342 ON THE SALT SPRINGS OF WORCESTERSHIRE. 



distance of 130 feet from the commencement of the gypsum 

 in the marl, we come to the strong brine, which rushes 

 up to the surface as soon as it is bored into. This brine is ten 

 feet deep, and the rock-salt is under this river of brine ; but 

 rock-salt has never been worked at Droitwich, as it is at Nampt- 

 wich, in Cheshire. The salt is entirely obtained by evaporation 

 of the brine. The depth of this brine has greatly increased 

 within the past twenty years, and varies in different pits. 

 Rock-salt has been repeatedly brought up by the boring rods 

 when passed through the brine at Droitwich. 



Dry rock-salt has been worked in only one situation in this 

 county. It was discovered by Messrs. Fardon and Gossage, at 

 Stoke Prior, in the year 1828; and the working of this has afforded 

 an opportunity of our becoming better acquainted with the salt 

 formation. 



Before entering into the particulars of this salt mine, I must 

 state the circumstances which led to the detection of the rock- 

 salt at this spot. It is not here, as at Droitwich, that the brine 

 springs to the surface. There is no salt at this place discoverable 

 in the water of the ordinary wells, so that no indication of the 

 presence of salt arises from them; but when the Worcester and 

 Birmingham canal was cut, it evidently became a good specula- 

 tion to discover brine, so as to have a salt manufacture there. 

 A brine-smeller was therefore sent for from Cheshire, and after 

 examining the country, he pronounced that there was salt to be 

 found at Stoke Prior. Stoke Prior is three miles and a half 

 north-east of Droitwich, and 160 feet higher than the bed 

 of the Salwarp, where it passes through that town. We arrive 

 at this place from Droitwich by the Bromsgrove road, and 

 it is rather an uneven ride from the undulations of the ground. 

 As immediately around Droitwich, so about Stoke Prior, there 

 are rising hills of red marl, as at Hanbury, the church of 

 which parish is ninety feet higher than Stoke Prior. There are 

 also sections of marl near the Bromsgrove turnpike, resem- 

 bling those before described. As to the rule by which the said 

 Cheshire brine-smeller determined that there was salt at Stoke 

 Prior I know nothing; but he attached great importance to 

 what he called brine-slips. By brine-slips it appears that 

 he meant a sudden slipping of the red marl, which sometimes 

 occurs about Droitwich. It not very uncommonly happens in 

 this district, that, on a sudden, a chasm will be formed, twenty 

 or thirty feet long and a foot wide, by the giving way of the 

 ground. These chasms are of great depth, and it is supposed by 

 many persons that they communicate with salt strata below. 

 Whether this be true or not, it is certain that the Cheshire Salter 

 assured his Worcestershire friends that he smelt the salt at these 

 chasms, and hence inferred that the work of mining might be 

 attempted with security. He probably drew his inference, not 

 from the sense of smell, but from the appearance of the marl. 



