THE emergency £90,000 repair work being carried out on the Murgatroyd’s Brine Pump in Middlewich has come ‘just in time to save the site’.

Historic England, as well as smaller contributions from Middlewich Town Council and Cheshire East Council, gave funding in October for the brine pump, first built in 1889, to be repaired.

The work started straight away and with the scaffolding now up at the site, the latest report on the work progress shows the building is in much worse condition than was expected.

The engineers report states: “The timbers and steel to parts of the gantry and quite badly decayed with imminent failure likely of some timbers.

“We were originally intending to protect the tank to prevent further decay but in reality there is not much left to protect and some components need to be dismantled for safety.”

This 274ft shaft was the first to find rock salt and the brine stream that fed the salt works in Middlewich.

The funding from Historic England was given to pay for urgent repairs to the monument including the removal of asbestos debris to make the structure and gantry safe and secure, and replacement of the roof.

However, the building is now thought to be in need of further repairs.

Kerry Fletcher, Middlewich Town Council heritage officer, said: “The brine pumps site is in worse condition than anticipated.

“It looks as though the emergency repairs, supported by Historic England are happening just in time to save the site. Another year and we could have lost the last intact brine pumps site in the UK.

“The project will be more complicated than anticipated but the rewards of saving the site outweigh the amount of work involved.”