Lion salt works salt pot Gothic M mark - Margaret Bastin

Lion salt works salt pot Gothic M mark
Lion salt works is in Marston in Cheshire so M may just be Marston.
Steve Harrison made some pots there using their salt but this salt looks like their museum tourist ware.
Maker?

Not one I've come across before. M for Marston?

Could well be. Thanks

This salt pig was made by Margaret Bastin.
She suppled the Lion Salt Works in the early 1980's until 1986 when Jonathan Thompson opened the family's open pan salt works at Marston, Northwich for public tours. The salt works closed in 1986 but was purchased by Vale Royal Borough Council who had worked with Jonathan to protect the site, creating a Conservation Area around the site and designated the building as 'Listed Buildings'.
I was appointed as archaeologist and project director to record and preserve the site as an industrial museum in 1989 when it was purchased by VRBC. In partnership with the Groundwork Trust the former Red Lion Inn, used as offices for the salt works, was restored and used as a Discovery Centre. Margaret Bastin supplied the shop with her pots, which included two sizes of salt pigs and small mugs which also included the applied lion sprigs. I have examples and will post images.
Margaret gradually stopped potting due to a bad back, though I can't remember the exact date. I think she was based in the Stafford area.  
To summarise the Lion Salt Works. Between 1990 and 2010 I eventually stocked a wide range of salt related pots from many salt and soda glaze potters as well as earthenware salt pigs especially John and Allan Hughes from Anvil Pottery. I worked with Steve Harrison on a limited edition range of pots which he fired using salt made during open days when we demonstrated the making of open pan salt. Each was individually numbered, date stamped, had a lion stamp alongside Steve Harrison's mark and were sold with a certificate.
A grant from the HLF funded restoration work, which was then managed by a new unitary authority, Cheshire West and Chester. The site was opened in 2015 and is now a thriving museum of the Cheshire salt industry though sadly the retail side no longer includes artisan ceramics.

That’s wonderful. Thank you for the information