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Lion Salt Works

Museum
Lion Salt Works
Photo: Chris Allen, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Report the wrong picture

What is recorded here

Lion Salt Works is the last surviving open-pan salt works in Britain. The Thompson family built it at Marston in 1894 and boiled brine beneath iron pans until 1986, supplying block and fine salt for industry and export. Restoration preserves the dangerous heat, fuel use and labour behind Cheshire's salt economy.

Read the whole record

Lion Salt Works is the last surviving open-pan salt works in Britain. The Thompson family built it at Marston in 1894 and boiled brine beneath iron pans until 1986, supplying block and fine salt for industry and export. Restoration preserves the dangerous heat, fuel use and labour behind Cheshire's salt economy.

What this place is

The museum is the complete works: brine shaft, pump, pan houses, stove houses, warehouses and transport spaces.

People and events

Six Thompson generations managed it while pan men, lumpers, packers and women in finishing jobs worked amid heat, steam and corrosive salt.

How it was used

Coal fires evaporated brine; workers raked crystals, formed blocks and dried them in hot houses for different customers.

What survives

Pan structures, machinery, chimney, offices and workers' evidence survive after major public restoration.

Why it mattered

Lion mattered because it preserves a vanished production method in place and shows how geology, family business and harsh labour shaped Cheshire.

Sources for this account

Sources checked 16 August 2026.

From OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors) w439814807

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Photo credits
  • Row17, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • Richard Webb, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • JThomas, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • Ian S, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • Peter Turner, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • Whatlep, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • Colin Park, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • Dave.Dunford, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Jeff Buck, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • Ian Warburton, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
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