Lymm – in the days of the great “Salt Rush”

LYMM and surrounding areas figure prominently in a new book by local historian and author Keith Warrender.
Bollin Valley, Past and Present, is a lavishly produced 208 page book and  is Keith’s second volume about the people and places of the Bollin Valley and follows the course of the River Bollin from where it rises in the hills at Macclesfield Forest to where it joins the Manchester Ship Canal near Lymm.
It is packed with photographs by the author and also historic pictures of the area in times past.
Of particular local interest is a section on the Grade II listed Burford Lane Farm, designed by acclaimed architect John Douglas in 1866 which includes a drawing of the farm as it used to be.
There is also an account of the great Lymm “salt rush” of around 1900 when an area of high-quality brine was discovered at Heatley. The story goes that a farmer’s wife could not understand why her ducks would not go into a brook. In exasperation she took a duck by the neck and held it in the stream. But she had a cut on her hand and the sting she suffered convinced her there was salt in the water.
There were salt works at Lymm, Heatley and Agden but the last of them closed in 1959.
The book has interesting pictures of Lymm Cross with the former Lymm Parochial School behind it, roughly where the Village Hall is today.
Old photographs of the construction of the Warburton High Level Bridge and an account of what happened when two Manchester prize-fighters took part in an illegal fight at Warburton in 1867 add to a fascinating chronicle of the area which is brought right up to date with photographs of this year’s Lymm Historic Transport Day.
Bollin Valley Past and Present costs £16.95 and is available from local book shops or direct from Willow Publishing, 36, Moss Lane, Timperley, Altrincham, WA15 6SZ.
It’s a must for local history buffs.