Hambleton's Ancient Salt Industry

 by J. Daresbury Hatton

From the fifteenth century to around 1715, salt was produced in Hambleton on the Salt Marsh opposite Storey's Garage. As salt could only be produced in dry weather, June, July, and August were the normal salt-making months. Records show that the Summer of 1629 was so wet that practically no salt and very little hay could be harvested in Hambleton that year.

Apparently, the tides played an all-important role in the making of salt. Two to three days after a high tide, shallow hollows where salt-water had collected and subsequently evaporated, were given a good raking to a depth of three to four inches. Then, using the branch of a tree as an implement, furrows were made in the freshly raked slitch - as the sandy mud was called locally. These furrows facilitated the drying of the slitch by the sun and wind. Later, the slitch was shovelled into heaps or rucks for further drying to take place. It seems that the harvesting of salt was as fickle as haymaking, for heavy rain would wash the salt out of the mud, and the process of collection had to start all over again!

With the slitch collected in rucks and suitably dried, the next step was to turn it into brine. During this operation, sloping-sided wooden troughs were used. These were usually lined with layers of barley straw held in place by thin slivers of peat. Into these troughs the slitch was laboriously shovelled and dowsed with river water to wash out the salt. The salt laden water then passed through the straw and peat, the filter action of which removed many of the suspended impurities. Finally, a multitude of strategically placed holes bored in the bottom of the trough directed the brine into waiting buckets.

The ancient salt industry was no "hit-or-miss" occupation, for the salt content of each bucketful of brine was carefully checked by the simple expedient of placing a new laid egg in it--and noting the depth to which it sank! Should the brine prove too weak, it was poured through the trough a second or even third time until it came up to the required standard. Seemingly, this was not the only role eggs played in the Salt Industry. One Hambleton man was said to have improved the quality of his salt by adding the white of a goose egg to the brine before it was boiled!

The next stage in the process was to boil the brine in large shallow pans which evaporated the water and left a residue of salt particles. This boiling (or "welling" as it was called) over a turf fire had to be carried out undercover so as to prevent heat loss and dilution of the brine by rainwater. The long, low buildings where the welling was done were known as 'Saltcoats'.

In Hambleton, these Saltcoats-probably two in number-stood on the slightly higher ground which bordered the marsh on the Shard Lane side. People working the Saltcoats were known as "Saltwellers". Here in the village of Hambleton, the Saltwellers would seem to have all been farmers. They no doubt looked upon the making of salt as an additional form of income. Records show that the Saltcoats were leased from the landowners for a given number of years. Terms of tenancy included the right to remove sand or slitch from a specified area of the Salt Marsh. This specified area was known as "The Sandfloor". Also the Tenancy Agreement usually gave the Saltweller the right to cut and remove turf from a particular Moss. Turf so cut could only be used in the making of salt, and it was a violation of the tenancy to use it for domestic purposes.

The brine in the salt-pans had to be boiled slowly, as too much agitation of the water by rapid boiling had the tendency to break up the forming crystals into a fine powder which adhered to the pan. As the water slowly evaporated, the scum which rose to the surface was skimmed off and dis- carded. When the water had all evaporated, the damp salt crystals left in the pan were taken out and placed in baskets which were then hung in the hot Saltcoat to dry. When dry, the salt in Hambleton was sold locally in "Preston Metts".**

The Hambleton Salt Industry appears to have fallen into decay at the beginning of the eighteenth century when cheap salt could be produced all the year round at the big Salt Works in Cheshire. It lingered on until about 1715, and practically all traces of it were washed away by a great storm in the year 1720. However, some villagers seem to have continued making small quantities of salt for their own use almost to the end of that century.

* A "Preston Mett" has been described as being a large bucketful. But the actual size of the "large bucket" is no longer known.

References

A Lease of a Saltcoat from Theobald Butler (1671). Brownrigg, The Art of Making Salt, 1748.
"Salt and Saltmaking", c. 1880.

Acknowledgements

I wish to express gratitude to the Staff of the Lancashire County Record Office, Preston, for their assistance during the preparation of this article; also to Miss A. Baron of Hambleton, a fellow- Member of the Pilling Historical Society for her practical help during my researches.