tarboat's photos with the keyword: salt

The Salt Union saltworks at Weston Point, Runcorn, viewed across the empty Delamere Dock. This 850,000 tonne per annum vacuum salt plant was sold to Ineos Enterprises in 2006. Products include: Undried vacuum salt - a key raw material in the manufacture of chlorine and caustic soda. Pure dried vacuum salt - an important ingredient for the food industry as well as for processes ranging from shampoo manufacture to animal nutrition and water treatment. Granular and white tablet salt for water softening. Packed de-icing salts.

Boulby Potash Mine is operated by Cleveland Potash Ltd, a subsidiary of Israel Chemicals Ltd. There are two 5.5m diameter shafts to a depth of around 1150m. The potash averages 7m in thickness but ranges from nil to over 20m. Beneath the potash there are rock salt beds of about 40m and the main roadways for the mine are driven in pure rock salt 8-10m below the potash.

The New Cheshire Salt Works Ltd at Wincham, north east of Northwich in Cheshire, UK. Run by the Stubbs family, it operated between around 1923 and 2006 when it was purchased and closed down by British Salt. It produced white or brine salt from naturally occurring underground brine using natural or wild pumping. The salt was extracted by vacuum evaporation and was of a high quality. It was used for human consumption under the brandname "Selva" and in the pharmaceutical industry; New Cheshire was the only British company to supply salt for pharmaceutical use.

James Duckett, the founder of this firm, was born in December, 1825, the son of John and Jenny, his father was mployed as a cotton spinner. After working in a cotton mill and he became a stonemason with his brother and by 1851 was employing 30 men. In the 1859 he turned his attention to brick manufacture and by 1871 was a brick manufacturer and stone merchant employing 25 men. As the business prospered, he turned his attention to the manufacture of sanitary ware. It was this side of the business that was to prove most successful, and the works developed into the firm James Duckett and Son, Sanitary Pipe Manufacturers on Blannel Street in Burnley with a large claypit close to Burnley Barracks Station. His son Alfred later became involved with the business, as did his grandson, George. Initially James Duckett manufactured bricks using a large Hoffmann kiln at what was originally known as the Mitre Works where in 1870 he was advertising Dressed and Common Bricks, Field and Draining Tiles. In 1892 this is shown on the OS map as a brick and tile works but by 1912 James Duckett & Son Ltd was operating a Sanitary Ware Works with five circular downdraught kilns on the site. The Hoffmann kiln was abandoned and eventually demolished as brickmaking ceased and the works then manufactured a wide range of salt glazed urinal slabs & stalls, closet pans, wash basins, sinks & channel pipes which were sold all over Britain, Europe & South America. The Hepworth Iron Company acquired Ducketts in 1961 but production continued until the early 1970s. This trademark is on the water tank above the Duckett urinals in the Ship Inn in Macclesfield.

The New Cheshire Salt Works, Lower Wincham, was the third largest salt manufacturer in the UK in the 1980s. The company extracted brine from a borehole under the works and produced salt using the vacuum method. The company was founded by Alfred Stubbs in the 1920s and was producing over 1,000 tons of salt per week, of which 25% was sold under the brand name of "Selva". The business was taken over by British Salt in 2005 and the works was soon closed down, demolished, with the land sold to developers.

Francis Rufford established collieries and brickworks at Hungary Hill and New Farm in Stourbridge by 1812 and the business continued right through the nineteenth and into the twentieth century. This ticket covers the supply and transport by canal of sixty firebricks manufactured to a pattern supplied by the customer, Messrs Kay and Blackwell of Wharton Salt Works, Winsford. Despatched on 9th June 1849 the bricks were delivered at Middlewich Wharf six days later. From the wharf they would have been carried by cart to the Winsford salt works which lies a few miles distant on the banks of the River Weaver.

The No.3 shaft at Meadowbank salt mine is used for manriding.

This is not the usual look of a working mineshaft, but Winsford Rock Salt Mine No.4 Shaft presents this plain functional aspect. It is the main downcast shaft and has two large fans at the bottom which draw in around 135 cubic metres of fresh air per second. The shaft is 4.88m in diameter and 189m deep, with a two-tier lift consisting of a cargo compartment and a personnel carrier. The cargo compartment is 7 metres high, 2.4 metres wide and 4 metres deep and brings all the materials and engineering equipment underground. It can carry 15 tonnes. In addition to use by Salt Union this is also the access for the Deepstore record storage facility which uses the vast worked-out spaces.

Today I took a stroll with the dogs along the banks of the River Weaver from Town Bridge in Winsford downstream to the Meadowbank Mine. As you walk through the parkland that runs along the eastern bank it is difficult to envisage just how industrialised it once was, with saltworks crowded upon each other right down to the water on both sides. Apart from the former Colin Stewart works there is little industry until you begin to approach Newbridge and the Meadowbank Salt Mine appears. It appeared that no salt was being raised as redevelopment work was being undertaken on the conveyor from the skip shaft, seen here in the background, to the cone on the left. A new lorry loading point is being constructed in the white building seen just to the right of the cone. Meanwhile, a number of machines were moving rock salt about on the much depleted stockpiles along the riverside.

Boulby Potash Mine is operated by Cleveland Potash Ltd, a subsidiary of Israel Chemicals Ltd. There are two 5.5m diameter shafts to a depth of around 1150m. The potash averages 7m in thickness but ranges from nil to over 20m. Beneath the potash there are rock salt beds of about 40m and the main roadways for the mine are driven in pure rock salt 8-10m below the potash.

Early morning at the Meadowbank salt mine in Winsford.

Boulby Potash Mine is operated by Cleveland Potash Ltd, a subsidiary of Israel Chemicals Ltd. There are two 5.5m diameter shafts to a depth of around 1150m. The potash averages 7m in thickness but ranges from nil to over 20m. Beneath the potash there are rock salt beds of about 40m and the main roadways for the mine are driven in pure rock salt 8-10m below the potash.

Mist rises on the River Weaver as it passes the dust cone over the stocking point at the Meadowbank Mine in Winsford .

Britain's largest salt mine at Winsford on the River Weaver.

The Salt Union saltworks at Weston Point, Runcorn, viewed along the remains of the Runcorn and Weston Canal.