Salt Mine And Vacuum Plant - Winsford, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 53° 12.467 W 002° 31.022
30U E 532255 N 5895493
This information board is one of a series along the footpath next to the River Weaver. The series is called History of Winsford Waterfront.
Waymark Code: WMW0NX
Location: North West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 06/23/2017
Views: 0
The area around Winsford has a long history of salt mining and trading. Completion of the River Weaver Navigation in 1734 provided a navigable route for transporting salt from Winsford, through Northwich, to Frodsham, where the Weaver joins the River Mersey.
As trade increased the Navigation was improved and further straightened a number of times. Many salt works were built along the river, but most of the east bank of the river has since been cleared and regenerated for leisure use. The information boards give details of the industry's history including a map and photographs of the area.
1. A 1923 scene taken from the other side of the river towards where you are standing. Pure dried salt for dairy use is being loaded in both sacks and in bulk for export.
2. This was the scene on the other side of the river during the 1960s and 1970s showing the second and last vacuum plant which produced white salt mainly for West Africa.
Early battery loco at bottom of no 1 and no 2 shafts in Meadowbank Mine, the only salt mine worked to any extent at Winsford. Dump trucks and later conveyor belts replaced the underground railway.
3. The scene on the other side of the river in 1923. The brick building was the first salt producing vacuum plant in the country, built in 1906 by the Salt Union. White salt was loaded either lose in barrels, sacks or boxes onto river craft for shipment to Liverpool and Manchester. In between the river craft is the Pacific, the Salt Union Manager's Launch. From the late 19th century railways increasingly replaced river craft. The first vacuum plant gradually replaced open pan production but was itself replaced in 1963.
During the 1960s and 1970s a fleet of Foden dump trucks was used to haul blasted rock salt from the working faces in the Moulton and Bostock areas to crushers at the shaft bottoms prior to being hoisted 150 m to the surface.
4. Inside the sheds men and women packed white salt in a wide variety of cartons, sacks and barrels for home and export markets. Here in a 1923 photograph, we see hand bagging of pure dried salt for dairy use.
5. Union Table Salt (named after the Salt Union) and Falk Table Salt (named after one of the major salt manufacturers to join the Union) being loaded onto river craft in 1923.
The 21st Century Winsford Rock Salt Mine produces the majority of road de-icing salt for the UK (around 1 million tons per year). Around 150 metres below you, the mine stretches towards Moulton, Whatcroft and Middlewich and is also used as a secure store for documents and other non-hazardous materials.