PASSING THE SALT

PASSING THE SALT

When you rush around Northwich on your daily grind
And the woes of the World are engrained on your mind
Take a moment or two to shake off all the worry
Just stop- look around you - don’t be in a hurry.

There’s more to the pavement beneath your feet
There are cavernous voids lurking under the street
There are buildings on jacks and bridges that float
And mysterious features of historical note

The salt of the earth has created this place
Historical facts that we need to embrace
We can soon lose the flavour if we choose to ignore
All the trouble and strife of what’s gone before.

The locals are seasoned with stories to tell
Like the salt on pack ponies along the canal
Of salt pans and pillars and long working hours
Did you know there’s a salt mine as deep as a Tower?

Whole families who’d toil on a rented salt pan
Laboriously breaking the rock salt by hand
From oldest to youngest they each played their part
From the tank to the pan, from the pan to the cart.

Victorian moralists were most un-impressed
By the men & the women so immodestly dressed
But the work was too hot and it didn’t desist
And the need to disrobe they just couldn’t resist.

Salts’ uses are many - it’s not just for your chips
It has medical value such as in saline drips
There’s fine salt for food and salt tablets for water
And rock salt for gritting the paths where we saunter.

So spare a few minutes to find out some more
Of the Heritage seeping from every salt-bore
Let’s not overlook the importance salt plays
It is so much a part of our every days

by Diane McCune