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Welcome to Winsford Rock Salt Mine

the online educational resource for the UK's largest rock salt mine

Going underground

Welcome to winsford rock salt mine..

Winsford Rock Salt Mine is Britain's oldest working mine. It lies almost 200m under the Cheshire countryside and has a fascinating history.

It also hides some surprising facts. For example, did you know that towns around Winsford like Northwich, Middlewich and Nantwich, all take their names from salt production, with 'Wych' often meaning 'Brine Town'?

If you would like more detailed information about Winsford Rock Salt Mine you can download a Fact File from every page. These should provide you with everything you need.

Main picture courtesy of Paul Deakin

Lion Salt Works Trust

The Lion Salt Works Museum near Northwich in Cheshire is one of the country’s foremost industrial heritage sites. But its story has not been a straightforward one. It took forty-one years after it first came to the attention of Vale Royal Borough Council and twenty-eight years after it closed as a going concern, for the site re-opened to the public on 5th June 2015 as a museum. And so was saved one of the world’s last open-pan, salt-making sites – so historically significant that its status as a Scheduled Ancient Monument equals that of Stonehenge and Hadrian’s Wall.

Since the mid-1980s, committed volunteers had recognised the site’s significance and campaigned for their vision to see it restored. This group formally become the charitable Lion Salt Works Trust in 1993. When funds were secured in 2011, the Trust partnered Cheshire West and Chester Council during the £10 million, four-year restoration of the now multi award-winning Museum.

The Lion Salt Works Museum tells the story of open-pan salt-making through fun, interactive displays, including a ‘subsiding house’ and a sound and light show that recreates the steaming open-pans. It houses a visitor and conference/performance area, café and has an industrially-themed play area.  Here  is a link to the Lion Salt Works Museum Website and  Here  to a self-guided YouTube tour.

Through the difficult early years, the Trust received the support of organisations and individuals too numerous to mention, without whose help in fundraising and keeping the project alive, the project may not have succeeded. But there continues to be much to do. The Trust plays a significant role in running the museum; in 2016, the active Trustees obtained funding to restore the Museum’s salt wagon and during 2019 were involved in the restoration of the ‘Nodding Donkey’ pump.

There are exciting years ahead. The Trust’s long-term ambition is to begin making salt again in the traditional manner and we hope that our old friends and new supporters will join us in helping to turn this vision into reality. For more information about joining the Trust, email [email protected] or see what’s going on on our twitter page @LSWTrust

Lion Salt Works

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LION SALT WORKS (2024) All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (with Photos)

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Winsford Salt Mine Visit

On Wednesday 9th of June we visited Winsford salt mine. Located in Winsford in the heart of Cheshire, it is the largest salt mine in the UK. Winsford accounts for some 60% of all rock salt mined in the UK.

Founded in 1844, the mine is the UKs oldest rock salt mine. Although in the early days miners used spades and mined by hand, now the mine uses state of the art mining technology such as the laser guided JOY excavator, which I saw up close and in action on my visit.

The mine has four main shafts, each used for a different purpose:

• Shaft one is used to take machinery down into mine. Machinery is often taken down in pieces and assembled underground, as tehy would be too large otherwise. Once machinery reaches the end of its life it is left underground, as it would be expensive to bring it back up to the surface.
• Shaft two is used to bring processed salt up to the surface
• Shaft three is a personnel lift, like you might find in a department store, and is the lift I used on my visit to the mine
• Shaft four is used to pump clean air down in to the mine, to keep a healthy air flow deep underground.

When we arrived at the mine the first thing to do was to get suited up in protective clothing: a thick blue tunic to go over our clothes (orange for the miners, blue for visitors), a yellow hard hat, a lamp and even a backup oxygen supply.

Once kitted up we proceeded to go down shaft three, where we boarded an open-topped vehicle which would take us around the mine. With around 140 miles of tunnels to explore, it’s far too big to go on foot! The first thing which hits you is the sheer volume of space excavated underground. The tunnels are 20m wide and 7.5m high, it feels more the size of a large sports hall than an underground mine!

Our first step was the underground cinema. Yes, a cinema, in the mine! (Sadly no popcorn available). On the large projector screen we watched a short DVD about the history of the mine and the different techniques used to mine the rock salt. The mine uses two main techniques for mining salt, “drill and blast” and the JOY machine. Over the next two hours we would see each of these techniques up close and in action!

We also learned about the honeycomb structure of the mine. This is a method of mining which requires no props or support structure to be built. Instead, the salt is excavated in a grid pattern and the un-excavated areas act as pillars, and hold the roof of the mine up.

Once we had learned about the history and structure of the mine, it was time to start the tour. First we saw the drill and blast machinery. Although not as popular anymore, due to the new JOY machine, drill and blast still accounts for about 10% of total salt production of the mine. It follows a simple procedure:

The entire process, from scaling to detonation, takes approximately one day to complete.

We then moved on to see a more modern – and faster – method of rock salt extraction, the JOY machine. This machine is huge! It has a large rotating drum which just grinds away the rock face. The debris which falls off is then scooped up and sent along a conveyor belt – which can be several miles long – to the crusher. This is a much faster method of salt extraction as it can run continuously, and can erode vast amounts of rock face per day. This method accounts for some 90% of total salt production at Winsford.

This machine [JOY machine] is huge! It has a large rotating drum which just grinds away the rock face. The debris which falls off is then scooped up and sent along a conveyor belt – which can be several miles long – to the crusher.

Our next stop was to visit the crusher. This machine grinds down the chunks of salt mined using the various methods in to tiny grains of salt, typically either 6mm or 10mm in size. Salt from all over the mine comes in to the crusher, along conveyor belts, and passes through the crushing apparatus. The rock salt then goes through a filter, so that all grains of size less than 6mm are allowed to pass on, to the surface, and all bigger pieces are sent through the crusher again. This process is repeated until all grains are of a suitably small size. These grains will then be taken to the surface (up shaft 2), to be loaded in to wagons and dispatched, or to be stored above ground.

The final stop on our tour was at the DeepStore facility. Located deep in the mine, this is an example of what the cavities underground can be used for, once the rock salt has been extracted. The salt mine offers a secure storage facility, and people store everything from masses of documents to works of art underground, in the constant temperature, constant humidity salt mine. DeepStore has been running for about ten years, and almost three million boxes are stored here.

This concludes the visit to Winsford salt mine, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed visiting! For more information on what life is like inside Winsford Salt Mine, check out a recent BBC article here

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Looking to make a purchase of high quality rock salt, sourced directly from Winsford salt mine? Why not browse our products section . Our rock salt is available in pre-packed bags of 10kg, 25kg or loose in a 1 tonne bulk bag.

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What is it, why is it in Cheshire, and how does it affect the local landscape?

Salt is the name commonly used for SODIUM CHLORIDE (NaCl) a naturally occurring compound of Sodium and Chlorine.

Common salt occurs abundantly in nature either as a solid: ROCK SALT or in solution in sea water, salt lakes and natural springs as liquid: BRINE . Rock Salt is composed of the mineral HALITE (from the Greek ‘Hals’ for salt) and is one of the minerals that precipitates out as water evaporates. These salty minerals are called EVAPORITES.

Table 1 The sequence of precipitation of evaporite minerals 1st Calcite (CaCO3) and dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) 2nd Gypsum (CaSO4.2H2O) and anhydrite (CaSO4) 3rd Halite (common salt, NaCl) 4th Potassium and magnesium salts

Evaporite minerals (including Halite) are precipitated out in the sequence shown in Table 1 above. Evaporite formation tends to occur under hot, dry conditions such as those that exist today in Israel (the Dead Sea), the Persian Gulf or southern California (Death Valley).

Geological history of Salt in Cheshire

Under Cheshire’s flat and gently rolling rural landscape dotted with meres and flashes and small market and industrial towns, lie vast resources of halite. The salt beds in Cheshire are of TRIASSIC age, 220 million years old. During this time Cheshire was part of the supercontinent PANGAEA (from the Greek: combined Earth) when all the continental crust was together as one. Cheshire was in the tropics (15oN) in the arid, desert region of Pangaea just north of the Equator.

Pangaea started to break up as tectonic plates moved away from each other. In what is now Cheshire the land sank as a fault controlled basin formed: The Triassic Cheshire Plain. The basin floor kept sinking as the crust was pulled apart. First the basin was filled with massive sand dunes shaped by strong, persistent winds from the east. At the same time, gravelly sand banks were formed in wide shallow riverbeds by rare flash floods coming down from the surrounding rugged mountains. From the Lion Salt Works look east towards Macclesfield to see what is left of those mountains today – The Pennines. These Triassic sands and gravels are now called the SHERWOOD SANDSTONE of Alderley Edge and the Sandstone Ridge from Frodsham to Whitchurch.

As the mountains were eroded by wind and water erosion, the sinking basin started to flood as the sea crept over the sand dunes and sandbanks. In this shallow arm of the sea, with PLAYAS or salt lakes and tidal flats, layers of red muds and silts settled out of the still water over the Sherwood Sandstone to harden over geological time forming the Triassic MERCIA MUDSTONE.

The shallow water coupled with the hot, arid climate meant the salt lakes and lagoons frequently evaporated leaving behind crystals of solid salt with some anhydrite, gypsum and thin coverings of mud, and silt and sand blown in by the winds. The shallow briny water was topped up time and time again, as the sea re-flooded the sinking basin. In rainier times the salt layers were covered by thicker layers of mud. A great pile of mudstone and salt beds built up – at its maximum about 1500 metres thick.

The centre of the basin was just north of Middlewich at Byley where the thickest accumulation of the salt beds occurs. The quantity of halite in Cheshire has been estimated to be about 1200 million m3.

In the Triassic Mercia Mudstone the salt is concentrated into two major rock salt members. The upper member – the WILKESLEY HALITE about 300m separated by 400m of mudstone from the lower NORTHWICH HALITE about 200m thick. Each halite member is made up of thick, massive beds of reddish to pink to white rock salt, up to 40m thick interbedded with red mudstone, siltstone and some sandstone.

Two very pure and thick rock salt beds in the Northwich Halite have been heavily used by mining and brine pumping – the 20m thick TOP BED and the 30m thick BOTTOM BED . After the Triassic, Cheshire’s sandstones, mudstones and halites were tilted and faulted, covered by shallow seas and younger rocks as plate tectonics drove Cheshire and Britain northwards. Faulting means that the rock salt beds occur both near the surface and deep underground.

What were the effects of the Ice Ages on the salt deposits?

During the Ice Ages (starting 2 million years ago) the younger rocks above the Triassic rocks were systematically scraped away by ice sheets. When the last ice melted ~16,000 years ago, it left behind glacial till and outwash sands and gravels over the mudstone and salt beds. As the glacial water drained away, deep river valleys, such as the River Weaver and River Dane, were cut. When the floods of glacial meltwater decreased, they left behind POROUS AND PERMEABLE (holding water and allowing water to pass through) loose sand in the river valley bottoms.

Cheshire’s landscape was shaped by this massive splurge of glacial freshwater. Melt water streams and temporary lakes soaked down to the solid salt just below the surface, the salt dissolving to brine. The distinctive meres of mid and eastern Cheshire formed as the ground surface gave away and sank forming massive linear hollows some flooding to form meres. You can easily trace the sunken ground from Marbury Mere through the dry deep hollow south of Great Budwoth to Pickmere, Tabley Mere to Lower Peover; and the subsidence hollows and meres stretching from Rostherne to Tatton Park through Knutsford to Booths Mere.

The ancient faulting and permeable sands above the halite are pathways for the natural brine springs found all over Cheshire’s salt district; the reason for the salt towns of Northwich, Winsford, Middlewich and Nantwich.

What are the clues for salt underlying the landscape?

The existence of shallow rock salt is supported by evidence of brine springs, a landscape of ground surface movement, sink holes and subsidence.

Man’s use of salt

Since Celtic and Roman times Cheshire salt has been exploited from brine springs, hand dug brine pits and wells. Salt production grew quickly in the late 1700s onwards when wind and steam powered wild brine pumping started, followed by salt mining from the 19th century. In 20th century controlled brine pumping was developed to reduce subsidence. Now in the 21st century gigantic salt cavities are engineered to store natural gas underground.

What is the difference between Dry rock head and Wet rock head?

Where the area of rock salt occurs just below the ground level and is easily reached by water from the surface it is known as the WET ROCK HEAD as under Northwich, Winsford, Middlewich, and Sandbach. The wet rock head area is where natural brine springs and subsidence are present, and where wild brine pumping and salt mining has a long history and is still taking place.

Where rock salt is deeper below a protective layer of mudstone stopping water from reaching the salt the area is known as DRY ROCK HEAD . One such area stretches from Lostock and Plumley, south to Byley and Middlewich and another is under Warmingham. The dry rock head area is well suited for controlled brine pumping and gas storage in salt cavities.

What causes subsidence?

Salt is soluble in water so where water from rivers, streams and rain soaks into the ground finding pathways through loose sands, it dissolves any rock salt it taking away support for the overlying ground which collapses. The ground keeps collapsing as cavities migrate upwards and sinks holes and subsidence hollows form at the surface.

What is left behind is a COLLAPSE BRECCIA (from Italian – gravel) a leaky capping to the rock salt made up of broken mudstone, sands, clays and soils. Underground on top of the solid rock salt this collapse breccia is awash with brine flowing through the broken rocks and soils as an underground stream that can stretch for miles – BRINE RUN . Brine runs can sometimes be traced on the surface by lines of sink holes and flooded hollows such as the Moston Long Flash between Middlewich and Sandbach.

Where surface water collects in hollows it can leak through the collapse breccia to the underlying solid salt feeding in more fresh water so more salt dissolves and more sink holes appear. Solution will keep on taking place as long as there is an input of fresh water and a removal of the brine by springs. If there is no brine discharge at the surface then the ground water at the salt interface will become saturated with brine and salt solution will cease, the ground surface will stop sinking. However, if HYDRAULIC CONDITIONS (amount and movement of water above and below ground) change then salt solution, brines runs and ground surface collapse could be initiated or re-activated.

‘The possibility of salt solution and therefore subsidence exists throughout the salt subcrop or wet rockhead area.’ further subsidence could occur if ‘there is a fundamental change in the hydraulic regime in the ground’. Earp J R and Taylor B J 1986 Geology of the Country around Chester and Winsford BGS

For salt mines, collapse breccia makes a weak, leaky roof to a mine. The salt miners dread fresh water – if this meets the solid rock salt, the salt dissolves taking away any support holding up the ground above the mine.

‘I have frequently explained that fresh water is the greatest destroyer of rock salt, and the worst enemy the rock salt miner has to encounter’ Thomas Ward 1898 Rock Salt Deposits of Cheshire and their explanation: Transactions of the Manchester Geological Society.

A case study of subsidence

THE GREAT COLLAPSE of Northwich and Wincham salt mines in 1880 led to the formation of Neumanns’s and Ashton’s Flashes. The ground sank dramatically as the collapsed breccia roof above dry rock salt mines disintegrated after fresh water from Wade Brook leaked down to the solid rock salt dissolving it. ‘A little before 6 o’clock in the morning of the 6th December 1880, before the men went down, the inundation came. The land slipped from under the Peover (now Wade) Brook and water poured in…… the Weaver flowed backwards and filled the mine and the adjoining old workings at a rapid rate’ Joseph Dickinson HM Inspector of Mines A Report on the Flooding of the Platt’s Hill Salt Mine, near Northwich.

Not all the flooded 19th Century mines collapsed. Mines such as the Witton Hall Mine and Baron’s Quay Mine under Northwich were full of saturated brine with a few pillars of rock salt remaining solid and intact. For 100 years after mining ceased, the pillars gave little support to the ground above which suffered intermittent subsidence. Even in the 1980s and 1990s the ground was only strong enough to support light buildings or none at all. It took until the 21st Century to fill the mines and stabilize the area in a massive engineering project that pumped a grout mix of pulverised fly ash and salt into the old flooded salt mines beneath Northwich.

But what of the future?

Climate change will lead to changes in the hydraulic conditions, changes to more intense, more prolonged rainfall, increased river flow, higher water table and sea level. Sink holes are still active and as Cheshire’s weather turns wetter could new ones form and old ones be reactivated?

The changing landscape of past, present and future ground condition in the Cheshire salt fields poses geotechnical and engineering challenges when building houses, development and transport routes. Cheshire has developed a distinctive style of architecture – the black and white timber framed ‘jackable’ buildings, road, railway and canal bridges on ‘adjustable’ footings. Even the planned M6 Motorway route was moved further east to avoid the tricky ground of the Cheshire salt district.

The Lion Salt Works Museum gratefully acknowledge the assistance of The Curry Fund of the Geologists’ Association http://www.geologistsassociation.org.uk

Cheshire RIGS http://www.cheshireRIGS.org.uk

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Cheshire’s Salt Towns – a Glittering Roman Legacy

Discover how and why the Romans exploited salt in Cheshire, and the legacy of the salt-producing towns they left behind.

The mining of precious metals was a key objective of the military invasion of Wales by the Romans, but of almost equal importance was the much-prized salt beneath the nearby Cheshire Plain.

Salt, so commonly found today, was an expensive commodity in Roman times because it was time-consuming to obtain through natural evaporation of brine. It was also a vital product, used to keep the vast Roman army marching, to preserve food, and in various manufacturing processes.

This exhibition explores why Cheshire salt was so important to the physical wellbeing of Roman soldiers, how the Romans protected this natural resource of Cheshire and created a road network to distribute it, and how the salt beneath the Cheshire Plain was acquired without the need to mine.

On display will be a replica of the rare Roman Cavalryman’s helmet discovered in Northwich.

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WINSFORD, CHESHIRE, U.K.

Underground salt mining storage + records management.

The Winsford rock salt mine is the U.K.’s largest and oldest working mine. It lies approximately 150 meters under the Cheshire countryside and has a fascinating history, which began in 1844 when local prospectors were searching for coal.

During the late 19 th century the salt industry descended into chaos due to over-capacity. In 1888, Salt Union, which consisted of 66 salt operators from the area was formed in an attempt to bring order to the market. However, with salt also being supplied from the Northwich mines, the market remained over-supplied and in 1892, the Winsford Mine was closed. In 1928 the last mine in Northwich flooded, resulting in the re-opening of the Winsford Mine.

The Winsford mine is Britain’s largest supplier of natural rock salt, which is used by maintenance professionals to thaw icy roads in wintry weather. In addition to supplying rock salt, Compass Minerals U.K. also developed DryStore ® , a unique salt-covering system that helps salt stocks stay dry while in storage.

The Winsford Mine was the first Compass Minerals production facility to purchase a continuous mining machine to replace the traditional drill-and-blast method of salt extraction. The continuous mining process uses a machine to cut rock away from the mine face. It’s simpler, takes less mining equipment, less underground transportation machinery and less manpower than the drill-and-blast process that it replaces, and reduces fuel use and emissions.

More than a century of mining has left a void under the countryside that features consistent temperature and humidity levels, and is naturally free from the dangers of ultraviolet light, vermin or flooding. It is the size of 700 football pitches and continues to grow as a salt is mined every year. In 1998, DeepStore was established to take advantage of this unique storage space. Treasured paintings, historical records and architectural models are among the items stored in the Winsford location.

DeepStore has more than 1.8 million square meters of storage space that provides secure storage of items ranging from active records, to treasured paintings. One of the more well-known DeepStore customers is The National Archives, for whom DeepStore manages public records.

In 2007, DeepStore acquired a location in the London metropolitan area, creating a comprehensive, nationwide records management resource.

Compass Minerals U.K. Limited Bradford Road Winsford Cheshire, England CW7 2PE

+44 (0)370 5329723

[email protected]

RELATED LINKS Compass Minerals U.K. Underground Salt Mining Storage + Records Management Learn about Winsford, Cheshire About DeepStore

Watch: Going underground at Cheshire salt mine

Reporter David Holmes takes a trip down the county's famous mine to learn how Cheshire keeps the UK's roads clear of ice every winter

• 21:00, 19 MAY 2016
• Updated 11:04, 20 MAY 2016

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Think of Cheshire and you might conjure up images of cheese, a grinning cat, lush fields, quaint villages and rich celebrities.

But away from the chocolate box packaging, those of us who live in the county know we are also home to industry, including Britain’s oldest working mine dating back to 1844.

As a Yorkshire man, coal mining was part of my family history and background but rather than the black stuff, we are talking here about the white stuff in the form of rock salt used to de-ice roads across the UK every winter.

The importance of salt to the county over time is reflected in the names of many of Cheshire’s towns including Northwich , Middlewich and Nantwich because ‘Wych’ often means brine town.

So I was excited on being offered the opportunity to go down Winsford Rock Salt Mine on a special visit where I discovered their particular salt is actually pink in colour because of the impurities.

Slightly unnerving was the safety briefing where we got kitted out with a hard hat, torch and an oxygen self rescuer in the event of fire. Reassuringly nobody had ever needed to break into the canister which features a mouthpiece and nose clip allowing you to breathe uncontaminated air in an emergency.

Soon we were travelling 600 feet down to the salt seam in a lift which opened out into what I can only describe as feeling like the caped crusader’s Bat Cave on a vast scale but with no sign of any super heroes or Alfred the butler.

Everything is held up by leaving literally pillars of salt, not a biblical reference, but a technique known as pillar and stall based on precise calculations. The deeper the depth and support required, the larger the pillars.

The go-to man and guide for the day was Gary Sinclair, the mine manager and a former Staffordshire coal miner, who drove our minibus around a network of underground roads in a mine with high ceilings and huge caverns.

Related story: Lion Salt Works Museum scoops top conservation award

It’s strange seeing vehicles, including heavy machinery, underground. Many of the 120-plus fleet had to be dismantled and then transported down one of the mine’s three shafts inside a 15 ton skip before being reassembled.

A layer of salt dust covers the ground wherever you look, which Gary says is great for killing weeds in your garden.

Fortunately, breathing in the salt particles, unlike coal dust, is not harmful to health as it dissolves in the lungs rather than getting lodged there forever.

On the subject of breathing, two ventilation fans, worth £500,000, ensure a flow of air at all times.

Gary explains that millions of pounds has been invested in the mine that keeps Britain moving in the depths of the harshest winters. Who are the customers?

He explained: “Local authorities, highways agencies, Highways England etc. They have their own stock pile which we supply.”

Gary jokingly confesses that he prays for a harsh winter as the 81 underground jobs depend on it – in total the workforce is double that number.

A particularly bad British winter in 2009 saw reserves almost run out as salt suppliers could not keep pace with demand at a time when councils did not keep their own stock piles.

Soon we are introduced to a monster-sized £3.2m rock cutting machine, a JOY 12HM36, named ‘Joy’ for short, operated by remote control and monitored in real time from a base in Derbyshire.

Joy uses tungsten steel cutting picks fitted to a drum to claw away the rock salt. The excavated rock salt is collected underneath and passed through the machine to a conveyor system before being transported to the crushing and screening stations then lifted to the surface.

Gary says his employer Compass Minerals has brought in latest techniques to improve productivity.

“We’ve changed,” he said. “It was a business that wasn’t exposed to change so you’d got entrenched mentalities and behaviours.”

A new area of exploration saw £9m investment, explained the mine manager, who said 1,000 tons of material can be extracted per shift with the aim of achieving an average of 1,800 tons.

“I feel exceptionally proud of what we’ve achieved and we did it with not one injury. We are moving tons and tons of equipment and we had nobody that got so much as a scratch,” he continued.

“I said to the guys, ‘To do what you’re doing, to develop somewhere for the next 30 years of employment for somebody is something to be proud of’. It’s a legacy that most people don’t get the chance to leave behind.“

The other side of the business is secure archive storage by company Deep Store in abandoned workings. We didn’t have time to visit this section of the mine but we did see documents being loaded onto fork lift trucks underground.

Once back on the surface we were given lumps of salt as a memento of our trip and I suspect we also smuggled a pinch or two within our bodies as I could taste salt for a few hours following the visit.

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