One Salt Works Re-opened and One that Vanished!

Friday 3rd July, 2015 at the Anderton Lift.
A glorious morning. It was very peaceful in this quiet spot and none of the long line of moored boats seemed anxious to rush off. The canal is very wide at this point due to one of the many local "Flashes" or lakes resulting from subsidence into former salt mine workings.

Eventually we set off and soon after, we passed by a new marina in the process of being built. The pontoons were all in place but, as yet, the water had not been let in. Amazing how shallow the water will eventually be.

We moored up at Broken Cross (the origin of the name is uncertain) and walked up to the little Co-op where M and Jenny also went shopping when we were visiting Jenny and Barry on nb "Brent Goose" in 2010. Our abiding memory is of dear Barry steering "Brent Goose" sitting on the high seats at the stern. We incorporated seats like these into the design of MM and christened them the "Barry Seats" in his memory.
On the way back to MM with a "few bits", we were approached by a family of cygnets who thought that there might be something for them in the bags.

This section of canal is heavily industrialised, mostly chemical works that still use brine to create chemicals such as chlorine. Like many factories that still actually produce something, this one has been taken over by foreign companies and it is now owned by Tata of India.

This whole district was once a major salt producing area as there massive salt deposits underground. In Marston, the Lion Salt Works has now been turned into a museum. We passed it two years ago but then, to our disappointment, it was closed. Now it has re-opened after a major restoration and it is fascinating to see how the salt was recovered from the brine that was brought up from the salt deposits below.

The factory originally closed in 1986 after trying for six years to survive as a tourist attraction. Let us hope that the new museum will fare better. They conservators have done an excellent job, although it must have been tough as the salt corroded everything including the equipment, the salt pans and even the very fabric of the buildings. This is the original brine tank, still awaiting restoration.

We were very fortunate to be given a guided tour by Bob, a volunteer whose knowledge of the site was encyclopaedic.
One of the photographs showed a breach in the canal outside the works a hundred years ago, caused by subsidence. The bed of the canal had collapsed into a massive deep hole and taken two narrow boats with it! Remarkably the hole was filled and the canal reopened in less than a month. Quite sure that the C&RT would have taken months longer!
On the other side of the canal from the Lion Salt Works is a very large "Flash" or lake. At the bottom of it is what remains of the Alliance Salt Works! Instead of using brine, they dug a shaft deep into the ground and mined the salt, excavating vast caverns in the layer of rock salt, which was some 40 metres thick. Unfortunately, the mine flooded - and the water dissolved the salt pillars that held up the roof.....
So now the works are at the bottom of a deep lake!

The canal resumed its rural character as we approached Anderton and moored up for the evening. The Anderton Lift and the Visitors' Centre had just closed for the day but we had a very pleasant walk down to the banks of the River Weaver and admired the lift from below.

Today: 5 miles, 0 locks and 2.6 hours.
Trip: 91 miles, 52 locks and 62.7 hours.