Salt mining

[Talacharn]

There are photographs on http://www.winsfordhistorysociety.co.uk/
Most buildings were made of wood as salt rots everything and wood was easy to replace.
That is why there are no buildings remaining in Winsford linked to salt
Outside Northwich there is the Lion Salt Works which I believe has been preserved, but even that sank lower than the canal next to it. So many building just sank into the ground, because they forced hot water into chambers that dissloved the salt and pumped it out into large open pans where heat evaporated the water. Then blocks of salt were made, tallish square blocks that tapered a little to the top. It was how salt was sold, they went around the streets and shaved salt from them. My grandfather was a blocker.

[stanmapstone]

They did not pump hot water into chambers, they pumped the wild brine.   Wild (or Natural) Brine pumping involves sinking wells to the rock head into the brine streams formed there by water dissolving the salt, and pumping it to the surface where the brine was evaporated to recover the salt. It is called Wild Brine Pumping to distinguish it from the controlled pumping developed by I.C.I. at Holford, or solution mining, where water is pumped into the salt beds well below the level at which natural brine is found. It was wild brine pumping which caused all the subsidence.

See http://lionsaltworks.westcheshiremuseums.co.uk/whatissalt/
Stan