Victorian Salt Pans and Rock Salt Mining

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Victorian Salt Pans and Rock Salt Mining

Victorian Salt Pans Cheshire became dominant in salt making because of its easy access to strong natural brine and rock salt and good communica- tions. But this came at a cost to the environ- ment until the change to controlled brine pumping and vacuum evaporation. Salt was skimmed into salt moulds - originally Salt blocks were sold complete, or crushed to Brine was pumped to a brine tank ready to be baskets, later cooper made cones, then make fine salt. gravity fed to the salt pans. wooden boxes. Images from AF Calvert – Salt in Cheshire, London, 1913 Lump Crushing Storage & Packing Trap doors Brine A fine pan described in the Illustrated London Drying Area News 1850. Fishery pans could be much Brine 200°F Flues and ditches larger and made coarser crystals in pans set Firing Area up outdoors to replicate ‘Bay Salt’. The surviving brine pump at Murgatroyd’s Pan House Stove House Salt Works, Middlewich. Open pan salt works made fine salt and block Flues carried heat and fumes from the salt in a Pan House with an attached Stove furnace underneath the Stove House to a Rock Salt Mining House. Coal was burnt under the iron pan. chimney. Rising heat dried the salt when it Refineries Rock salt itself was not found until 1670, Salt was skimmed into boxes and barrowed was ‘lofted’ to the warehouse floor above. ‘There was a growth in rock salt refineries when William Jackson discovered it into the Stove House. after 1670 but Acts of Parliament restricted whilst prospecting for coal. their construction. Early ‘Top Bed Mines’ began to collapse . ‘Bottom Bed Mines’ were adopted from 1781, mining from 300 feet below ground. The Meadowbank Mine at Winsford, Cheshire The worked out sections are now used as The Dungeon, on the banks of the River Images from The Illustrated London News August 24, 1850. is a source for the majority of the UK’s secure document stores for archives and Mersey, has the best preserved cisterns for Photographs by Roy Forshaw and Andrew Fielding de-icing salt for roads. books. dissolving rock salt in sea water..

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The Archaeology of Mining, and Quarrying, for Salt and the Evaporites (Gypsum, Anhydrite, Potash and Celestine)
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