The Preesall Salt Industry  Part 1 1872-1891

by R. Hogarth and W. Heapy

In 1872, while searching for iron ore, a syndicate of men from Barrow struck a bed of rocksalt approximately 400 feet thick and 300 feet below the ground surface about half a mile south-west of Preesall village, SD 362467. The men took back a sample to their lodgings, the Black Bull Im Preesall, where their landlady Dorothy Parkinson dissolved, filtered and boiled it to produce the first sample of Preesall salt.

In Northwich, Cheshire, the rocksalt, which lies close to the surface, has been used since the seventeenth century.(1) There is no evidence of any previous knowledge of the rocksalt deposits in Preesall although there was a coastal salt industry producing salt by "welling" or boiling the brine produced by leaching beach sand. The salters were called "salt-wellers",(2) which may account for a belief in Preesall that the rocksalt industry existed before 1872.

The Barrow syndicate had intended to put down 20 boreholes in Preesall but there are only records of their having put down Nos. 2, 8 and 9(3). The discovery of rocksalt in all these borings may have deterred them from exploring further. Other people became interested and further borings were made during the 1870s notably No. 20 or Seed's borehole on the Quail Holme Estate in which weak brine and then layers of salt were found and boring No. 17 which in 1875 found red sandstone 45 feet below the surface and tapped an "enormous" supply of fresh water at a depth of 564 feet (4). Thus a geological fault, the Preesall Fault, was revealed trending north-west and south-east throwing down Keuper Marl containing the salt beds on the south-west against Bunter sandstone on the upthrow side. An important fault is often accompanied by subsidiaries and the minor faults in the sandstone to the east of the Preesall Fault provide excellent natural water storage. The proximity of this supply of water to the rocksalt was to prove very advantageous for brine production

An exploratory shaft was sunk round No. 2 borehole on Lower Lickow Farm in 1875. According to F. J. Thompson5 this shaft was sunk by the Reverend Daniel and his brother-in-law Daniel Elletson, Squire of Parrox Hall, although County Councillor D. H. Elletson doubts whether his grandfather and the Reverend Daniel, Headmaster of Archbishop Holgate School, York, invested in this exploration. Joseph Dickinson, F.G.S., (3) writes that the shaft, 8 feet in diameter and finished with brickwork 44 inches thick, was sunk 309 feet down to the rockhead, ie, the top of the rocksalt, by Mr. R. Houson of Middlesborough-on-Tees and his friends. Brine was found on the rockhead and a borehole was continued down through the rocksalt to a depth of 525 feet without reaching the bottom of the deposit.

In 1883 the Fleetwood Salt Company was established by Joseph Wethered and Charles Thomas of Bristol and F. H. Gossage of Liverpool and their sons to expose and develop the saltfield. No. 2 shaft, in 1885, was deepened to 610 feet under the direction of E. Fiddler of Liverpool and super- vision of Mr. A. Anderson of Northwich. (Three generations of the Anderson family eventually worked in the Preesall saltmines.) The rocksalt bed proved to be 340 feet thick in layers of good and inferior salt and marl. Water was allowed to seep down to the rockhead. The subsequent run of brine was caught in a tank placed in a recess under the rockhead from which it was pumped to the surface by a 9 inch bore, five foot stroke pump worked by a "Bull" pumping engine. This steam- engine driven pump worked night and day shattering the rural calm.

In October 1888 the Salt Union was formed. Its prospectus states, "The object of the Company is to consolidate the undertakings of the Salt Proprietors in the United Kingdom, with a view to ending reckless competition which injuriously affects the salt industry." Only four manufacturers, one of which was the Fleetwood Salt Company, appear to have remained independent of the Salt Union which having procured a practical monopoly put up the price of salt by 100 per cent for common salt and 300 per cent for fine salt.

This gave a powerful incentive to the Fleetwood Salt Company to exploit the situation.

In 1889 22 acres of the Burn Naze end of the Fleetwood saltmarsh were bought from the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company and reclaimed by a 500 yard embankment for the construction of saltworks. The Preston and Wyre Railway Company agreed to put in sidings and haul the salt the two and a quarter miles to Wyre Dock at a rate fixed in 1889 for the next 42 years of 4 pence a ton with 2 pence a ton extra for tipping loose salt into the ship.(5) Mineral leases over about 1100 acres of land in Preesall were secured and exclusive wayleaves for pipes and salt movement in a belt five miles long over which no-one but the Company could pass with brine pipes or salt in any form. An "American Drilling Rig" was obtained from the U.S.A. and an American driller called Frazer commenced drilling further boreholes. A small brine reservoir was constructed on the hill adjoining No. 2 shaft and a 10 inch diameter cast iron pipeline layed to the edge of the River Wyre at Hay Nook.

The crossing of the River proved difficult for the contractor Mr. T. Riley of Fleetwood. Ten inch diameter steel tubes were used and the river channel stabilized by creating two groynes by dredging sand at Fleetwood and depositing it on the pipe line at high water. At low water the Salt Company men levelled and positioned it. The steel pipes were to break in 1891 and be replaced by four inch diameter rubber hose armoured by three-sixteenths of an inch wire which proved to have a 15 year lifespan.(5)

During the first week of January 1890 No. 2 shaft was emptied for examination. It was found that the rocksalt had dissolved away behind the brickwork leaving it without support. Also the quantity of brine running into the shaft had decreased to 750 gallons per hour from the 3000 gallons per hour which had been measured in June 1889 by Mr. F. J. Thompson of Northwich, Cheshire. (Mr. Thompson was appointed Manager of Works in August 1889.(5) The shaft was repaired and water was pumped from No. 17 borehole and transported via a 4 inch diameter water pipe to be run down No. 2 shaft filling it up to 200 feet from the bottom. It was allowed to stand there until saturated then drawn out in a runlet by the winding engine and emptied into the tank which collected the rock- head brine from which it was pumped to the surface by the Bull engine pump. On 25 February 1890 the Fleetwood Saltworks commenced production.

In November 1890 the Fleetwood Salt Company was acquired by the United Alkali Company which was a combination of most of the chemical manufacturers in the United Kingdom and owned two other salt works not in the Salt Union. The chemical industry being the largest consumer of white salt in the country it was clearly to its advantage to own its own saltworks. The ensuing activities were well reported by the Fleetwood Chronicle during 1891:

13 February, "The boring for the Fernhill mine, at Preesall, has not yet been concluded, the rocksalt not having yet been reached. Last week the workmen touched the blue stratum which usually overlies the salt, and it is expected that this will be cut through very shortly. The boring has already reached a depth of 100 feet. A block of well-built cottages chiefly for the workmen employed in the industries there, has been erected and will shortly be ready for occupation." The "Fernhill Mine" would probably be No. 24 borehole, two fields west of No. 2 Shaft, which was completed in 1891 and found, 315 feet below the surface, rocksalt deposits 513 feet thick, the thickest so far discovered. The blue marl which often overlies the rocksalt could account for the blue perch which are to be found in Acre Pit and other subsidences and which may have developed their beautiful colour for camouflage.

27 March, "Several directors of the United Alkali Company recently inspected the works at Preesall and Burn Naze with the object of forming chemical works." The Fleetwood Chronicle goes on to say that as well as ammonia soda works, new salt works were also being considered. "In either case they will be on the Fleetwood side for railway and shipping."

5 June, "It is intended by The Fleetwood Salt Company to quarry the bed of rocksalt which was discovered some time ago in the hill adjoining the old shaft at Preesall, and for this purpose a party of six miners arrived on Monday and commenced forming a tunnel from the old shaft to the bed." Messrs. Stanley Bros. of Nuneaton had in fact been contracted to drive 500 yards of exploratory tunnelling 5 foot 6 inches in diameter through the salt bed from the bottom of No. 2 Shaft.(5)

2 October, "The Fleetwood Salt Works are continually being extended, and at present there are thirteen pans in use and seven others in course of erection. It is estimated that the output of salt per week at the present time is about 600 tons."

According to the lists published in the Fleetwood Chronicle during 1891 approximately six ships a month were sailing from Fleetwood with cargoes of salt mainly bound for Ireland and Bristol.

Other landowners in the Fylde were contemplating boring for salt. The Rawcliffe Hall Estate was in correspondence with the geologist Mr. Charles E. de Rance who, on 17 September 1891, advised trial 800 feet deep borings on the western margin of the estate at an estimated cost of 10 shillings per foot if carried out by the "American Rig".(6) It is not known whether or not his advice was taken.

Thus by the end of 1891 a reliable pipeline was in operation under the River Wyre, salt was being shipped out of Fleetwood, and the United Alkali Company had decided to exploit the rocksalt deposits in three different ways: Ammonia Soda Works, Salt Works, and Rocksalt Mining. They had also had their first warning that the marls were incapable of supporting the surface after the rocksalt below had been removed when, in August 1891, a subsidence over 40 feet deep and covering one third of an acre, now known as Acre Pit, took place round No. 23 borehole.

References

1. Unnamed author, "The History of Salt" 18th Century account Fleetwood Reference Library M79. 2. Robert Taylor, "The Coastal Salt Industry of Amounderness", reprinted from the Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society Vol. 78 (1975).
3. Joseph Dickinson, F.G.S., "On the Discovery of Rock Salt at Preesall", unpublished, 1881.
4. R. L. Sherlock, "Rock Salt and Brine", Geological Survey, 1921.
5. F. J. Thompson, "An Account of the Salt Deposits at Preesall-Fleetwood and their development",
unpublished, property of I.C.I., 1927.
6. C. E. de Rance, letter to the Rawcliffe Hall Estate, unpublished, 1891.