ON THE SALT SPRINGS OF WORCESTERSFIIRE. 





original substance in primitive mountains, and has been formed 

 at times independently of animals. Salt also may be, and pro- 

 bably is, an original production in the bowels of the earth. 



It is not, however, my intention to pursue further these specu- 

 lations, but rather to confine our attention to certain particulars 

 connected with the salt springs in Worcestershire. Droitwich 

 and Stoke Prior are the only situations in which salt is now 

 worked for manufacture ; but there can be little doubt that other 

 springs exist in this county. I have before mentioned that the 

 neighbourhoods of Upton and Croome aftbrd indications of salt ; I 

 may also notice the farm called the Brine Pits, in a north-easterly 

 direction, two miles and a half from Wich; and, according to 

 Camden, it appears that prior to his time several weaker pits of 

 brine had been worked in various parts of Worcestershire, but 

 they had been closed to prevent the excessive consumption of 

 wood, which, before the discovery of coal, was the article used for 

 evaporating the water from the salt. I may also observe that 

 there is reason to think that in the immediate neighbourhood of 

 Worcester brine may be found. At the distillery on the west 

 bank of the Severn, Mr. Williams sunk a well of great depth, 

 from which he procured salt water. In cutting through the 

 strata for this well, when at the depth of about 1 10 feet, they 

 came to marl, with which was intermixed abundance of gypsum, 

 and the water that was procured rather lower was impregnated 

 with saline matter. 



It does not appear certain at what period the manufacture of 

 salt was first carried on in this county, but we know that at 

 Droitwich pits have been worked from very remote times. Salt 

 was an object of taxation at a very early period. Ancus Martius, 

 640 years before our era, ** Salinarum vectigal instUuit." This 

 tribute was imposed on the Britons, when our isle was possessed 

 by the Romans, who worked the Droitwich mines, and who 

 made salt a part of the pay of their soldiers, salarium or salary ; 

 hence the custom at the Eton Montem of asking for salt. At 

 this early time in the manufacture of salt, prior to the use of coal, 

 the evaporation of the brine was eflfected by the burning of wood, 

 and serious inconvenience began to be felt in consequence of 

 the forest of Feckenham being gradually diminished by the 

 demands for the salt pits. Leland says, " For making salt is a 

 great and notable destruction of wood, and hath been and shall 

 be hereafter, except men use much coppices of yonge wood." 

 " The lacke of wood is now felt in places near the wyche. For 

 whereas in places near about they used to buy and take their 

 wood, the wonted places are now sore decayed in wood. They 

 be forced to seek wood as far as Worcester, and all the parts 

 about Bromsgrove, Aulchurch, and Aulcester." "I asked a 

 Salter how much wood he supposed yearly to be spent at the 

 furnaces, and he answered that by estimation there was spent 

 six thousand loads yearly." This observation forces upon us the 



