A DIGITAL archive has been launched chronicling the quest to bring a piece of mid Cheshire’s salt-producing history back to life.

The archive provides a unique insight into the Lion Salt Works Trust’s efforts to save the last surviving open pan salt works during a 13-year period from 1995 to 2008.

It features almost 60 back issues of the Mundling Stick, the newsletter produced by the trust since 1995.

The earliest edition, dated summer 1995, reports that the trust has moved into the former Lion Inn and gives an update on the restoration of the site manager’s office.

The latest edition from winter 2008 celebrates Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWAC) signing contracts with the Heritage Lottery Fund and the North West Development Agency to take forward the restoration of the works, in Marston.

Named after a tool used to pack salt crystals into the moulds when making lump salt, the Mundling Stick aimed to ‘cram in all the latest information about the conservation and restoration of the Lion Salt Works’.

Clr Stuart Parker, CWAC’s executive member for culture and economy, said: “I am delighted that the newsletters can now be accessed online.

“Not only is this fascinating resource more accessible to a wider audience, it is also preserved for future generations.”

The Lion Salt Works Trust was formed in 1993 as a registered charity and secured a number of grants, enabling surveys to be undertaken and conservation plans to be prepared.

CWAC is working with the trust on the restoration project, supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund, which will see the 19th century site reborn as a unique visitor attraction.

Trust chairman Nick Hunt said: “The Lion Salt Works Trust have always regarded the Mundling Stick as a primary way of communicating the salt heritage story to local and wider interest groups.

“It will be an invaluable archive in understanding how the Salt Works came to be regenerated.”

The newsletters are available at lionsaltworks.org/the-trust/mundling-stick/ For more information about volunteering with the Lion Salt Works project email Nick Hunt at ngkhunt@yahoo.co.uk.