MANUFACTURE OF SALT IN CHESHIRE. 11 



Leftwich, Winsford, and Nantwich salt is now being made 

 or has been made in times past. Since 1847 Nantwich 

 has ceased to manufacture salt. 



Middlewich is at the junction of the Croco with the 

 Dane, which latter stream is a tributary of the Weaver. 

 In the neighbourhood of Sandbach, at Wheelock, Lawton, 

 and the surrounding district, salt is made. These places 

 lie in the Wheelock valley, a tributary of the Dane. 



The Cheshire salt-beds lie in the Keuper marls, though 

 they are not coextensive with these marls. The red or 

 Triassic marls of Cheshire lie in a kind of basin compared 

 to an elongated saucer with its longest axis lying in a nearly 

 north and south direction. The best-known and most 

 important beds of rock salt are about the centre of this 

 basin, in the neighbourhoods of Northwich and Winsford. 

 At Lawton, in the south-east corner of the basin, beds of 

 rock salt have been found at a considerable height above 

 sea-level. At Northwich and Winsford the rock salt lies 

 below the level of the sea. The Keuper marls of Cheshire 

 are covered by drift. The clays, gravels, and sands of the 

 drift are very much mixed up ; and the clay is full of boul- 

 ders of granite, and various kinds of stone, many of the 

 softer kinds being deeply ice-marked or scratched. 



In the early history of the salt-trade, when but a very 

 small quantity of salt was made, the springs at Northwich, 

 Middlewich, and Nantwich either gently ran away into 

 the rivers or rose nearly to the surface. When the rock- 

 salt was discovered near to Northwich in 1670, a strong 

 brine was found running over the surface of the salt. 

 This brine was utilized at once, being stronger than that of 

 the natural springs. On the banks of the Weaver many 

 brine wells were sunk ; and since that time all the white 

 salt manufactured has been made from the brine thus dis- 

 covered. Neglecting minor thin seams of salt which are 



