Vision for the Future
It is important to note that the Lion Salt Works is not completely dead. It functions currently as a visitor attraction and educational resource. The Conservation Plan identifies what is important about the site. Its long term future has been given new hope by the offer of £5 million by the Heritage Lottery Fund – but the Trust still needs to raise £2 million in match funding to put its vision for the future into operation.
The long-term proposal is that the salt works should start making salt again, but in its first phase it is the primary objective of the HLF grant to secure the future for the scheduled monument.
- Pan House No.5 will act as the reception building for the site, the structures will be reused a reception area with a café/restaurant providing excellent facilities, sourcing its food from local Cheshire suppliers, adding to the income sources and building on the SALT theme.
- The key historic spaces would be used for interpretation, telling the vital historic story of a unique industry. An exciting and entertaining explanation is proposed but essentially using the buildings and spaces to tell their own story. There will be space for an events venue and education space, bringing further life, interpretation and relevance to the community.
- Working replicas of historic salt pans will be built and operated. These will show visitors the ancient processes of open pan salt making extending back in time over 2,000 years.
- The historic salt store across the road would be available for future expansion and would be repaired along with the other historic buildings in the grounds. The Brine Tank would be relined and imported brine would be held in the tank before being fed to the pans proposed for re-introducing salt making to the site.
- A new salt pan could be built which would become a visitor attraction in itself. The innovative, sustainable use of biomass to produce heat and surplus electricity, would be a significant additional factor in making the Lion Salt Works a unique place to visit. Salt that is produced from the traditional method would be sold, both on and off site as a specialist consumer product, which would add to the revenue income of the site.
- Improvements to the external landscape around the site to former derelict land between the Lion Salt Works, Northwich and the Anderton Lift are well advanced with initiatives through Northwich Community Woodlands, the Mersey Forest and at Ashton’s and Neumann’s Flashes.
Interpretation Space
- Viewing of the existing Pan Houses and Warehouses: We envisage that visitors upon viewing this restored open salt pan area, are treated to a staged glimpse of this working environment. A combination of projected imagery and sounds, linked with lighting and vapour effects. New fittings within the historic core buildings would be of a simple modern design to distinguish original features from modern architectural interventions.
- Viewing of the existing Stove Houses: Within the floor of the interpretation area original hatch locations will enable view of the restored salt drying room below, and see it in context what was the original use for the spaces.
- Tableaux: There will be key salt production activity scenes as static recreations using restored tools and monochrome sculptured figures to further dress and express information within graphic panels. Machinery within the spaces will be left as post-industrial reminders of the spaces former uses with no enhancements.
- Graphics: Text and image panels will complement and take advantage of the imposing timber roof trusses that exist within the spaces. The text and image panels will act as spatial and visual divisions, in what is a very open area.
- AV Projections: Taking advantage of the framed areas and extensive height, formed by the existing roof trusses, ‘booths’ of projected audio-visual imagery is envisaged. Such projections could express the more dramatic activities such as for instance the operation of the horizontal engine and brine pump, the guillotine and circular saw within the smithy, and the stoking of the old coal fired brick furnaces. Such ‘booths’ will add further atmosphere and visual intrigue.
- Touch-screen based multimedia: Allowing visitors to further explore salt production from Roman times to present day, the geographical nature of Cheshire and the various stages of the Lion Salt Works development and expansion on the site.
- Conference Space: Areas within Stove House No.2 and 4 as well as the former Red Lion Inn are capable of being used for educational visits, conferences and seminars, for exhibitions or events letting.
- External Facilities: The existing car park area will be resurfaced to mark out the lines of the buried salt pans of the Alliance Salt Works. The external space will be zoned to separate the pan houses, out-buildings, car park and landscaped grounds. The landscaping already provides fringe of coppice tree species and a herb garden, linking the desire for sustainable energy and the use of salt in food and dyeing. External activities would be linked with other events in Northwich such as rallies, festivals, open-air theatre etc and to special events linked to Science Week, Museums Week, National Archaeology Day, Cheshire Open Studios etc.
Working Replicas
An important part of the Trust’s work is to demonstrate the art of historic salt making. Replica open spans have been constructed to learn how salt was made in the Iron Age, Roman and medieval periods using ceramic, lead and iron pans.
These themes will be expanded as the main complex of buildings are completed. Permanent hearths will be constructed and daily demonstrations will be seen by visitors who will be able to take away souvenirs of salt.
Other Historic Buildings
Other buildings on the site are perhaps in better condition than the main Pan House complex. Only minor repairs are envisaged. They have been described in The Conservation Plan. These will form an ‘open air museum section to the Lion Salt Works where the roles of the Manager, the Smith and the Pump Man and the linkages with the canal side and railway siding and road will interlink to the production of salt in the main pan house buildings. The interlinking of the site complex in this way is important in demonstrating the function of the site as a machine where all parts need to operate together to produce the product – salt, but also how the raw materials (brine and coal) are brought to site and how the product is distributed to customers.
A New Salt Pan
A new pan house is proposed in Phase 2 with new salt pans heated by a biomass plant. The pans would be built abutting the restored Store House 5.
The new pan house would be of similar scale to the existing. They would be designed with an eye to how the Thompson’s might have built their next pan house, although modern foundations to resist subsidence would be incorporated. Cladding would be in materials to match the original extant elements from the historic core, profiled roofing sheets, treated timber claddings and red Cheshire brick. The interior would be clad with a cleanable sheet material to meet modern hygiene requirements. A simple shed in the same external materials, but with sound proofing panels, would have the energy plant next to a Biomass store.
The Biomass store location is accessible by lorry but is placed adjacent to the canal to allow future unloading by canal barge. Access to the proposed Pan House No.6 would be through the restored Drying Store No.5. Visitors would have the unique experience of the working pan house with its heat and steam. It is an exciting vision for the future
External Landscape
Other sites to visit in the vicinity of the Lion Salt Works
- Northwich Community Woodlands
- Ashton’s and Neumann’s Flashes
- The Salt Museum
- Dock Road Pumping Station
- Marbury Country Park
