1848. ] ORMEROD ON THE SALT-FIELD OF CHESHIRE. 279 
and the point where the Dane and Weever meet a rapid subsidence is 
taking place. 
Between the bridge and a new lock situate about 100 yards lower 
down the Weever, a subsidence has taken place. This is shown very 
clearly in the course of a stone-breast wall supporting the towing-path 
built along the west side of the river. On the spot where the new 
lock is now placed there was formerly a rock-salt mine; this gave 
way about seventy years ago, and the place silted up. The new lock 
was erected about 1838; in 1843 it had sunk very little, and the 
weir not at all; in 1846 it had sunk so much that the Weever 
trustees were constructing a new lock and weir to the south of the 
last-mentioned bridge, where no subsidence has taken place. The 
buildings at the east extremity of the weir, firm in 1843, have given 
way. Ina yard at the eastern end of the weir at Northwich a factory 
formerly stood; a pit-shaft however gave way, and since then the 
ground has continued to fall rapidly towards the centre, more par- 
ticularly towards the corner of Leicester-street and Witton-street. 
Here there was formerly a rock-salt pit. This ground is now covered 
by the water, and is connected with the Weever, forming a wharf or 
basin. 
Below the new lock the sinking continues by the Weever, to the 
west of the junction of the Weever at Witton Brook. It has been 
necessary to raise the salt-pans of all the salt-works along the banks 
of this part of the river. In some cases they have been raised six 
feet. Five of the works in June 1846 had been abandoned within a 
very short period. 
The towing-path below the old lock, situated near the junction of 
the Weever and Witton Brook, was a few years since raised five feet. 
For some weeks the subsidence was at the rate of three inches per 
week. This towing-path has the Weever to the south, and the lake 
formed by the sinking of the land along the Witton Brook to the north. 
This lake or pool has rapidly imereased within the last few years. 
The depth is upwards of 20 feet. Along the margin of this pool 
the land continues to sink, as may be seen at the tram-road quay at 
the eastern side. The sinking keeps extending, apparently taking a 
north-easterly direction. The sinking of the Jand ceases a little to 
the east of Winnington Hall. Winnington Lock and Bridge are 
firm. 
The following account of the sinking along Witton Brook is in- 
serted from information furnished to me in the year 1843 by the late 
Mr. Fowls, for many years the able engineer to the Trustees of the 
Weever Navigation :— 
“‘In the year 1802 he was at the building of some salt-works near 
the eastern end of Witton Brook, which is a part of the Weever na- 
vigation reaching from Witton Mill to a lock called Witton Brook 
Lock, extending nearly a mile in length; at the time there were two 
lies of water, one for the passage of vessels, and the other for the 
current of the brook, the land being considerably above the water on 
both sides; the land had then begun to sink considerably about the 
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