Murgatroyd's brine pump, Middlewich
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Murgatroyd's brine pump, Middlewich by Chris Allen as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
Murgatroyd's brine pump, Middlewich
Image: © Chris Allen Taken: 11 May 2025
This is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and is the only intact wild brine pumping plant over a hand dug shaft in the UK. It dates from 1889 and originally was pumped by steam power and supplied an open pan salt works that was immediately adjacent. It later pumped brine to a chemical works near Sandbach where the brine was electrolysed to produce chlorine, sodium hydroxide and hydrogen. The pumps were later electrically driven and the well was used until 1977 when wild brine pumping stopped due to subsidence. The chemical works near Sandbach were demolished in 2010. This excellent little museum is open one weekend per month in the summer. This is inside the pumphouse with pump No. 1 closest to the camera and pump No. 3 behind it. (Pump No. 2 was in a separate building.) The pump is by John Thom of Patricroft and the motor is by Mather and Platt.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
53.190285
Longitude
-2.437275