Below is a copy of a press release sent out last week about the start of repairs at Murgatroyd’s Brine Pump on Brooks Lane. A new Middlewich Heritage Trust has been formed in 2015 to take over this Industrial Heritage site from Cheshire East Council, (independently of Middlewich Town Council), at some point next year.
Both the Trust and the Town Council are working together to get more awareness of this project and its importance to the town. Between us we will release information to the press and the Trust now have a new blog site. Each week we will write an update and take photographs, these will be posted onto the blog, and through MTC facebook & twitter, we will also try to get articles printed in the local press.
The link to the blog site is: //middlewichheritagetrust.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/mike-mike-2-1-2015-10-28t104200z-2015.html

Please show your support by helping us to reach more people. We aim to engage local & Cheshire wide communities and those with professional and educational interests. Hopefully the link will work! Please pass this on for others to see what the project is all about. Thank you in advance.

“Middlewich Town Council is delighted to announce the start of the Murgatroyd’s Brine Pump Emergency Repairs Project.
Thanks to just over £90,000 of funding from Historic England with further contributions from Cheshire East Council and Middlewich Town Council, this historic scheduled monument has a more secure future.
The funding from Historic England will pay for urgent repairs to the monument including; removal of asbestos debris, to make the structure and gantry safe and secure; replace the roof and remove asbestos sheeting. This work is essential to the monument’s survival.
The repairs programme is vital; Murgatroyd’s Brine Pumps are the only surviving ‘Wild’ brine pumps left in the UK. The pumps, shaft, well head and gantry are all elements of highly significant heritage merit. The site is also part of a wider story of salt-making and the chemical revolution The shaft, hand dug in 1889, was one of the last in Cheshire to be sunk this way before borehole technology took over. The Gantry is of the same date and was used to put the first pumps, then steam driven, into place and was used thereafter to maintain the pump rods going down into the 274ft shaft. This shaft was the first to find rock salt and the Brine Stream that fed the Salt Works in the Town. This had significant impact, as the brine stream was of fantastic quality and helped to identify the geological fault line through the town.
Hopefully this will be first phase of a full restoration of the brine pumps, gantry and building.
‘Middlewich Town Council is very grateful to Historic England and Cheshire East Council for making this project happen.

Kerry Fletcher BA (Hons)
Heritage Development Officer
Middlewich Town Council
01606 833434″

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