Monday 11 December 2017

“Salt: history, heritage and tourism” Arc-et-Senans (Doubs, France), 5 and 6 April 2018

https://mshe.univ-fcomte.fr/documents/actualites/2018_04_5-6_Symposium_Salt_4-5_April_Posters.pdf

CALL FOR POSTERS International symposium on Salt – Terra Salina 2018
“Salt: history, heritage and tourism” Arc-et-Senans (Doubs, France), 5 and 6 April 2018

Seven UNESCO World Heritage sites, five thermal towns and four salt-making sites (the Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans, the Great Saltworks of Salins-les-Bains, the Bex Salt Mines Foundation and the Swiss Saltworks of Basel) are concerned by the project “Terra Salina: Salt heritage and economic development”.
As part of the project, an international symposium entitled “Salt: history, heritage and tourism” will be held at the Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans the 5th and 6th of April 2018. It will focus on the manner in which cultural representations, workers’ memories, individual or collective initiatives, political choices and economic oppurtunities led to transfer and conversion models of salt heritage.

The long-terms objectives are: to federate participants of the european salt network, to update current scientific knowledge about the theme, and to increase the value of this knowledge thanks to the promotional tools for heritage and tourism of “Terra Salina”.

During these two days, PhD students and postdoctoral researchers are invited to present, as posters, research works entering into the symposium issue.


– email: edinadzogovic@salineroyale.com
Posters proposal PhD students and postdoctoral researchers (graduated for less than 3 years) who would like to present a poster, need to fill in the enclosed form and send it before 15 January 2018 at the following address: mshe@mshe.univ-fcomte.fr.
Proposals will be studied by the scientific committee of the symposium.
Annoucement/Publication Posters will be posted on the website after the validation of the scientific committee. Scientific committee members Philippe BARRAL, university lecturer at the university of Bourgogne Franche-Comté Isabelle SALLE, director of the center Culture & Heritage at the Royal Saltwoks of Arc-etSenans Christian SCHÜLE, historian Raphaël FAVEREAUX, researcher for the unit List of heritage sites of the Region BourgogneFranche-Comté Marina GASNIER, senior lecturer HDR – History of techniques and industrial heritage, university of Bourgogne Franche-Comté Katia HUESO, advisor at the university Pontificia Comillas in Madrid Olivier WELLER, CNRS reserach fellow – University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne Organisation committee members Edina DZOGOVIC, european project manager EPCC the Royal Saltwoks of Arc-et-Senans Anaïs KOPF, in charge of the life of european projects EPCC the Royal Saltwoks of Arc-etSenans Isabelle MOURET, secretary-general of the MSHE Claude Nicolas Ledoux Lionel VIARD, cultural comanager, center Culture & Heritage at the Royal Saltwoks of Arc-etSenans

Wednesday 29 November 2017

Saltcote Number 5

We are compiling our fifth newsletter. Do you have dates, events or activities relating to salt that you would like us to include?
Pleases send us text and photos asap for inclusion in Saltcote No.5 by 7th December.

Sunday 29 October 2017

Video of Tom Lane's Talk to European Archaeologists Association in Dec 2015

Video recording of Tom Lane's talk in 2015 at the European Archaeologist's Association meeting in Glasgow.
Impacts of Climate and Environmental Change: The effects on coastal saltmaking in Lincolnshire, UK.
Tom is a Director of Ecosal-UK.
Published in the Journal
The Historic Environment: Policy & Practice 
Volume 8, 2017 - Issue 2
EAA Session LV4 - CLIMATE CHANGE AND HERITAGE MANAGEMENT: MEASURING AND MONITORING THE IMPACTS OF FUTURE CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE ON THE HISTORIC ENVIRONMENT AND CULTURAL RESOURCES



Saturday 7 October 2017

2nd International Congress on the Anthropology of Salt

The 2nd Congress will be held in Mexico 12- 16 October 2017.

Link to the web site -http://saluniversalis.com/

Facebook link

Andrew Fielding of Ecosal-UK and Salford University will be giving a paper via a Skype link.
Details to follow.


Sadly there were technical difficulties in Mexico and the Skype presentations did not happen.
I hope this presentation can be added to the pod cast archive of the conference.

Wednesday 16 August 2017

The 37th North West Regional Industrial Archaeology Conference (NWIAC 37) will be on Saturday 23rd September 2017. CBA North West have teamed up with the Saltscape Landscape Partnership and the Centre for Applied Archaeology at the University of Salford to bring you the latest regional research on the archaeology of the salt industry.
The last regional conference on this theme was in October 2002 and that led to the ‘Brine in Britannia’ monograph, which CBA NW published in 2005. Like then, this conference will be hosted by the Lion Salt Works and thanks to HLF support will be free. The talks will focus mainly on the post-medieval industry, and will include the results of two seasons of work by Salford University at the Ollershaw Lane Salt Works site, opposite the Lion Salt Works.
Details of the North West Regional Research Update project will be available on the day, along with draft copies of the Post-Medieval and Industrial resource chapters.
Online booking can be found here:
NWIAC 37 Saltscape Programme
9.30 Registration, tea coffee.

10.00 Introduction

10.10 – Andrew Fielding: Archaeology and Salt in Britain – latest research10.40 – Mike Nevell: The Archaeology of Salt in Cheshire11.10 – Sarah Cattell: Excavations at Ollershaw Lane salt Works, 2016 to 201711.40 – Chris Wild: The Murgatroyd Brine Pump12.10 – David George: Salt in West Cumbria12.30 – Roy Forshaw: Salt in the Merseyside area: recent work

13.00 – 14.00 lunch14.00 – Tour of Ollershaw Lane Salt Works15.00 – Tour of – Lion Salt Works4pm Summary and Questions, tea and coffee

Tuesday 18 July 2017

Bid to AHRC in Partnership with Salford University

Our next grant application should be submitted by the end of this month.
It is to the Arts and Humanities Research Council and aims to describe all different process of salt making from 1500, create a 'trusted sources' archive and reconstruct all the process and major sites using 3d graphics using the University's THINKlab.

There is a growing need for this approach as more and more publications carry on repeating outdated publications and ones that are just WRONG -

  • Agricola's illustration do not show salt making in the Saxon period! They show illustrations of salt making described by someone from Saxony, Germany.
  • A publication of 2006 quotes a reference of a publication dated 1920 attributing the discover of rock salt in 1670 as having been made in Droitwich, when it should have been in Northwich!
  • A celebrity chef described how white salt was made in Cheshire from rock salt by taking the liquid out of the rock. A bit of a difference to the operation of evaporating brine made under ground by rainwater soaking through the ground and dissolving rock salt.
  • The historic use of rock salt to strengthen sea water in the eighteenth century was not an 'adulteration of sea water' it was a realistic opportunity to make white salt using less fuel.
  • Salt has not been 'mined' in Cheshire from the Roman period. It was made from extracting brine from natural brine springs that were enhanced by digging wells.
  • Is a 'leaden' salt pan made of lead, or is it just heavy?
  • A 'salt ship' found in Nantwich was used to store brine in, and is not a log boat!

Our work is desperately needed. Please leave comments here in support of the application.
Thank you.

Sunday 16 July 2017

HLF Bid Failed

Sadly our bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund was unsuccessful.

We have requested a better feed back than the refusal letter, as it seemed that our bid did not satisfy any of the criteria required for the particular type of grant award we were requesting.
It seems that what we want to wont meet the criteria for Your Heritage, Resilient Heritage or Sharing Knowledge - doesn't pay for translations and that digital publications are not a high priority.

We have as yet not been given feedback that the case officer ever downloaded and read the digital reports we posted in a shared dropbox folder, or that any of the committee ever had the opportunity to read it either.

We thought that the digital formats (i-book, epub, pdf and html5) explained well how the approach we proposed was cutting edge and inline with how information exchange and organisations would use digital technology in the future. It was also able to show how the guidance provided by the HLF for the use of digital technology in Heritage Lottery projects was outdated - having been written in 2012. Things have moved on a lot since then in the digital world!

Monday 10 April 2017

Comments Requested about Translations

Ecosal-UK is applying for grants to help develop a UK Salt Network.
Can you send us your opinion about a particular for some of the work? - transaltions.

One application is designed as a community collaboration, pooling information about salt making and cultural associations of salt in a particular region of England. The completed work will be published in a free to download multi-touch, enhanced i-book, 250 pages.

We requested funds to translate the completed i-book into foreign languages - specifically Portuguese, Spanish, French and German (apologise to other countries not included in this list). This would enable a specific engagement with the Traditional Salt Route of the Atlantic and the European Route of Industrial Heritage.

Feedback about the application suggested that "having a number of translated books could affect the value for money your project offers, as (our) funding should be used to support projects where the primary recipients are based in the UK."

Naturally the project partners we will be working with are all based in England.
  • The completed work will produce an i-book in English that will promote the salt heritage of many sites covering multiple periods and different methods of production. 
  • It will include audio, video 3d graphics, photo galleries and widgets commonly found in i-books and will also include hyperlinks to web sites that will promote the sites, museums and businesses who worked on the collaboration. 
  • In producing the book participants who have not used i-books before will receive training in how they work and how they are made. 
  • Groups and individuals will be encouraged to continue working together with Ecosal-UK to sustain a Salt Network that can be extended to other regions in the UK.
  • Ecosal-UK and the UK Salt Network will work to make links with overseas salt museums and salt sites.
Can you send some comments about :-

1. Should translations of our salt heritage i-book be seen as 'value for money' by the funding body?
2. Does translated material primarily benefit the foreign reader?
or, 
3. Does translated material primarily benefit the originating body, through making its information available to a wider audience?
4. Should there be more British heritage books translated into foreign languages?
5. Do British based projects assume everyone will read their material in English?
6. Do overseas readers mind reading British publications in English?
7. If you provide translation of your works, how do you pay for them?
8. How might I get funding to translate this type of publication. Or perhaps just use web based translations despite their limitations with technical details?

Please post your reply in the comments box below for all to read, 
or email andrew.fielding (at) ecosal-uk.org.uk 

10th April 2017

Saturday 25 March 2017

Two New Grant Applications

We have two new grant applications in play.

The first is an application to the HLF NW in partnership with the Council for British Archaeology to help develop the Salt Network. This would use the North West of England as a case study. It would also help to feed information into the updating of the North West Region's Archaeological Framework.
The principal focus is to bring together a diverse collection of sites, individuals and organisations with an interest in the history of salt making and its cultural associations.
The project would enable all collaborators to work together to create an interactive e-book which would not only help with future research by creating trusted sources but would help create a tourism trail based on our salt heritage which Ecosal-UK would manage and maintain.
A possible starting point for a UK Salt Network and Salt Route was proposed during the Ecosal-Atlantis project in 2011. See the Pages section - Ecosal-Atlantis - UK Salt Sites.

The second is a bid to the Arts and Humanities Research Council being prepared by Ecosal UK in partnership with the Centre for Applied Archaeology at the University of Salford. This would be for a three year research project to create a national time-line for the history of salt making, to go back to all archive sources and to collate all the existing survey data, regional frameworks and coastal zone surveys with reference to salt making from AD 1500. The project would hold four workshops and create innovate 3d graphical reconstructions of all the different salt making sites and the processes and techniques used at them.

We have our fingers crossed.


Tuesday 7 March 2017

Salt Sunday 7th May 2017

Salt Sunday will be celebrated by the Bishop of Birkenhead on Sunday 7th May 2015.

Bishop Keith Sinclair, Bishop of Birkenhead send you a personal invitation to attend at The Lion Salt Works, Marston, Northwich, Cheshire 1.30 - 4.00pm