Monument record 2515/16/0 - Croft Salt Works

<1> Ordnance Survey, 1876, Metric Ten Foot Scale Town Plan of Northwich (Maps and Plans). SCH4488.

Salt Works marked on the Ordnance Survey 1:500 town plan of Northwich and the OS First Edition 25 inch to 1 Mile Cheshire Maps. It is probably associated with the three nearby Brine Cisterns, CSMR 2515/16/1 & 2 & 3.

<2> Ordnance Survey, 1871-1882, Ordnance Survey County Series (Epoch 1) 25 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire (Maps and Plans). SCH2462.

<3> Kathryn Sather Associates, 2017, Former Council Offices, Watling Street, Northwich: Archaeological Desk Based Assessment, R4055 (Client Report). SCH8305.

A desk-based assessment was undertaken in April 2017 in advance of proposed redevelopment of the former council offices off Watling Street. According to historic mapping, the area of the development falls within the area of the Baron's Croft Salt Works, owned by the Marshall family. The Marshall family had extensive business interests in the salt production industry and became the leading salt trading company in the area. They were involved in the industry from as early as 1720, when the first Thomas Marshall went to Northwich to work in the industry as an apprentice. By 1734 he had set himself up in the salt production trade, it was in this year that he took a long lease on the brine-bearing Barons Croft site. Here he erected pansheds, storehouses and offices, and dug a reservoir for brine to the north of the site, and a cistern for the refining of rock salt.

The tithe map of the area shows that the proposal site straddled two plots, number 1 and 11. Both of these plots contained salt works, owned by the Marshall family. That to the west, plot 1, was registered as owned and occupied by Elizabeth Marshall and contained buildings described as salt works. To the east, plot 11 is registered to Thomas Horatio Marshall and occupied by Horatio Marshall, also described as a salt works. Plot 11 was occupied by the main structures of the salt works. Thomas Horatio Marshall, (the fifth Thomas Marshall) was only five when he inherited the works due the early death of his father. His grandmother, Elizabeth Marshall, along with guardians, ran the firm and works until he came of age. It was said that the business was run badly, there was over production, low wages, low prices of product and business was lost during this period. The site was put up for sale by auction in 1828. The sale particulars for the auction mention the following: dwelling houses, the Old Ship public house fronting Witton Street, the Barons Croft Salt works comprising a large stove, two store houses for storing salt, seven pan houses containing pans for the manufacture of salt (total area of 4201 feet). Also a saw pit, shed and yard. However, the site remained in the hands of the Marshall family.

In 1874 the Marshalls ceased to ship salt down the Weaver and the below excerpt would indicate that they ceased manufacture at this time. In 1884 Marshall wrote, "Personally I would object to be named as a Salt Manufacturer……I am the owner of certain works, but have not manufactured salt in them for the last ten years. I will not become a manufacturer again". In 1881 the London Gazette refers to Barons Croft Salt works as being owned by Thomas Horatio Marshall but being occupied by Thomas Redford Bower, indicating that the works were being leased to another company at this time. During 1884 Marshall was informed that a company wished to use Barons Croft Works as a salt manufactory. Soon after this, Thomas Horatio Marshall sold his rock and brine works at Barons Croft, Dunkirk, and Witton to the Salt Union for £12,500. The salt works were demolished in the 1960s and the site was developed as council offices by the 1960s.

<4> Archaeological Research Services Ltd, 2019, An Archaeological Watching Brief at the Former Council Offices, Watling Street, Northwich, Cheshire, R4395 (Client Report). SCH8825.

Following on from production of the desk-based assessment (source 3), a watching brief was undertaken on an intermittent basis between January and October in 2019 at the site of the former Council Offices in Watling Street, Northwich. The watching brief comprised the monitoring of seven geotechnical test pits and works associated with the lifting of foundation slabs and ground reduction.

Structures identified within the main industrial area of the former saltworks consist of two probable culverts. The first was identified along the southern edge of the site, consisting of two truncated walls capped with a brick-filled metal
bracket that covered a silted-up central channel. This is not depicted on any of the maps consulted in the Heritage Statement or Desk-based Assessment, but is located within the extents of a large industrial building depicted between 1828 and 1895. The same can be said of an arched culvert found during the final phase of the watching brief, located c.30m west of the first culvert and within a different building. All of the buildings in the southern part of the site were demolished between 1895 and 1898 with the industrial focus of the site shifting to the north and coinciding with a major redesign of the site.

Across the majority of the site a thick demolition deposit was encountered that represented the demolition of the saltworks. The demolition event across the southern half of the site is known to date to between 1895 and 1898, with the industrial focus of the site shifting to the north and coinciding with a major redesign of the site; the demolition of the redesigned site did not take place until the mid-twentieth century. There was not such a clear divide in the composition of the demolition deposits encountered on site, but this could be explained by the impact of later development (i.e. the council offices) and a blending of the deposits. It is possible that further features or deposits are present on site but at depths beyond the construction level of the new development and under an unknown depth of demolition and ground levelling deposits.