THE role of Barrow in developing an important salt industry on the Lancashire coast near Fleetwood features in a new railway book called The Pilling Pig by Dave Richardson and written for the Cumbrian Railways Association.

Moving salt and agricultural products helped cover at least some of the building costs of the Garstang & Knott End Railway – which operated from 1870 to 1965.

The author said: "Salt was first discovered at Preesall in 1872 when a syndicate of gentlemen from Barrow-in-Furness, searching for iron ore, discovered instead a bed of rock salt approximately 400 feet thick and 300 feet below ground.”

He noted: "This discovery prompted further investigation and, by 1881, attempts were being made to exploit the deposit on a commercial basis."

By the end of the year a company had been formed, mainly by Middlesbrough and Glasgow merchants, and in 1883 the rights to extract brine and mine for rock salt were take up by the Fleetwood Salt Company.

By 1885 it was pumping brine to the surface and in February 1890 was refining salt by evaporating brine at Burn Naze on the Fleetwood side of the River Wyre.

Salt, or sodium chloride, was a key ingredient in the growing chemical industry which saw the emergence of the United Alkali Company and the Salt Union Limited — which alone controlled 85 per cent of United Kingdom salt production.

It didn't have control of Preesall production and this was snapped up by United Alkali.

The Garstang & Knott End Railway saw the opportunity of moving table and rock salt and by 1908 extended its line to serve the industry.

For just over 10 years from 1913 salt from Preesall was the greatest single commodity carried by the railway.

The peak for Preesall salt traffic on the railways was 1920 with 53,894 tons.

Mining for rock salt and brine production continued to 1931.

The author said: "Local tradition has it that some of the salt taken from Preesall was used in the manufacture of chlorine gas for military purposes during the Great War.

"The United Alkali Company does appear to have been involved in the production of poison gas, although it has to be said that chlorine gas was also one of the many peace-time products of the alkali industry.

"It is known that, from 1917-18 onwards, quantities of diphenylchloroarsine, a chemical warfare agent, were manufactured at a government works in St Helens .

"It may be that some Preesall salt was used in the production of this."

The 112-page Pilling Pig book costs £15 and has a range of photographs, maps and station plans.

It is available direct from CRA Book sales at 50 Tattershall, Toothill, Swindon SN5 8BX or check the website at www.cumbrianrailways.org.uk