Company type | Private Limited Company |
---|---|
Industry | Salt manufacturing |
Founded | 1923 |
Defunct | 2006 |
Fate | Dissolved |
Headquarters | Wincham, Cheshire , |
Products | White or brine salt |
The New Cheshire Salt Works Ltd was a salt manufacturer formerly located in Wincham, north east of Northwich in Cheshire, UK. Run by the Stubbs family, it operated between around 1923 and 2006. This is incorrect. The company is still active, see UK Government information https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00194522 It produced white or brine salt from naturally occurring underground brine using natural or wild pumping. The salt was extracted by vacuum evaporation and was of a high quality. It was used for human consumption under the brandname "Selva" and in the pharmaceutical industry; New Cheshire was the only British company to supply salt for pharmaceutical use.
In its later years, New Cheshire was the biggest of the few remaining family-owned salt producers. From the mid-1980s until its closure, it was the only salt works in the UK still to use the natural brine pumping method.
After a rock salt bed was discovered north of Northwich in 1670, Northwich swiftly overtook Nantwich and Middlewich to become the largest salt producer in Cheshire. [1] [2] Mining began in the village of Marston in 1781, a few years after the opening of the North Staffordshire (later Trent and Mersey) Canal, which was used to transport the salt. In the 1850s salt works were established in Marston, and in the 1860s and 1870s in the adjacent village of Wincham, predominantly following the line of the canal. [3] The Salt Branches Railway connected Wincham to Northwich from 1867. [4] By the late 19th century, Wincham was a flourishing salt-manufacturing location, with several open-pan salt works as well as rock salt mines. Many of the salt works in Wincham were short lived, but some amalgamated to form Wincham Salt Works, which was located on the site of the New Cheshire Works in 1877. It was sold to the Salt Union in 1888, and demolished shortly afterwards. [3] [4]
The Stubbs family had a history in the Cheshire salt business dating back to the early 18th century, and had owned salt works near Northwich in the 19th century. [5] The New Cheshire Salt Works was founded in 1922 or 1923 by Alfred Stubbs and other members of the Stubbs family, and remained in that family for five generations. [5] [6] [7] The factory was in Wincham at SJ676754 , to the north east of the Trent and Mersey Canal. It had two chimneys in red brick, one marked with their brand "Selva" in capitals. [4] [8] By 1982, New Cheshire was the only salt works remaining in Wincham, the nearby open-pan Sunbeam Salt Works having closed in the early 1970s. [4]
Naturally occurring underground brine from the Wincham brinefield was pumped to the surface via a borehole. [6] [9] Such natural or wild brine pumping differs from controlled brine pumping, where water is pumped underground into rock to dissolve rock salt deposits. [10] [11] The process has historically been associated with subsidence, which has been a major problem in the Northwich area. [11] [12] The brine was purified by treatment with sodium carbonate and lime, and the salt extracted using a closed-pan partial vacuum evaporation method. [6] The technique was adapted from the sugar industry, and had first been applied to salt extraction in 1887 in Silver Springs, New York. [5] First tried commercially in the UK as early as 1901, [13] several British manufacturers started up vacuum evaporator plants using a small Mirlees-type evaporator in parallel with their open-pan operations after the First World War. [14] James Stubbs had learned about the method of vacuum evaporation in Michigan in 1905, and the New Cheshire Works was one of the early companies to adopt the vacuum evaporation method, importing an evaporator in the 1930s. [5] [14] Described as "magnificent" by journalist Mark Kurlansky, the company's first evaporator had three chambers; it had an Art Deco design, and was decorated with stripes in dark and pale wood, with brass fittings. [5] The company updated the evaporator in the 1950s and the 1990s. [5] In the 2000s, the works was using a small Svenson system with three evaporator chambers (termed "effects"). [14]
During the 1960s, most of the smaller vacuum plants closed [14] and two companies, Staveley Industries and Cerebos, merged to form British Salt. [11] By the 1970s, there were only three companies using the technology, ICI, British Salt and the much smaller New Cheshire Works, which used its small evaporator to produce a relatively low volume of a high-purity product that was not economic at the two large works. [14] The use of natural pumping declined after the Second World War, and mostly ceased during the 1970s, [11] [15] but New Cheshire continued to use the process. From the mid-1980s until its closure in 2006, it was the only salt works in the UK to use the natural brine pumping method. [16] [17] New Cheshire was the third-largest salt producer in the UK in 1986, after ICI and British Salt. [6] At that date, the annual salt output exceeded 50,000 tons, of which a quarter was sold to consumers under the brandname "Selva". [6]
The vacuum process used at New Cheshire was more expensive than that used by other British manufacturers, as well as European manufacturers exporting to the UK. The process produced pure vacuum-dried salt with less than 0.1% water content, which is suitable for use in human food, as well as a variety of other purposes including animal food, such as salt licks, water softening tablets, dyes and textile production, such as leather preparation. [10] [18] [19] New Cheshire Salt Works was the only company in the UK to produce a very pure product with less than 0.01% water content for use in the pharmaceutical industry. This required the plant to be shut down and cleaned, as well as further drying of the pure vacuum-dried salt with hot-air driers. [20]
In 2005, the works could produce up to 80,000 tonnes a year, and was operating at close to capacity; [20] the total annual white salt production in the UK was estimated at a million tonnes. [9] New Cheshire was then one of the last three commercial salt producers in the UK. [5] [14] The company was sold that year to British Salt, in an acquisition that was investigated by the Competition Commission in May but allowed to go ahead on 8 November 2005. Although the works had been profitable in 2003 and 2004, the Commission ruled that it would soon be rendered uneconomic by a number of factors, particularly increased energy prices. [18] [20] British Salt announced the closure of the Wincham works a few weeks later, [21] and it closed in June 2006. [16] At the time of closure it employed 60 people. [21] [22] The works site, an area of 198 acres, was purchased by a development company early in 2007, and the site has since been demolished and redeveloped. [3] [16] [22] Some of the company's records are archived by Cheshire Archives and Local Studies. [7]
Marston is a village and civil parish within the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester, in Cheshire, North West England. It is sited beside the River Weaver, close to Anderton and the Anderton Boat Lift. The nearest major settlement is Manchester, which lies 15 miles (24 km) to the north-east. It is the site of the Lion Salt Works, which is now an industrial museum.
Northwich is a market and port town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It lies in the heart of the Cheshire Plain, at the confluence of the rivers Weaver and Dane. The town is about 18 miles (29 km) east of Chester, 15 miles (24 km) south of Warrington, and 19 miles (31 km) south of Manchester.
Salt, also referred to as table salt or by its chemical formula NaCl, is an ionic compound made of sodium and chloride ions. All life depends on its chemical properties to survive. It has been used by humans for thousands of years, from food preservation to seasoning. Salt's ability to preserve food was a founding contributor to the development of civilization. It helped eliminate dependence on seasonal availability of food, and made it possible to transport food over large distances. However, salt was often difficult to obtain, so it was a highly valued trade item, and was considered a form of currency by many societies, including Rome. According to Pliny the Elder, Roman soldiers were paid in salt, from which the word salary is derived, although this is disputed by historians. Many salt roads, such as the Via Salaria in Italy, had been established by the Bronze Age.
Winsford is a town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the River Weaver south of Northwich and west of Middlewich. It grew around the salt mining industry after the river was canalised in the 18th century, allowing freight to be conveyed northwards to the Port of Runcorn on the River Mersey. The town of Winsford has an estimated population of 35,500 in 2024.
Middlewich, a town in northwest England, lies on the confluence of three rivers – the Dane, the Croco and the Wheelock. Most importantly for the history of salt making, it also lies on the site of a prehistoric brine spring.
Moulton is a civil parish and village in Cheshire, England, 3 miles (4.8 km) south of Northwich and 3 miles (4.8 km) north of Winsford.
Middlewich is one of the Wich towns in Cheshire, England.
Wincham is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It is located about 3 miles (4.8 km) north of Northwich in the Cheshire Plain. The Trent and Mersey Canal runs through the parish.
The Lion Salt Works is the last remaining open pan salt works in Marston, near Northwich, Cheshire, England. It closed as a works in 1986 and is now preserved as a museum.
Cheshire is a county in North West England. Rock salt was laid down in this region some 220 million years ago, during the Triassic period. Seawater moved inland from an open sea, creating a chain of shallow salt marshes across what is today the Cheshire Basin. As the marshes evaporated, deep deposits of rock salt were formed.
Open-pan salt making is a method of salt production wherein salt is extracted from brine using open pans.
British Salt Limited is a United Kingdom-based chemical company that produces pure white salt. The company is owned by Tata Chemicals Europe after a buy out from private equity company LDC in April 2010. It is based in Middlewich, Cheshire, employs 125 people, and produces approximately 800,000 tonnes of pure white salt every year.
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The history of Northwich can be traced back to the Roman period. The area around Northwich has been exploited for its salt pans since this time. The town has been severely affected by salt mining with subsidence historically being a large issue. A programme of mine stabilisation has recently been undertaken.
Marston is a village and a civil parish in Cheshire West and Chester, England. It contains eight buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England as designated listed buildings, all of which are at Grade II. This grade is the lowest of the three gradings given to listed buildings and is applied to "buildings of national importance and special interest". Running through the parish is the Trent and Mersey Canal. The listed buildings consist of a milepost on the canal, a farmhouse and farm building, a war memorial, and four structures associated with the Lion Salt Works. The latter is also a scheduled monument. It is "the only substantially intact example in the county of a works producing white crystal salt by the evaporation method", and houses "the only remaining natural brine pumping open pan salt works in Europe".
Sir Joseph Verdin, 1st Baronet, was a British salt industrialist, philanthropist and the Justice of the Peace, Deputy Lieutenant and County Alderman for the County of Cheshire. He was elevated to the Baronetage on 24 July 1896 and knighted in 1897. He later became Justice of the Peace for Herefordshire and High Sheriff in 1903.
A flash is a body of water that forms where the land below it has subsided. Whilst these are mostly found in areas where mining has taken place, some can occur naturally. Collectively they are known as flashes.
The Percival Lane power station in Runcorn was built and operated by the Mersey Power Company Limited. It comprised two stations A and B commissioned in 1921 and 1941. The station supplied electricity to commercial, industrial and domestic users over a wide area of 95 square miles around the River Mersey including Widnes, Ellesmere Port and Runcorn.
Winsford Mine is a halite mine in the town of Winsford, Cheshire, England. The mine produces an average of 1,500,000 tonnes of rock salt a year, which is used to grit public roads in the United Kingdom during the winter months. Two other mines also produce rock salt within the United Kingdom, but Winsford has the biggest output of all three and has the largest market share.
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