ADHS meeting report for April

The Lion, the Wich and the Waller

The title of this month's talk was "The Lion, the Wich and the Waller", a very clever play
on a well-known story by C.S. Lewis. The speaker, Mike Tingle, is a guide at the Lion salt
Works in Northwich, which explains the first part of the title.

The "Wich" refers to the salt-producing towns in this area that have "wich" in their name,
and Mike gave us a potted history of salt production from Roman times. At one point there
were more than 70 salt mines in Cheshire, the biggest being the Adelaide salt mine in
Northwich, close by to the Lion works.

We were told of the Thompson family who began the Lion works in 1894, eventually closing
in 1986, it being kept as a family business for the whole of that time. The "Waller" part of the
title was explained as the men who built the "walls" of salt post-production in order to dry and
stack the oblongs of salt.

The Lion works was re-opened in 2015 as a new visitor site attraction.

The History Society is linking Mike's talk to this year's summer outing on Friday,13th June,
when a trip has been organized to the Lion works and the Weaver workhouse, both situated
at Northwich.

The final talk of this season will be given by Dorothy Nicolle on Thursday 13th May, on the
subject of "Nursery Rhyme Stories".