The Murgatroyd’s Brine Pump and shaft is possibly the last of its kind in this country and probably in Europe.
Murgatroyd's Brine Pump is a historic industrial site and is protected as a scheduled ancient monument. It is the only intact pump over an original wood lined shaft with original gantry possibly left in Britain. Therefore the remaining works are a very rare survival of a wild brine pumping installation. Uniquely, it is one of the last historically significant remnants of Cheshire's Salt Industry, which schedules the site as nationally and internationally important. The site links to the four central salt towns of Middlewich, Northwich, Winsford and Nantwich.
This year we are working on a joint English Heritage, Cheshire East Council and Middlewich Town Council project which involves conservation and repair of the site, comprising of a pump house, late nineteenth and early twentieth Century machinery, shaft, brine header tank and related outside industrial elements.
A Middlewich Heritage Trust is currently being set up to take over the site from Cheshire East Council and will be responsible for further development , maintenance and protection. We are looking to not only save this site but to restore it, interpret it and change it into a useable educational visitor destination.