working saltworks at Lower Dirtwich and the last works on the Iscoed side of Wychbrook at Higher Dirtwich. Interestingly, Kenyon papers already with the Clywd Record Office include deeds of salt houses at Nantwich and Middlewich.
Early salt making in the township of Church Lawton at Rode Heath was carried out by the Lawton family who still hold their family papers, and the Wilbrahams of Townsend House Nantwich, who are now the Wilbrahams of Delamere Lodge, hold documents relating to Nantwich.
LOCATION OF SALT MAKING SITES.
While confirming the existence of a salt house, early deeds rarely provide details that would confirm its exact location. Reference to a topographic feature such as a street or river, or mention of a field name, is helpful and by the 17th century maps and plans begin to appear. A deed of 1706 relating to a salt house at Dirtwich has contained the only known plan of a 17th century salt works. It furthermore gives the exact location of the works relative to the Wychebrook. [Cholmondeley Dirtwich deeds].
A valuable resource when locating early salt making sites is the Tithe Apportionment and Tithe Map which were prepared for every township during the 1830's. Riverside meadows with such field-names as "Wich house Field" and "Brine Pit field" provide positive evidence of early salt making, although there are known salt making sites that do not have a salt related field name. Alternatively there are "Wich fields" on land above a dry rock head which cannot be brine bearing. These were probably lands held by a wich and used for grazing or the supply of timber etc. See the Tithe Apportionments for the Townships of Brereton and Bradwall.
1.3 BIBLIOGRAPHY
References to sources relating to the making of salt in Cheshire and adjacent counties
Early Transactions of the Royal Society
Some inquiries concerning the salt springs and way of making salt at Nantwich, Dr William Jackson, Vol. 53, pp1060-1067, 1077-1079, 1669.
Letters concerning the discovery of rock of natural salt in Cheshire, Adam Martindale, Vol. 66, 2015-2017, 1669.
Account of the salt waters of Droitwich in Worcestershire, Dr T Rastell, Vol. 142, 1059-1064, 1678.
Letters concerning the brine of the saltworks of Staffordshire, Dr Robert Plot, Vol. 145, 96-99, 1682-3
Observations of the midland salt springs of Worcestershire, Staffordshire and Cheshire, Dr Martin Lister, Vol. 156, 489-495, 1683-4.
Salt and Fishery, John Collins, Accountant to the Royal Fishery Company London, 1682.
Natural History of Staffordshire, Dr Robert Plot, 1686 salt pages 93-106
The making of salt at Namptwych in Cheshire from "Collection of English Words" 1768 edition but first published in 1674. pp 204-209, John Ray
Brine Salt Improved - Making salt as good as French bay salt from brine, Thomas Lowndes of Middlewich London, 1746.
Letter of advice to brine salt proprietors Thomas Lowndes London 1748.
Art of Making Common Salt, Dr William Brownrigg, London, 1744
General View of the Agriculture of Cheshire, Henry Holland, Report to Board of Agriculture. 1808.
Natural History of Cheshire Rock Salt District, Henry Holland, Trans. Geological Society. Vol. I, 1811.
Outline of the principal geological features of the salt field of Cheshire, G W Ormerod, Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, Vol. IV.
1848 Salt production in Cheshire and Worcestershire von Lindig, Salt merchant of Durrenberg, Bavaria. Zeitschrift fur de Berg-, Hutten- und Salinenwesen in Preuss Staate VI, 4, Berlin, 1858. (Translation at Salt Museum)
History of the town and parish of Nantwich, James Hall, Nantwich, 1883. (Morten reprint 1972)
Salt in Cheshire, A F Calvert, Spon, London, 1913
Rock Salt and Brine, R L Sherlock, Special Reports on mineral resources of UK, Vol. XVIII, 1921 Memoirs of the Geological Survey, London.
The Wiches, Chapter VII of Medieval Cheshire, H J Hewitt, Manchester University Press 1929.
The Middlewich Chartulary Parts I and II, Joan Varley and James Tait, Chetham Society, New Series, Vol. 105, 1941; Vol. 108, 1944.
Report on the geology of the Heatley Salt Field, J H Thom and R C B Jones, 1947, Publisher not known.
Lancashire coal, Cheshire salt and the rise of Liverpool, T C Barker, Trans. Hist. Soc. Lanc. and Ches. Vol. 103, 83-101, 1951
Salt in Cheshire 1670-1870, WH Chaloner, Trans. Lanc. and Ches. Antiq. Soc., Vol. 71, 1961
Nantwich - an eleventh century salt town and its origins, J Oxley, Trans. Hist. Soc. Lanc. and Ches., Vol. 131, 1-19, 1981.
Two 12th century wich houses in Nantwich Cheshire, Robina McNeill, Medieval Archaeology, Vol. XXVII, 40-87, 1983
Salt Working at Lymm, Lymm and District Local History Society Newsletter No. 32, September 1970; No. 33, October 1970.
Heatley and Agden Saltfield, Lymm and District Local History Society Quarterly Journal Vol. IV, Part 3, 1981
Salt in Shropshire with special reference to 18th century, Julie Humphrey, University of Southampton Dissertation, Jan 1983.
The Shropshire Salt Industry, J M B Stamper (nee Julie Humphrey), Trans. Shropshire Archaeological Society, LXIV, 77-82, 1985.
Salt making at Shirleywich, 1690 to 1830, D Scahill, Staff. Ind. Archeol. Soc Vol. 3, 21-29, 1972.
Salt boiling at Stafford, Pamela Murray, Stafford Archaeology Vol. I, 11-13, 1973
Salt in Staffordshire, Chapter in Victoria County History, Vol. II, 246-251.
The Preesall Salt Industry, Parts I, II, III., Rosemary Hogarth, The Over-Wyre Historical Journal, Vols. I, 1980; II, 1982; III, 1984.
PART II THE SALT TOWNS
So far this Survey only details the town saltworks of Middlewich. The medieval salthouses of Nantwich and Northwich are detailed in the surveys of 1606 for Northwich (see Calvert) and the 1624 Survey of Walling Lands of Nantwich in the Cholmondely Papers at the CRO.(Ref DCH/Y/10/1) Nantwich salt making declined rapidly in the 1690’s and production was negligible from then onwards until final closure in about 1856. Traditional saltmaking at Northwich was more or less replaced with rocksalt mining in the 18th century. Consequential subsidence and the construction of the Trent and Mersey Canal saw the 19th century establishment of large open pan works along the canal at Wincham, Marston and Anderton.
2.1 SALT MAKING SITES IN MIDDLEWICH
2.1.1 IRON AGE AND ROMAN MIDDLEWICH
A review by Elaine Morris of the archaeology of Iron Age settlements throughout Central England, Wales and the Marches has shown a common factor to be fragments of distinctive pottery vessels which were shown to have been containers for salt. Moreover this Very Coarse Pottery (VCP) was shown to be made from clay dug in the Middlewich/ Nantwich area. Very few fragments of this pottery have been found in Cheshire which leads us to the conclusion that the vessels were used as shipping containers. Conceivably they were an early form of salt tub or barrow and in the same way had been filled with hot salt slurry, but when this had set, no attempt was made to cast a salt lump. This was unlike the Essex salt makers who broke their red pottery “moulds” to retrieve a salt lump. The Red Hills of Essex were thus formed but no equivalent hills of broken pottery have been found in Cheshire. The wide distribution of “Very Coarse Pottery” (VCP) fragments at Iron Age sites has shown that Cheshire salt was being traded over a large part of the English Midlands and Wales. A similar distribution pattern was observed for Droitwich salt.
The current assumption is that the use of VCP containers in Cheshire continued up to the introduction of lead pans by the Romans on their arrival in Cheshire around the middle of the first century AD. There have been the discoveries of lead ingots and lead pipe of AD 70’s date at Chester and the long established and extensive copper, silver and lead mines of North Wales were a major attraction for an early Roman occupation of the North West. The dating of the Pot Shaft at Alderley Edge to this same period has furthermore indicated that the Roman Army was itself mining for copper and lead at this long established Iron Age/ Bronze Age site only ten miles from Middlewich.
[See comments about medieval and Roman pans in Early Modern Middlewich, below.]
It has long been known that Middlewich was the Roman “Salinae” and a place of importance but there was no suggestion that Nantwich was a salt making town of significance in Roman times. A first clue came with the discovery of two inscribed lead pans just beyond the town boundary at Henhull in 1983. Although not at Nantwich the subsequent discovery of three inscribed Roman pans in a field at Shavington, one in 1993 and two in 1998, showed that Roman saltmaking in South Cheshire was more extensive than hitherto thought.
However, two recent major archaeological digs; one at Middlewich in 2001 and the other at Nantwich in 2002 have set the record straight and confirmed the first century establishment of Roman Army salt making settlements at both towns. These were significantly shown to be both green field sites with no evidence of earlier Iron Age salt making activity.
It is also apparent that at both sites the settlements were abandoned during the period of Roman occupation and returned to agriculture. In this state they have remained until the present day housing developments precipitated the need for archaeology. Unlike Droitwich where the Iron Age, Roman and Medieval salt making occupation layers are all found on the same site, we have at Middlewich and Nantwich the Roman salt making sites as solitary occupation layers. A most likely interpretation is that both were military saltworks catering exclusively for the Roman Army’s needs and when no longer required the sites were dismantled.
If this was so we are left with the question, at both Middlewich and Nantwich, where were the long established civilian salt making settlements which must have carried on as usual during the Roman period. Most likely these were the “wich” towns documented in Domesday and both have probably lacked archaeology in the right place at the right time and likely sites in Middlewich were probably destroyed when the Trent and Mersey Canal cut through the town in 1775. At Nantwich archaeology has so far failed to produce evidence of Iron Age salt making. But salt making at the riverside brine springs would have been handicapped by the rivers tendency to flood and alter course.
2.1.2 MEDIEVAL MIDDLEWICH
No documentary records have survived of the salt making which must have continued in Cheshire during the six centuries following the departure of the Romans. The Domesday Book does however make up for this lack since it describes the way salt was regulated during the Anglo-Saxon period. This sophisticated system of regulation and taxation would not have appeared overnight and no doubt represents a gradual development over several centuries.
By about the 13th century, Middlewich had grown to contain about a hundred or so six-lead wich houses, which were packed closely together along narrow streets around the two brine pits of the town. The Middle “wich” occupied land on both sides of the River Croco. Domesday suggests that the salt making area existed as a separate industrial enclave between the surrounding urban settlements of Kinderton and Newton. Unlike the Domesday entry for Nantwich where the "wich" is enclosed within a boundary ditch, there is no suggestion in the Middlewich entry that the Middle "wich" enclave was contained within a similar enclosure.
Middlewich deeds before 1450 refer more to four and eight-lead wich houses than to six-lead wich houses but after 1450 a six-lead wich house appears to have been adopted as a standard. The same situation appears to have existed at Nantwich.
We have few clues as to the layout of the Middlewich "wich", and no map or survey similar to those for Northwich and Nantwich has yet been found. The 1875 25 inch OS map shows the residual boundaries of burgage plots along Lewin Street and Wheelock Street and again in Kinderton Street and King Street on the other side of the valley. Between there is a breakdown of this plot boundary pattern which presumably locates the general area of the medieval wich. But a large portion of what was walling land is now covered by the Trent and Mersey Canal, which in 1775 cut a broad band through the centre of the area once covered with medieval wich houses, but these had already disappeared long before the canal was constructed (see below). The once narrow and winding bed of the River Croco (which had then become the boundary between the townships of Kinderton and Newton) was at the same time straightened and provided with its own channel alongside the canal.
Early documents containing clues to the location of certain wich houses are listed in the Middlewich Chartulary which is a transcription of William Vernon's "Notebook M" (Chetham Volumes 105 and 108). Topographical details in some of the wich house deeds listed by William Vernon enable a few of the wich houses to be placed in their approximate location. But these are insufficient to create an overall plan of the medieval wich. A study of the surviving wich house deeds, not included in the chartulary, would further this objective.
A record of the number of Middlewich salt houses in 1507 is to be found in a file of early documents in the Keele Archives. (Raymond Richards Collection M 42/6). This includes a list of Mise payments by occupiers of wich houses for the year 1507 which gives a total of 110 wich houses of six-leads. This figure is probably a reliable comparison with the 216 wich houses of six-leads on record for Nantwich in the 1624 Survey. At Nantwich, the ownership of one of the 216 walling lands of six leads held a right to a share of brine from the Town Pit and to its making into salt. But the latter could be carried out in a hired or "borrowed" wich house and the walling land represented by this endowment could have been put to another use. The same situation probably existed with the 110 walling lands of Middlewich and in this respect the document on the "Tofts of Middlewich" which is contained in the 1507 collection appears significant.
2.1.3 EARLY MODERN MIDDLEWICH
The early years of the 17th century saw the beginnings of technical change in the salt industry and a breakdown of the old system of regulation. Each of the three salt towns had similar Rules of Walling which in themselves create a picture of the life in the salt towns. For example, since there was a great risk from fire amongst the closely packed timber houses an eighteen rung ladder was a mandatory item of equipment in each Nantwich wich house. At Northwich piles of fuel wood were not to encroach onto the highway in front of the wich houses. At Middlewich periods of permitted saltmaking were marked by the ringing of a bell.
The technical change of the 17th century referred to above was the use of iron pans in place of the lead pans which had been the standard practice for 1500 years. It is interesting to note that throughout this time pan size had remained the same order of magnitude. If anything the medieval lead pans were slightly smaller and less well made than the Roman pans found by in recent years. Maybe the Roman pans were made to a military specification and the same thoughts have been expressed about the high quality of the mining pick marks of the Alderley Edge Pot Shaft of the late first century which suggests that this also met a Roman Army specification.
The introduction of iron pans was made necessary by the change from wood to coal which was too hot for lead pans. The increasing shortage of timber was not so much due to careless woodland management as to competing demands for the existing supplies of coppiced timber by the charcoal burners meeting the needs of the iron industry which had moved northwards into Shropshire and Cheshire in the 16th and 17th centuries.
The change from lead to iron was forced on the saltmakers by the higher temperature of a coal fire which led to frequent meltdown of the lead so that pan repair became a daily occurrence. Melting of the lead could of course happen with a wood fire if the pan was carelessly allowed to boil dry. The change from lead to iron was resisted by many saltmakers. Lead pans were easy to make and lead from old pans could be readily recycled. The construction of pans of riveted wrought iron plates was a skilled time-consuming job and probably a higher cost. One advantage of iron pans was the ability to make much larger pans.
Iron pans were possibly first introduced at rural estate salt houses such as Dunham Woodhouses (1633) and Austerson (ca 1625). Instead of the usual group of six lead pans these new salthouses appeared to have a single iron pan of equivalent size and this change began to be made by some of the saltmakers in the salt towns in spite of the traditional rules of walling.
The change prompted Peter Warburton, the Chester antiquarian, to preserve for posterity the ancient rules and records of walling in Northwich. He was less successful with Middlewich, giving a list of 22 salt house owners but was unable to obtain details of the total number of leads held by each owner. The 1507 Keele document lists 48 salt owners for Middlewich.
Warburton also mentions the rural estate developments: -
"The names of the persons followinge are such as have of late tyme erected newe salt workes uppon their severall inheritances, and uppon newespringes by them found.........." (Calvert “Salt in Cheshire” p. 1084)
In 1675 the salt made at the three Cheshire "wiches" was listed by Lord William Brereton (of Brereton) and this was included in "Salt and Fishery" by John Collins and reproduced from here by Calvert (p 282). The Middlewich entry contains the Town Works with 12 pans and four private owners: - the Baron of Kinderton with 7 pans and Messrs. Oldfield, Croxton, and Mainwaring each with one pan. I am not sure what Brereton means by "Town Works" but assume they were salt houses occupied by certain townsfolk and gentry from nearby estates.
For Nantwich, Lord Brereton’s list gives the Town Works as 24pans while Sir Thomas Delves has three pans. A footnote in the John Collins text explains significantly that these Delves salt houses are at Austerson and hence out of the town. The "Town Works" at Nantwich were those salt houses held by the occupiers of walling land and subject to the Rules of Walling which are well documented. All these salthouses received their allocations of brine from the single Town Pit and were all part of the ancient walling lands of the Town.
[Lord Brereton’s Northwich list of 1678 contains Earl Rivers's Leftwich Eyes Saltworks which was in the township of Leftwich and outside the Northwich town boundary. This was a new (1669) works with its own brine pit.]
With regard to Middlewich itself, it is clear that further research on the 17th century town is desirable. It seems likely that Baron Kinderton's saltworks in the Brereton 1678 list was on the King Street site lying between King Street and the River Croco. On the Trent and Mersey Canal Company’s map of 1778 this was shown as Lord Vernon's works. Being immediately to the south of the Roman fort this could have been the site of the first Roman saltworks. John Bestwick’s dig of 1965-1972 in the garden of the “stone house” in King Street was part of this site. John Bestwick failed to find pieces of lead and was himself sceptical about the Roman use of lead pans at Middlewich. But his overall site was only small. However the field below the stone house and adjacent to the Kinderton Saltworks, was agricultural land until recently developed for housing. I understand from the metal detecting community that this field has been extensively searched over the last 25years and many lead fragments were found and discarded as of little interest or value.
The Brereton 1675 list also contains a column headed "Pans that may be used" and the Middlewich Town Works may use 40 pans, Baron Kinderton's are "at pleasure” and owners Oldfield, Croxton and Mainwaring may use one each. Calvert makes no comment about this and I have no recollection of any explanation elsewhere. Possibly this relates to the borrowing of salt houses. This appears to have been a common practice in Nantwich in 1641 yet in the Brereton list the Town Works at Nantwich may also use their houses "At pleasure". This is odd because one of the claims in the Nantwich Court Action of 1696 was that Samuel Acton was using his pans "at pleasure" and against the Rules of Walling. Brereton could be implying that some of the ancient rules were still being observed at Middlewich in 1675.
Brereton's list shows peculiarities in weekly output. At Middlewich the single pans made 250-400 bushels/week. Baron Kinderton's 7 pans made in total 2210 bushels/week and the Town Works 1100 bushels/week. This variation presumably reflects pan size and was also noted with the other towns. The 4 pans worked by Earl Rivers at Leftwich Eyes yielded 2400 bushels per week. These were single iron pans and 600 bushels per week was thus a norm for the most modern iron pans of that time.
By the 1690's the Middlewich salt houses were fully documented by the Salt Office but the data must be analysed with care since the Middlewich Salt Office Collection also included salt houses at Winsford. Middlewich information on file from the Salt Office papers at the PRO is in Appendix 1.
According to Edward Hughes (p 389) there is a list of the Middlewich salters in the Aston Papers at the British Museum. (Add MSS. 36914). Part of this document is already on file but the transcription contains no reference to Middlewich salters and a further PRO literature search is necessary.
The 1733 Report by Salt Office Commissioner Cardonnel which contains a list of Salters in the Middlewich Collection is reproduced by Edward Hughes. This gives a total of 26 pans and 10 brine pits but the location of the individual salt works is not given. A search of the Salt Office papers would no doubt give this information. Looking ahead to the 1778 canal survey (below), it would seem likely that about half of the Middlewich Collection’s list relates to salt works in Winsford. While the records of shipments down the Weaver begin in 1732 there were some shipments prior to this date.
2.1.4 THE 1778 SURVEY OF SALT MAKING SITES IN MIDDLEWICH
The earliest documentary record of the location of individual salt works sites in Middlewich is the 1778 survey map of the Trent and Mersey Canal, which was carried out by the canal company immediately after the completion of the waterway. This shows and names the canal side salt works existing at that time.
The ancient course of the River Croco remains on present day maps as the boundary line between the Townships of Middlewich and Kinderton. The ancient boundary is thus preserved by the Ordnance Survey and it is a simple matter to superimpose this ancient boundary on the 1778 survey map thereby illustrating the effect of the Trent and Mersey Canal on the course of the River Croco through the walling lands of Middlewich.
It is immediately apparent from the composite map that the construction of the canal had a minimal effect on the salt houses that had existed in Middlewich before the start of the canal's construction. The canal closely followed the old course of the river and the five salt works shown on the 1778 map apparently predated the canal. It is also most likely that there would not have been many more than five salt works in Middlewich immediately before the canal was built. This point needs checking in the Salt Office records but there is a good chance that the canal went through Middlewich without the loss of a single salt works. Overall however it would seem likely that driving the canal through the centre of Middlewich destroyed much archaeological evidence of medieval and earlier saltmaking
The following list taken from the 1778 canal company survey gives the earliest accurate location of individual saltworks at Middlewich: -
CHESWORTH'S SALTWORKS SJ705662
This works occupied the site that was to become the Newton Works in the 19th century. In 1887 the Cheshire Alkali Company was established and erected a chemical works on Kinderton Street and along the east side of Brooks Lane. The Newton Saltworks was acquired by the company to supply the chemical works with salt and brine, the latter being piped to the works via a pipe gantry over the canal. The works operated both the Ammonia Soda and Leblanc alkali processes. The operations failed to make a profit and in 1897 the works were taken over by Brunner Mond. The Chemical works was dismantled but the salt works continued operations until about 1911 when it was also closed down. The site was left derelict until the 1970's-1980's and is now part of the new residential development of that area which also includes the adjacent site of the Wych House Lane salt works (see below).
COOK'S SALTWORKS SJ703663
The Pepper Street salt works shown on the 1778 Trent and Mersey Survey map was (according to Henry Seddon’s 20th C letterhead) established in 1756. As the 1778 map indicates this was then Cook's Saltworks but further search is necessary to establish the freeholding at that time. In the early 19th C. this was Joules's Saltworks with the Joules family of Stanthorne Lodge as the freeholders. In the mid-19th C. Ralph Seddon leased part of the site from the Joule family and this lease was transferred to the Salt Union when Ralph Seddon’s saltworks joined the Salt Union in 1888. Both this works and Ralph Seddon’s Kinderton Works were closed down and dismantled by the Salt Union. The lease on the Pepper Street salt works taken over by the Salt Union in 1888 did not expire until 1917. The other part of the Joule’s Saltworks site was leased by Henry Seddon from Mr Joule and the Misses Joule in about 1892 and became the Seddons Pepper street Works. [“Established in 1756” on the letterhead.] The adjacent dismantled Salt Union site which had been Ralph Seddon’s saltworks remained derelict until 1917. The Salt Union initially proved an aggressive neighbour for the fledgling Seddon enterprise. [See Miners, Quarrymen and Saltworkers, Raphael Samuel, Routledge Kegan Paul, 1977]. In due course the quarrel was patched up and in 1917 Salt Union transferred the site to Henry Seddon. He was thus able to expand his works. Pepper Street Saltworks closed down and was demolished in about 1970 and is now part of a by-pass road and a housing estate.
LORD VERNON'S SALTWORKS SJ703668
This is probably the only saltworks to have been established adjacent to the Roman fort and thus on the site of the Roman settlement. It was the only remaining saltworks on the Kinderton side of the Croco by the mid 18th century and was probably the salt works of Peter Venables, Baron of Kinderton in 1671. The Brereton table in John Collins's Salt and Fishery of 1682 lists 7 pans with a weekly output of 2210 bushels. The works is referred to as Kinderton Works in Calvert. It was held by Ralph Seddon in the mid 19th century, sold by the trustees of his estate to the Salt Union in 1888, and dismantled soon afterwards. It has been more or less derelict since but there are current plans to build a housing estate on the site [1994]. These houses have now been built and the archaeological potential of the site is lost [2000].
HENSHALL'S SALTWORKS SJ702667
This saltworks is at the end of Webbs Lane and had become Yeoman's Saltworks in the second half of the 19th century prior to it being taken over by the Salt Union in 1888. It was worked by the Salt Union for a few years and eventually closed down around the turn of the century.
LOWE'S SALTWORKS SJ701669
This saltworks was on the site of what became the Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company in about the 1860's. It later became a textile mill and was burnt down in recent years (possibly 1970’s). It remains an industrial site.
SEAMAN'S SALTWORKS SJ703663
This saltworks was at Ravenscroft, on the north bank of the River Dane near the King Street bridge. It did not feature on the Trent and Mersey Canal Survey map but the site of the saltworks is known from Ravenscroft estate papers. The works operated at least up to 1815 but was closed down and offered for sale around 1820. The construction of the canal put this works at a disadvantage with regard to salt shipments and John Seaman attempted to influence the line of the canal and have a branch to his works. Two Ravenscroft estate cottages were built on the site in about the 1880’s and the location of the brine shaft in the coppice between the cottage gardens and the river is known.
2.1.5 SALT OFFICE RECORDS
Extracts from the Salt Commissioner's Reports of 1733 and 1795 relating to the Middlewich Collection. Filed as a separate document.
2.1.6 WEAVER NAVIGATION SALT SHIPMENT RECORDS
The Cheshire Record Office holds the Weaver Navigation Records which include the tonnage books 1732-1863 and financial records 1730-1899. These I have not researched but Calvert (page 684 et seq.) lists shippers of white and rock salt down the river from Northwich 1734-1894 and entries can be linked with the ownership of particular works including works on the Trent and Mersey Canal. The following entries relate to white salt shipments from works with the names on the 1778 survey map and hence are probably in Middlewich.
64 John Lowe 1 years shipping 1766-1766
95 G Chesworth 23 years shipping 1795-1817
96 Hugh Henshall and Co 5 years shipping 1795-1799
97 John Seaman 21 years shipping 1795-1815
98 John Lowe 12 .. .. 1795-1806
125 Samuel Lowe 1 .. .. 1806-1806
137 Chesworth and Jump 2 .. .. 1810-1811
161 J Jump 1 .. .. 1815-1815
210 W Henshall 4 .. .. 1828-1831
219 Alexander Reid and Co ship rocksalt for 2 and 4 years, (1831-1832 and 1837-1840), but documents elsewhere have given this company as proprietors of the Newton Saltworks in Middlewich.
405 JJ Verdin-Cooke, Merchant 22 years shipping 1892-1914
[JJ Verdin-Cooke established a new salt works in Booth Lane Middlewich in 1903 and began to make their own salt. The 1892 entry marks the beginning of the company as merchants in James Street, Liverpool and the entry will relate to merchanted salt.]
300 John Henshall 1 years shipping 1849-1849
343 Henshall Bros. 1 .. .. 1864-1864
406 Amans (Middlewich) 1892-1892
407 Dairy and Domestic Salt Co (Middlewich) 1894-1906
[These date indicate that Dairy and Domestic was founded shortly before 1894 and taken over by Henry Seddon soon after 1906. Both firms are discussed further in Part II.]
Calvert lists shippers who had been in business for twenty years and upwards. From this list the obvious Middlewich names are: -
24 Geo. Chesworth ( No.95 in list) 23 years 1795-1817
25 John Seaman (No.97 in list) 21 years 1795-1815
Calvert's list does not include the names Ralph Seddon, Yeoman, or Joule which we know relate to Middlewich salt proprietors during that period, but this only means that if their salt was shipped down the Weaver it was under the name of another party. Maybe the Calvert list contains only those salt makers who owned their own boats.
2.1.7 COMPARISON WITH SALT OFFICE RECORDS
The abstracts from Salt Office records at the PRO Kew [Appendix 1] lists the proprietors of salt works in Middlewich Collection which were given in Salt Commissioner Cardonnel’s Report of 1733.
The following is a comparable list of names extracted from Calvert's list of shippers on the Weaver from the opening of the navigation in 1733-4: -
T Eyre & Co. 2 years shipping 1734-1735
Thomas Wrench 1 year 1735-1735
James Parrott 2 years 1735-1736
Ralph Bridge & Co. 14years 1735-1748
Richard Ellison 2 years 1735-1736
Thomas Paleston (AnnPaleston 1736) 1735-1736
George Wilkinson 2 years 1735-1736
George Vernon Venables 8years 1741-1748
Charles Bridge 3 1744-1747
Robert Bridge (Ralph Thomas, 1794) 65 yrs 1748-1812
Of the above entries only the salt works names of Robert Bridge and Ralph Thomas span the 1778 date of the Trent and Mersey Canal Survey on which they do not appear. This confirms that Winsford salt works were included as part of the Middlewich Collection as would be expected. George Vernon Venables will no doubt have been owner of the Kinderton Works.
2.1.8 19th-20th CENTURY MIDDLEWICH
No new salt making sites appear to have been developed at Middlewich during the century which followed the 1778 canal survey and any increase in salt making was restricted to the five sites alongside the canal shown on the Survey map. This was in spite of the general expansion in the industry which followed the end of the Salt Tax in 1825 and the rising demand for salt by the rapidly expanding salt-based chemical industry. New salt works appeared along the River Weaver at Winsford and the Trent and Mersey Canal to the north of Northwich. There were also new salt works established along the Trent and Mersey Canal, where it climbed up the Wheelock Valley, at Wheelock, Malkins Bank, Roughwood and Rode Heath. Later the North Staffs Railway followed this route and provided a more rapid transport connection to the nearby North Staffs coalfield. Although some Wheelock valley salt was sent westward to Liverpool, the Trent and Mersey canal also linked the salt works with markets in the East Midlands and further afield. In 1811, Lawton Salt works had a warehouse 1811 at the Shardlow end of the T and M canal and a ware house at Paddington Basin in London.
The formation of the Salt Union in 1888 created a virtual monopoly in the industry but prompted the appearance of entrepreneurs seeking to establish new salt making ventures. Other entrepreneurs in the 1880’s attempted to break into the ammonia-soda industry which was the exclusive preserve of Brunner-Mond and Co.
Middlewich provided excellent sites for such new developments. The first of these was in 1887 when the Cheshire Alkali Company was formed and took over the ancient Newton Salt Works, at the bottom of Wych House Lane, to supply salt and brine for a composite Ammonia-soda / Leblanc alkali plant erected in Brooks Lane on the Kinderton side of the River Croco and the Canal.
Middlewich lies across the King Street Fault, a major break in the rock salt strata, which has its name implies follows the line of King Street and roughly continues southwards along Brooks Lane. The natural brine springs and hence the ancient salt sites occur to the west of the fault even though the top rock salt bed exists here at greater depth. It is usual for brine springs to occur along the line of a fault in the rock salt bed. .Before 1889 no brine had been discovered to the east of this line but in that year GL Murgatroyd sunk a brine shaft in Brooks Lane to the east of the fault and encountered rock salt at about 200feet, penetrated a top bed some 30 feet thick and entered a lower bed at about 270 feet which was not penetrated after 60 feet. Brine was not encountered but was eventually tapped by driving an adit in a southerly direction. A second shaft dug in the following year on the adjacent Aman's site, although only some 30 yards or so from the Murgatroyd shaft, encountered neither rock salt or brine at a depth of some 300 feet and clearly the King Street fault runs between these two shafts. Calvert contains the sectional diagrams for these shafts. For five years Amans purchased brine from the Murgatroyd shaft but by 1895 brine mysteriously appeared in the hitherto dry shaft. Someone had clearly driven an adit in the right direction! (See Amans Saltworks below)
Murgatroyd's shaft was the first discovery of actual rock salt at Middlewich and stimulated the search for brine alongside the canal at Cledford which resulted in the establishment of the Electrolytic Alkali Company and the Sheffield and Verdin Cooke salt works. These are listed among the "out-of-town" salt works.
The next decade also saw the establishment of a new salt works by the Dairy and Domestic Salt Co at Croxton Middlewich.
2.1.9 1908 SURVEY OF MIDDLEWICH SALT SITES
The 1908 edition of the 25inch OS map locates the salt works at Middlewich which were operating during the first half of the 20th century, and these are listed below.
All the salt works within Middlewich town have now been demolished and the sites put to other use. The only salt making activity today is that by British Salt at Cledford with RHM next door functioning purely as salt packers for the domestic market.
CROXTON WORKS (SJ699669)
Established as the Dairy and Domestic Salt Company on land by the canal at Croxton. This was a "green field" development on farmland that was shown to be undeveloped on the 1875 large scale OS map. The present assumption is that the works was established in 1892. This date needs confirmation but the first entry in the Bate's Foundry order book is February 1892 when Dairy and Domestic were buying flue plates (CRO 3644D). Dairy and Domestic were taken over by Henry Seddon sometime before 1905 and worked by the Seddons until subsidence of the site resulted in the closure of the works in the 1920's. Equipment was dismantled and moved to the other Seddon's works. Buildings alongside the canal were most affected by the subsidence and until recent years the foundations of the buildings were still visible in a small canal-side flash. In the 1970's a canal-side warehouse and the foundations of the adjacent salt pan still existed along the boundary fence of the textile mill site. The bulk of the site is now a housing estate.
YEOMAN'S SALT WORKS (SJ702667)
Was Henshall's Works in 1778. At some time in the 19th century it became The Dairy Salt Works with Richard Yeomans the proprietor. At the formation of the Salt Union the freehold of the site was held by Edward Sutton et al. the vendors to the Salt Union which continued to operate the works for a few years. Lawrence's History of Middlewich of 1895 contains an advertisement for Yeoman's Dairy Salt to be purchased through the Salt Union sales office at Winsford. The works was closed and demolished probably by 1900.
KINDERTON SALT WORKS (SJ703668)
In the 1778 listing this works is given as Lord Vernon's Salt Works and there are earlier references to its ownership by the Venables family, the Barons of Kinderton. In the mid 19th century the works was owned by the Bostock Estates and leased to Ralph Seddon. Ralph Seddon had been previously working canal boats out of Manchester and had come from Todmorden. (This was information given to Jack Costello by Henry Seddon.)
At the formation of the Salt Union in 1888 the contract of 7th September was with William Seddon and John Burrows, "trading as Ralph Seddons and Sons". Ralph Seddon died shortly before this date, but who was William Seddon and what role did Henry Seddon and Charles Seddon play in this transaction? At the time of the transfer of the business to the Salt Union the lease was held from Col. France Hayhurst and due to expire in 1919. The Salt Union continued with the lease and with the agreement of France Hayhurst was allowed to close down the works and dismantle the pans etc.
PEPPER STREET SALT WORKS (Original Works SJ703664)
The Pepper Street salt works site shown on the 1778 Survey as Cook's Salt works became Joule's Celebrated Cheese Salt Works in the Morris's 1875 directory with Ralph Seddon as proprietor but the freehold was still with the Joule family ( a Mr and the Misses Joule). In 1888 when the business of Ralph Seddon and Sons was sold out to the Salt Union this lease still had 29 years to run, expiring in 1917. The 1908 OS map shows this salt works as "disused". According to Calvert (History Salt Union, p.9) the works was "being worked by Seddons" in 1913 and the lease had evidently been transferred by the Salt Union to Henry Seddon before the expiry date. The Ralph Seddons advert in Morris's 1874 Directory claimed the works was established in 1756 and Henry Seddon had this date on his letterhead.
Henry Seddon's Pepper Street Saltworks (SJ703663)
Ralph Seddon died before the sale to the Salt Union in 1888 and the sale was presumably completed by the executors of his estate (see Kinderton Works above). The two salt works included in the sale (i.e. Pepper Street and Kinderton) were valued at £9,750. Ralph's son Henry was apparently working as manager at the newly established Murgatroyds Salt Works but left to establish a new salt works on the site adjacent to his father's old works in Pepper Street, which site he leased from the Joule family who were farming at Stanthorne Lodge. His first order to Bate's Iron Foundry at Winsford is dated 10th June 1891.
As Calvert records in his "History of the Salt Union" (p xviii), Henry Seddon met with opposition from the Salt Union during his early years as a saltworks proprietor. He was almost certainly undercutting the Salt Union's prices and Calvert recalls Seddon’s attempts to lay a brine pipe along the towpath between Pepper Street and Croxton works. Calvert is not a reliable source when it comes to alleged misdeeds by the Salt Union but there is no doubt a grain of truth in his claims and we have evidence in later years that Henry Seddon was equally capable of such underhand practice. By about 1913, however, he had come to an understanding with the Salt Union since they agreed to him taking over the lease of the adjacent disused site (Ralph Seddon's works).
Henry Seddon rebuilt much of the Pepper Street Works, much in good quality brick and an office building was erected on Pepper Street. Around 1959 Seddon and Sons Ltd merged with Cerebos Ltd and the open pans at the Cerebos site in Booth Lane were worked with the Seddon’s Works in Middlewich as a single open pan department. All the works of this department were closed down in about 1968-1970 and subsequently demolished. The Pepper Street Works site is now a housing estate.
WYCH HOUSE LANE SALT WORKS (SJ705662)
As its name implies this is a medieval salt making site but it had been not used as such for over a century. In about 1892 a salt works again appeared on this site, erected by the Dairy and Domestic Salt Company which also established the Croxton Works listed above at about the same time. The Dairy and Domestic Company was taken over by Henry Seddon in the early years of this century (before 1906) and Wych House Lane Works remained in operation until about 1969 when it was closed down and subsequently demolished. The site was used as a council depot until the 1980's and is currently part of a building development.
NEWTON SALT WORKS (SJ705662)
This works appears as Chesworth’s Works on the 1778 Trent and Mersey Canal Survey map. In the mid-19th century it passed through several owners or leaseholders, under the name Newton Works. In the 1840 period the proprietor was Alexander Reid who also held a salt works at Wheelock / Malkins Bank. In 1887 the Newton Works was purchased by the Cheshire Alkali Company to provide the salt raw material for a combined Leblanc-Ammonia Soda works that was being established at the Kinderton Street end of Brooks Lane. This works continued in operation until it was taken over by Brunner Mond in about 1897 (check) and closed down soon afterwards. The chemical works was dismantled but the salt works continued to operate until about 1911 when it was closed down. The site remained derelict until the 1970's -1980's when it became part of the residential development of the area.
AMAN'S SALT WORKS (SJ708661)
The list of contracts which established the Salt Union in 1888 included one with Messrs H and H West of which the sole assets were canal boats valued at £1200. The director of the company was given as Edward G Aman and in 1892 he is one of the three directors of the new salt works which bore his name in Brooks Lane. His fellow directors were JDF Farrell and Joseph W Marshall.
Aman's Salt Works was established after the successful discovery of rock salt and brine on the adjacent site by G L Murgatroyd in 1889. The earliest entry for the Amans Works in the Bate’s Foundry Account book is for the 16th Nov 1892. The brine shaft dug on the site went to a depth of about 300feet without encountering rock salt or brine and for several years the works took a metered supply of brine from the nearby Murgatroyd Shaft.
The Agreement for the metered supply was dated 8th April 1892 was between the Murgatroyd Ammonia Soda and Salt Syndicate and Amans Salt Works whose registered office was at 49 Finsbury Pavement, London EC. (See appendix for abstract of the agreement). The agreement was terminable during the first five years with 6 months notice either side but during the upheaval following Murgatroyd's death in November 1894 the Amans shaft began to supply brine and presumably an adit was driven across the boundary to tap the brine stream beneath Murgatroyd land even though this was specifically forbidden in the agreement.
Calvert contains a plan of the works and its title in the caption is given as the Middlewich Crown Salt Company Works. This would have been around 1910. But around this time the works was taken over by Henry Seddon and henceforth it was known as the Seddon's Brooks Lane Works.
The works closed down in about 1970 and was largely demolished. The site has since been used as a scrap yard and parts of the buildings still survive.
MURGATROYD'S SALT WORKS (SJ709659)
Established by GL Murgatroyd in 1889. The first entry in the Bate's Foundry Account book was for Sept 2nd 1890. The salt works became part of the Murgatroyd Ammonia-Soda and Salt Syndicate in 1892 but following Murgatroyd's sudden death in 1894, the salt works was purchased by Ivan Levinstein who had been a major shareholder in the syndicate and continued to operate as the Murgatroyd's Salt Company until 1950 when it became the open pan department of the Murgatroyd Salt and Chemical Company and in that year the integrated chlor-alkali and vacuum salt works began operations on a site in Booth Lane, Elworth. This new venture was the culmination of planning during the war years by Herbert Levinstein. The open pan salt works in Brooks Lane operated until 1966 when it was closed down and subsequently demolished. The site is now an industrial estate.
The brine shaft and pumping installation continued to supply the chlor-alkali plant until 1977 when the salt began to be supplied by British Salt. The brine shaft and pumping station remain as a Salt Industry listed monument under the English Heritage Industrial Monument Protection Program.
The Murgatroyd's Salt and Chemical Company works is included in the "out of town" listing of salt making sites.
MURGATROYD'S AMMONIA-SODA AND SALT SYNDICATE (SJ707657)
In 1892 the Murgatroyd’s Ammonia-Soda and Salt Syndicate was formed and a plant for the manufacture of sodium carbonate by the ammonia-soda process was erected. Following Murgatroyd's sudden death the Ammonia-soda Works was acquired by Brunner Mond and Co and subsequently became the Brunner Mond Middlewich Works.
In a private gentlemen’s agreement between Ludwig Mond and Ivan Levinstein the Murgatroyds Salt Works was acquired by the Levinstein family as a private venture divorced from Levinstein’s Limited Dye works at Blackley. The Murgatroyd Syndicate had already sunk a second brine shaft and two further shafts were sunk by Brunner Mond along the line of Poppity John's Lane towards Cledford Lane. The Brunner Mond Ammonia-Soda works operated until its closure in 1962. The plant was subsequently dismantled and most of the buildings demolished. A few buildings survived and these form part of the Pochin Company’s complex on the site. A further part of the site has been taken over by the ERF Commercial Vehicle Company and the extensive lime beds are now used for the disposal of the sludge from British Salt's brine purification process.
Copies of the foundation Prospectus and details of the operations of the Syndicate and the circumstances of Murgatroyd’s death are contained on file.
2.2.1 OUT OF TOWN" SALT WORKS LINKED WITH MIDDLEWICH
The following salt making sites at Cledford have been listed in the "out of town" survey but at the same time have obvious links with Middlewich. Up to 1977, the Murgatroyd's Salt and Chemical Works, although three miles away at Elworth, obtained its brine by pipeline from the brine shaft in Brooks Lane and could thus be considered a Middlewich based works. British Salt at Cledford, in the same way could be considered a true "out of town" works since its brine came initially in 1968 came by pipeline from the old British Soda site at Elton and since ca 1976 has come from the controlled brine field at Warmingham.
Electrolytic Alkali Company 1899-1930 (SJ713649)
JJ Verdin-Cooke and Co. 1899-ca1925 (SJ716643)
Middlewich Salt Company, alias Cerebos, now RHM. (SJ718642)
British Salt Company 1968-present (SJ716644)
Murgatroyd's Salt and Chemical Co. 1947- present (SJ730630) (later BP Chemicals, Hays Chemicals and now Albion Chemical)
AGREEMENT between Aman's Salt Works and the Murgatroyd's Ammonia Soda and Salt Syndicate. 28th April 1892.
Registered Offices
Syndicate. Clarence Buildings, Booth Street, Manchester.
Aman's Works. 49 Finsbury Pavement, London, EC.
Murgatroyds were to supply Aman’s with brine from the 1st May 1892, the brine to be used for the exclusive use of Aman’s Works. Aman’s were to provide all the pipes etc. and two "reliable and accurate meters", one to be placed on Aman’s property and the other on Syndicate property.
The minimum quantity of brine was 400,000 gallons/month at the Syndicate's convenience who need only supply brine above their own needs. The maximum usage was 1,200,000 gpm and brine strength was to be greater than 23.5% NaCl by evaporation.
Amans must not have a total brine usage including their own shaft greater than 1,200,000 galls/month and they must not have more than seven pans producing more than 300 tons/week (maximum).
The price of the brine to be 7.5 pence per 1000gallons. (old money).
The Syndicate to send their account to Aman’s on the first Monday of each month and payment is to be made on the 3rd Monday of each month.
The whole agreement is terminable by both sides with six months notice although at the end of 5 years it may be ended with only two months notice.
During the operation of this agreement Aman’s cannot sink another shaft, borehole, or construct adits. The Syndicate has the right to inspect all Aman's shafts etc.
Signed: -
J D F Farrell } Directors John Wainwright
Edward G Aman } G L Murgatroyd
Joseph W Marshall, Sec. Thomas L Murgatroyd, Sec.