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Winsford Rock Salt Mine

We visited Winsford mine in March 1999. The mine lies 560 feet below the Cheshire plain. There are over 100 miles of tunnels! mostly 75 feet wide and 23 feet high (Salt Union's figures, not my estimate.) This site is colossal by anyone's standards! The rock salt was laid down some 200 million years ago as great prehistoric oceans evaporated. Now around two million tonnes a year are extracted, mostly for treating our roads. These huge caverns are self supporting and every part of the worked out areas remain intact and accessible. With this stability and the constant temperature of 12 to 13 deg C and 70 percent relative humidity the worked out areas have found other uses. One area is in use as a secure document store. Another, due to it being totally impenetrable by radio waves, has been successfully used for over 10 years for testing electronic equipment. More areas have been designated for safe storage of inert waste by Minosus. I do not know if operations have now gone ahead on this project. Meanwhile the mining operations continue and the mine continues to grow.

	At the time of our visit the main lift had broken down. We descended some 500 feet in this, which is one of a pair of lifts designed to bring the salt to the surface.
We arrived safely at the bottom and proceeded with the tour. For most of the tour we were driven around in a open converted Ford transit truck.
	The party inspect one of the drilling machines. There are also similar machines that undercut the rock face prior to blasting.
A closer inspection of the drilling equipment as it prepares to start drilling holes for insertion of the explosives which will remove the rock salt from the face.
	Moving back a little gives a better idea of the scale of the plant in use. The gigantic trucks that move the rock salt around the mine are so big that they have to be assembled underground. When they have reached the end of their life they are abandoned in disused tunnels as it is too expensive to dismantle them again.
We all stood inside the huge bucket of this earthmover to pose for a shot. Unfortunately my camera was playing up and the shot didn't come out.

Drakelow RSG 9 (1960's - 1970's) RGHQ 9.2

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