John Thompson Senior (1799–1867) was originally a joiner, timber merchant and brickyard owner with premises on Witton Street and London Road in Northwich[1] He entered the salt trade in 1842 when he started a shipping and lighting business along the River Weaver to the ports in Liverpool and Birkenhead.

[3] They also occupied a timber yard and dockyard buildings in Northwich Castle on the River Weaver.

Platt’s Hill Mine, Wincham, was sunk by John Thompson in 1843,[6] and in 1846 was followed by the Dunkirk Works, in Witton-cum-Twambrooks.

[7] Several more salt works and mines followed over the next forty years in the districts of Witton, Marston and Wincham north-west of Northwich, and also in Winsford.

[8] John Thompson Junior continued to run the salt business with his sons Henry Ingram (1851–1937) and Alfred Jabez (1857–1965).

[9] After the sale of the family business in 1888 John Thompson Junior retired to Eddisbury Hall in Macclesfield.

It was exported via firms including Paterson Zochonis, John Holt and ICI to ports on the West African coast including Calabar, Lagos and Port Harcourt in Nigeria, Monrovia in Liberia, Conakry in Guinea, and Freetown, Sierra Leone.

New techniques were introduced including an automated pan and converting the works to run on reclaimed oil.

During the 20th century, more efficient methods of extracting and refining salt were developed and by the late 1960s the works was the only business continuing to use the open pan process in the country.

The business closed down in 1986 when the West African markets, the major purchaser of 'Lagos Salt', began to decline.

[18] In addition competition from cheaper imports of solar evaporated salt from Brazil in exchange for oil also affected the market.

[19] Henry Lloyd and Jonathan Thompson eventually closed the Lion Salt Works in 1986.

In 1993, the Lion Salt Works Trust was formed as a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee.

In 2000, a survey showed that the land around the works was stable and during the following years money was raised from DEFRA, English Heritage, Cheshire Rural Recovery and the Northwest Development Agency to enable surveys to be completed and a conservation plan to be written.

The site was reopened on 5 June 2015 after a major redevelopment project [29] as a new heritage visitor attraction.

[30] The £10.2 million project[31] was sponsored by the Heritage Lottery Fund, Cheshire West and Chester, Manage +, Historic England, WREN and Wates Foundation.