A NEW museum exhibition celebrating the 'saltier side' of Cheshire Life magazine, which turns 90 this year, has opened at the Lion Salt Works in Marston.

The exhibition is one aspect of big research project led by Northwich-born University of Chester senior lecturer and one-time Northwich Guardian reporter, Dr Matt Davies. 

Matt was in the process of putting together the first ever complete digital archive of Cheshire Life editions when he came across a feature on the history of salt extraction, called Two Thousand Years of Salt: The growth and expansion of Cheshire's oldest industry. 

It appeared in the first edition of Cheshire Life in May 1934, which back then was less a lifestyle magazine and more a trade journal for the county’s various industries, including salt extraction.

Matt soon came across more salty articles, including one from April 1971 called Northwich: The Town with Salt in its Tale, and another from 1970 called From Salt to Soda.

This gave him the idea of curating these feature articles into a temporary exhibition at the Lion Salt Works.

Dr Matt hopes it will add to the museum’s offering by shedding light on some of the changes to life in Cheshire over the last 90 years, as well as on how journalists have chosen to portray life in the county. 

He said: “It’s probably hard to imagine now, but the very first edition of Cheshire Life carried a very well researched three-page feature on the county’s long salt mining past.

"From my own research point of view, I found this really fascinating, and thought people visiting the Lion Salt Works might find it interesting too.  

“The article is called ‘Two Thousand Years of Salt’, and includes an impressive photograph of Winsford Salt Mine workers, continuing what the writer states is a 2,000-year tradition of salt manufacture going back to when the Romans made salt in small leaden pans.

“According to the writer, the real development of the Cheshire salt industry may be said to have taken place in the 19th century.

“He describes the influence of the controversial ‘salt tax’ in this period and the growth of salt production once it was abolished in 1825.

“Another photograph shows a worker making block salt from fully saturated brine, while a third shows salt being loaded onto an ocean-going steamer in the port of Runcorn.”

The Lion Salt Works is the result of a £10m project to covert a former open pan salt mining site, which closed in the 1970s, into an historical and interactive visitor experience. 

The exhibition, which includes blown-up, high-quality photographs of many of Cheshire Life’s salt-themed articles, is on display there until Sunday, September 29.

Matt added: “With only a few full printed sets of the magazine in existence, I think it’s really important to ensure Cheshire Life’s history and all it reveals are not lost as it reaches its remarkable 90-year milestone.

“As Britain’s most commercially successful and longest-surviving county magazine, it provides fascinating insights on changing portrayals of the county, social history, and shifting attitudes and values.”