The Weaver Navigation runs from Winsford to the Manchester Ship
Canal at Weston Marsh Lock and connects to the Trent and Mersey
Canal via the Anderton Lift. The river runs for 20 miles or 32km
with 5 locks.
The river has long been used for the transport of salt. Between
1720 and 1829, Acts were passed to improve navigation, enabling the
salt industry around Northwich, Middlewich and Winsford to
flourish. Pickerings Wharf (known then as Pickins wharf) was the
upper reach of the tidal river in the 17th century and boats were
grounded here for the transshipment of salt and coal between them
and packhorse or wagon. It could have been site of salt warehouse
as-well. The navigation was lucrative throughout the nineteenth
century. As the navigation was improved the river was straightened
and a lock was built at Pickerings wharf to improve the depth of
the river upstream, the lock was removed when the navigation was
improved again to allow larger vessels to use the river. The boat
lift was opened at Anderton in 1875 to increase traffic between the
Trent and Mersey Canal and the river. However, salt chutes also
continued to be used to load salt from the canal barges. for more
info visitlink
The rock salt we use for gritting roads comes from mines of ancient
underground salt deposits. In the UK, mines are situated in
Cleveland, County Antrim and below the Cheshire town of Winsford on
the banks of the Weaver. There are many hundreds of salt beds or
domes (as they are sometimes known) across the world. Mines vary in
depth from 100 metres or so, to a mile or more. Within the mines,
there are networks of pathways formed by the areas from which salt
has already been extracted. These are used as roads for mining
vehicles to move from one part of the mine to another, or for
personnel to travel from the shafts to the working face. The
UK’s salt mines have some 140 miles of tunnels –
that’s almost as long as the M5 motorway!