THE formation of the Salt Union in October 1888 was achieved after repeated attempts to form associations had failed.

The salt trade was a rapidly expanding industry and many firms were attracted in the hope of making a fast buck.

In Northwich, for example, anyone could sink a shaft in an attempt to find rock salt or brine.

For little more than the price of a house, a works could be put up, causing great competition.

Although some salt works were successful, others failed, similar to the gold rush in America, where the man working alongside you would find the nuggets and you went home broke.

But eventually there were too many works for the product available.

Each works owner, desperate to continue on his own, cut the price for salt.

This resulted in cuts in the wages of his men, forcing the plant to become run down.

The end of the 19th century saw the slow decline of the salt trade, mainly due to many countries producing their own salt, when in the past they had relied on the British salt.

The conditions in the salt trade were in dire straits.

Salt in some cases was being sold at less than half the price that it cost to produce as some manufacturers hoped they could hold on while rival companies went bankrupt.

Those who survived embarked on what was at the time described as the "first large scale industrial combination in Great Britain".

This was the amalgamation of 65 independent salt producers, forming the Salt Union whose works accounted for 90 per cent of salt production and whose sole aim was to stabilise the decline.

At its conception, it was agreed to close down some of the works in the hope that there would be enough work for the remainder but even more difficulties arose.

Although the Salt Union started with a capital of £4 million - a colossal sum in those days - the firms who sold out received two thirds in cash, and one third in shares.

It was also forced to pay ridiculously high prices for some companies it acquired, so forcing up the price of the salt which enabled new firms yet again to start up.

This in turn forced the union to buy these out to prevent competition.

Many lumpmen and wallers, who worked the pans, had lost their jobs when the salt union was formed as works closed, and those who remained feared for their jobs, so much that in 1891 the salt workers threatened to strike, thus prompting better terms from their employers.

In spite of the early hiccups, great improvements occurred under the union. In 1905, the vacuum plant was put up at Winsford and in 1911, salt vacuum evaporators were erected at Weston Point.

The Salt Union didn't really fulfil its expectations, but was still powerful in the salt trade, even having a subsidiary, the Mersey Power Co Ltd.

In 1937, ICI acquired the Salt Union and along with other firms, became the Salt Group, later the Salt Division.

Until 1960, the salt division had five works, Winsford, Weston Point, Stoke Prior, Stafford and Carrick Fergus in Northern Ireland.

Several Stoke Prior employees were taken on at Winsford in the 70s when these works closed.

Winsford's white salt trade has now finished, but it's nice to see the name Salt Union revived at the rock salt mine.

Whereas thousands were employed in the trade over the centuries, just 210 people are at the mine today and the mine still exports to more than 50 countries worldwide.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.