Additional information
Terrain
- Woodland paths, surfaced tracks and tow paths
Landscape
- Woodland banks, fields, occasional industrial backdrop
Dog friendliness
- Off lead for most of walk, except in nature park
Parking
- Pay-and-display car park at Marbury Country Park, open till 8pm summer, 5pm winter
Toilets en route
- Close to car park, by ranger station
About the walk
Salt is essential to life and has been prized throughout history as a basic means of preserving food, a discovery that supported the development of civilisation. Vast deposits of salt underlie the Cheshire plain and in places natural brine springs were known to the ancients and exploited by the... Romans. Throughout the Middle Ages, salt was carried on pack animals along 'salt roads', hugely adding to its cost. During the early 18th century, improvements to the River Weaver enabled sizeable craft to reach the salt fields. The Trent and Mersey Canal was initially perceived as a rival, but reaching the Staffordshire Potteries and coal fields, it brought more traffic through the area. The two companies co-operated and a river basin was built at Anderton, directly below the canal, where goods could be transhipped. The difficulty was the 50ft (15m) difference in elevation, initially overcome using cranes, salt chutes and an inclined plane. Bold solution By the 1870s Anderton had become a costly bottleneck requiring a drastic solution. A lock staircase would deplete the canal's water and instead, a boat lift was proposed. Consisting of twin, counterbalanced caissons, each capable of holding two narrowboats, it was powered by massive pistons, sunk vertically into the ground. Construction took only 30 months, after which fully laden boats could be transferred in a matter of minutes. However, the hydraulics were plagued by corrosion from the water, and in 1908 the lifting mechanism was replaced by overhead pulleys and counterweights. The conversion outlasted its industrial use, as commercial traffic had virtually finished by the 1960s, but in 1983, the structure itself was found to be corroded and closed. That might have ended the story, but there was a bid for restoration. Work began in 2000, overhauling the structure and reverting to hydraulic operation, although this time using oil rather than canal water. The lift re-opened in 2002 and is once again a highlight of the country's waterway system. Chemical industry The Industrial Age found new uses for salt in a burgeoning chemical industry. The salt was extracted by brine pumping, which created unstable underground voids and subsidence left the salt fields dotted with flashes. In 1874 John Brunner and Ludwig Mond opened a factory on the banks of the Weaver at Winnington to produce soda ash, important for the glass and dyeing industries. It was the town's main employer for over a century, but the waste products of fuel ash and alkali dumped in the subsidence pits blighted the landscape. A transformation The focus of industry has changed, and reclamation by both Nature and man is restoring the area. Stabilisation of the underground workings has created new land for the regeneration of the town and the former tips are being transformed into the woodland, meadows and wetland reserves of Marbury Country Park and Anderton Nature Park, which now boast a surprising variety of plants and wildlife.
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