THE story of mid Cheshire’s role in the salt industry will be told in a new film at a prestigious annual festival this week.

Lion Salt Works Museum has created a new film called Salt, Cheshire and the Lion Salt Works to be shown at the Geologists’ Association’s Geology Festival.

The film explores the impact of the deep deposits of salt beneath the Cheshire Plain on the people, landscape and industry of the county.

Susan Brown, Rockwatch chairman of the Geologists’ Association and a former president, said: “The salt beneath Cheshire makes it very interesting for geologists and we are delighted that the Lion Salt Works Museum is contributing to this year’s festival.

“The film is entertaining and enlightening. We hope that existing and aspiring geologists will enjoy this new film and that the museum will go from strength-to-strength in promoting its geological credentials, locally, regionally and nationally.”

For more than 2,000 years, brine from beneath the Cheshire Plain was boiled in pans to make salt crystals.

This valuable commodity was shipped around the world and was a founding trade of Liverpool – and a key reason for the construction of the Trent and Mersey Canal.

A natural catalyst in many chemical processes, the presence of salt also explains why the region’s chemical industry has flourished over the years.

The festival will take place online this weekend, November 7 and 8, at festivalofgeology.org.uk