What makes up the buildings of an open pan salt works?
What does each building do?
In this part I will try to explain how an open pan salt
works … well works!
This page is being
constructed in parallel with the site restoration so if you can’t find a link
it probably has not been written yet. Hold tight it will be on its way.
Brine Extraction
In order to make salt you need the raw product and this was
extracted from the ground by a brine shaft or bore hole. The salt would be
raised from the ground by means of a pump. But often the pressure of the
underground stream would be strong enough to lift the brine from the ground
alone.
On the site at the Lion Salt Works we have a number of
buildings associated with Brine Extraction.
- · Originally there was a brine shaft with a headstock.
- · This was replaced by a nodding donkey and pump.
- · The brine passed around the site in pipes.
- · Finally the brine is stored in the brine tank.
How to extract brine from the ground? [http://thelionsaltworks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/how-toextract-brine-from-ground.html]
Salt-making: The Pan
House
The Pan House was where the salt was made. This involved
heating the brine in the large metal pan.
How to make salt by the open pan method? [insert link]
It consisted of a brick stove where fires were lit, the pan and
the wooden structure around.
How to build a Pan House? [http://thelionsaltworks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/how-tobuild-pan-house.html]
The Lion Salt Works had five pan houses in the 1980s
(numbered 1-5).
- · Pan House 1 was demolished in the 1980s before the works closed in 1986 and is now a garden.
- · Pan House 2 has largely fallen down but the pan and stove survive.
- · Pan House 3 and 4 survive intact and are due to be restored.
- · Pan House 5 was dismantled as part of the 2009 enabling works.
Salt-making: The
Stove House
From the pan house the salt passed to the Stove House for
drying. This was a large brick building that used the heat from the stove in
the pan house to dry the salt in blocks. The upper part was a warehouse for
storage and processing.The Lion Salt Works had a stove connected to all the pan houses that survived into the 1980s (again numbered 1-5). Four of these survive whilst the fifth will be rebuilt.
- Stove House 1 (AKA The Link Block) – this originally connected to Pan House 1 and was one of the first built on site in the 1890s. It has almost entirely collapsed.
- Stove House 2 survives on site next to the canal. It again dates to the 1890s. It has a timber first floor unlike all the other stove houses.
- Stove House 3 runs next to Ollershaw Lane and dates to 1900. It is made of brick with distinctive rail tracks used to support the warehouse floor.
- Stove House 4 was built in 1956 to replace a series of four common pans [see link].
- Stove House 5 was built in 1965. It has been dismantled but will be rebuilt as a purpose built area of the new museum.
How to build a Stove House? [http://thelionsaltworks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/how-tobuild-stove-house.html]
Salt-making: The
Warehouses and the Salt Store
The warehouses were purpose built into the stove houses.
These were used to process and pack the salt.
The lower grade common salt was stored in a large store
house. The only surviving salt store on the site is the Coronation Salt Store located
on the western side of Ollershaw Lane.
How to process and package salt? [http://thelionsaltworks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/how-toprocess-and-package-salt.html]
Transport to and from
the salt works
The transport of raw material to and from the Lion Salt
Works was very important. The most important raw material needed apart from
brine was fuel for the stoves. This was originally coal but was changed to oil
in the 1970s.
The transport that brought the coal to the works also took
the salt away. The change in transport use can be seen throughout the works.
- · The canal side
- · The rail lines
- · The loading bay
How to transport salt? [http://thelionsaltworks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/how-totransport-salt.html]
No comments:
Post a Comment