STORAGE: A salt 'ship' found at the site of a medieval saltworks in Nantwich.
The Jabcobean period saw great changes in our traditional Mid Cheshire salt towns. The method of making salt had remained virtually unchanged from Roman times with wooden salt-houses containing several lead salt pans and using coal to heat the brine. This caused the water to evaporate as steam, leaving salt to be collected.
There were two major changes which occurred . Iron pans started to replace the old lead ones and coal started to replace wood as fuel. This was because wood was becoming more scarce and coal was becoming more common, produced in mines in North Staffordshire and North Wales.
The earliest account I have found of this is at Nantwich where a Roger Wilbraham wrote:
'In the fifth yeare of Charles the First...some fanciful person thought it would be more to their profit to boyle their salt in iron pannes with pit-coale, pretending that wood grew scarce, that it concerned them to make their commodity at as like charge, if they could.'
Coal was carried to the works on horseback, and the same horses then took salt back with them to trade for the coal. It was estimated at the time that when Parliament was asked to allow the River Weaver to be improved for barge trade (1721) it would put more than 3,000 men who relied on this work out of jobs.
The old lead pans could not cope with the heat from coal and iron pans started to be made instead which could be of a larger size. There was resistance from the old salt-making towns where the traditional ways were always continued following strict rules.
Naturally, those making salt in the old ways did not approve. Customs have been laid down that only certain parts of the three 'Wyches' were to be used for making salt, only at certain times and in pans of a set size. A copy of the ancient Book of Walling (salt-making) has survived and includes oaths taken by the town's special unpaid officers to supervise the salt manufacture.
There were gutter-viewers who made sure the supply to each saltworks was unobstructed; the lead-lookers, who made sure that each pan only held the right quantity of brine. The wood--tenders supervised the storage of fuel and stepped in to prevent people stealing each other's supply.
A description of the salt making area in Middlewich says:
'The brine runneth in wooden troughs over men's heads, from one house to another; the pits are foursquare, very broad and deep boarded up on each side and with great cross beams in the midst and at the four corners, steps covered with lead. They have leather buckets sewn on iron hoops with bow handles which were used by the wallers for bringing up the brine from the wells.'
A similar description is given at Northwich.
The salt was boiled in lead pans, of the sort unchanged since Roman times, and the brine was often stored in large timber-lined reservoirs called 'ships' because they were built using the same methods as boat builders. A medieval salt ship was excavated at Nantwich and a Roman one, constructed like a barrel cut in half, was found at Droitwich in Worcestershire, where it is on show at their salt museum.
After the brine had been heated the salt didn't emerge as nice little grains, but as a wet slurry resembling runny mud. This was poured into pointed baskets called 'barrows'. You can see three of them on the Winsford coat of arms. Brine drained back into the pans and the salt was then allowed to dry in the baskets until it became a hard block.
Making the baskets was a skill and, like everything else in the old salt industry, this was governed by custom. You could not make them yourself or buy from whoever you wanted. From Tudor times a 'monopoly' was granted to the Gorst family in Northwich. A few other names are recorded as barrow makers, but they may have worked for the Gorst's in some way.
A 'monopoly' did not give them sole rights to make them. It is only in general use, not law, that this word refers to just one. By the 18th century the family was so important in Northwich because of their trade that they feature in the early records of the Weaver Navigation.
There are two salt baskets on show in the Salt Museum in Northwich made by the last of the family to make them in the 19th century, and the family are still in business in the town .
Because of the resistance of the old salt-makers, those wanting to use the new materials were forced to move out and people started to dig wells to get at the brine.
For the first time there were alternatives to the common pits in joint ownership. This is particularly detailed in the History of Sir John Deane's Grammar School, as the founder of the school donated salt pans to his institution to ensure a regular income and these became gradually worthless as the new technology took over.
In Nantwich this caused a lengthy court case between the old salt-makers and Samuel Acton, a tobacconist, who had started using iron pans. It nearly bankrupted the Nantwich trade and the whole deal was rented to Acton for £100 a year in 1696.
An unusual industry came to Mid Cheshire as a result of these changes. It was difficult to carry the large flat heavy pieces of iron needed over long distances. By the 17th century demand from the growing salt works was responsible for the establishment of an iron foundry in Vale Royal.
It was normal in the 17th century to build a furnace near a supply of wood as the ore came from places like Cumbria where there are few trees. It was easier to move lumps of ore to the trees than the trees to the ore. This furnace will feature again in our story.
It was the search for supplies of coal nearer to Northwich which instead discovered rock salt for the first time in Cheshire at Marbury. This discovery in 1670 was to change the face of the industry as we will see in a few weeks' time.
© Brian Curzon 2000