A visit to Northwich

Just back from a packed two days in Northwich, meeting with some really interesting people. I've been organising a series of events for my public engagement programme, which include art workshops with school students in June, at the soon to open Lion Salt Works.

Meeting with local Artist Beth Barlow, who will be creating and facilitating the primary school workshop, I got very excited about the prospect of using glue and ink to create collaborative drawings with the students, drawings which could appear, etched in to the surface of the final commission, through their inclusion in the Barons Quay Public Art IMAGE BANK.


I visited the Barons Quay site in the centre of Northwich, and work is under way to transform this land, reclaimed by filling abandoned and dangerously unstable salt mines with a concrete composite, in to a new public and retail space.

Hearing from Danielle, who works for Fusion21, about her work to engage building and construction apprentices from the local area, I realised how much effort is being put in to ensure that the development work benefits the local community. 


On Wednesday, I took the opportunity to see an exhibition of local Art at the Weaver Hall Museum in Northwich, organised by members of Visual Arts Cheshire. Whilst there, took pictures of industrial relics outside the museum:

 Detail of a marine steam engine, once part of the 'Anderton', one of the last two steam powered ships built in Yarnwood's shipyard in Northwich, in 1945.

Detail of the tyre of a CAT 988s  used in Winsford rock salt mine, the oldest salt mine in the country, and also the oldest working mine.  The salt union extracts one million tonnes of salt from Winsford mine each year. Most of the salt is used for de-icing roads in winter.

I find industrial relics and architecture fascinating. I'm always drawn in by how the object or building's form relates to its function; looking for spouts, chutes, ladders.... to give a clue to the relic's past use.