Hello! This is
in
the heart of Cheshire.
A big THANK YOU to my young daughter for her clever design for 'Winsford'. I feel she has summed up the "wind in the sails", or "ripples on the water" beautifully.
Hello! This is
|
|
|
I suppose salt is the reason Winsford is here, that and the River Weaver. In the Triassic period (about 200 million years ago) this area was an inland sea. As our planet changed throughout time, so vast salt deposits were left behind. Winsford has pure salt (table salt) and rock salt, the underground area, gigantic caverns, were flooded and the brine from the dissolving salt pumped out. It was this that later caused the collapse, which in turn formed the Flashes around the River Weaver. During the 19th century Winsford was the main area in the world for salt production . In these early days men worked these caverns with their hands and hand tools, surprisingly in very hot and dry conditions. Today there are huge machines to do the work. In the mid 1990's BBC's Blue Peter visited Winsford salt mines and Diane-Louise Jordan 'named' a new excavator. These days the main salt industry is for road salt, during the winter our roads are full of large lorries moving salt throughout the U.K. From our bedroom window, we can sometimes see 'salt mountains' if the weather is not as icy as was predicted. Some of the huge empty caverns are now being used to store archive materials, as they were during World War II. A Point of Historical Interest. I have been lucky enough to have been show two items of local history; this has been my dilemma as it is also ‘Salt’ related. After considerable consideration I have decided to add this here. When Mr. William Stott died, the following items were found among his possessions. Mr Stott, Billy to his family, lived in Wharton. This hand written postcard was sent out to notify of a vacancy for an apprenticeship; it has been signed by the Labour Superintendent. I wonder how appointments would be arranged nowadays? This was sent by post, and if you look carefully you can see the interview is for the next day; at 9.30 am. They obviously had faith in the post in 1929. The price of the stamp on the reverse of the post card is 1d, (1 old penny). Billy Stott obviously got the job as the pictures lower down show.
This multi-purpose pen-knife was presented to Billy Stott, to mark the centenary of the Winsford Salt Makers’ Association, in 1953.
I have recently found out that Over had a salt works. If anyone knows where it was sited, or the name of it, would you please email the information to me at the address below. Thank you.
Northwich, around 7 miles away, has a Salt Museum, open to visitors. Contact InformationIf you wish to get in touch for any reason please send an e-mail to
time.graphics@winsford.net |
Send mail to
webmaster@winsford.net with
questions or comments about this web site.
|
