The early winter mornings sees red sunrises to the east over
the Lostock Gralam Chemical Works.
The repair of the stove
house walls
The walls of the stove houses are very narrow, normally two
bricks thick. They are fragile where the salt has damaged and removed the
mortar. In places, the Thompson’s put rigid steel joists into the wall to
reinforce them.
Not all the walls will be dismantled during the restoration.
Instead small parts will be taken down, repaired and rebuilt brick by brick.
Elsewhere the walls have bulged with the weight of ash and
cinder retained behind them in the stove houses. The ash and cinder was used to
build up the level of the flues internally to the stove house.
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| Fixing Spiro-ties |
These walls are retained using spiro-ties; strips of spiral
metal designed to strengthen the individual courses of the brick-work.
Buttresses will be built to strengthen the wall.
Clearing the collapsed
tunnel
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| The collapsed tunnel |
Between the Link Block and the Packing Area were the collapsed
remains of a tunnel. This originally ran from the canal to the Red Lion Hotel
and dates to the earliest period of the Thompson’s ownership of the site in the
1890s.
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| An interesting find |
At some point the tunnel was covered over with metal sheets.
These had decayed and the remains collapsed into the tunnels. This had to be
cleared in order to allow safe access to the area around the base of the chimney
in the packing area.
Treating the brine shaft
The former brine shaft originally dug in 1894 must be
treated in order to prevent water infiltrating the layers of salt below the
ground. The area around the brine shaft has been cleared to allow the large
drilling rig to be brought in. This involves clearing the old oil tank bases
built in the 1970s.
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| Clearing the 1970s oil tank |
Fallen brine pipes were removed to storage before being placed back once work was finished.
The drilling rig sits on two large rigid steel joists.
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| Laying out the support for the drilling rig |
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| Drilling the brine shaft |
A mixture of salt water, cement and ash is pumped into the drilled hole and this hardens and seals the brine shaft preventing further water infiltration.
European Visitors – Manage +
At the end of the month one of our key partners in the
project visited site.
Funding from the manage+ project gives the Lion Salt Works a
european dimension. Manage+ http://www.manageplus.eu/en/manageplus/about-manage.html aims to develop and implement innovative, sustainable and cost-effective models
for the management and operation of regenerated areas. Manage+ includes five
pilot sites formerly used for industry or military purposes in four European
countries (UK, Belgium, Netherlands and Germany) which are being converted into
business parks, greenbelt recreation areas and tourist destinations. The 10th
partner meeting was held in Chester from 28th to 30th November with delegates
from all partner countries taking part in workshops and site visits.
