202 A HISTORY OF SALT-MAKING IN ESSEX. 



be seen the ruins of extensive walls, built of shingle, bricks, and 

 cement. Close at hand is a large salt-pan, about fifty yards 

 square and still full of water, while traces of other pans may also 

 be seen. Near the high road skirting the marsh is the store- 

 house in which the manufactured salt was kept. It is now used 

 as a malting. Local tradition says that the business carried on 

 at these works never yielded a profit, and that they ceased 

 working altogether on the abolition of the salt tax in 1825, a few 

 years only after the buildings had been erected. 26 Indeed, the 

 name of Bridges does not appear in Pigot's Directory for 1826. 



At this time, however, one Robert Worraker, described 4,> ' 7 as a 

 " salt-maker," was living at Heybridge, having, perhaps, bought 

 Bridges' business. Later, either he or one of his descendants 

 appears to have removed the works to near Full-bridge, at 

 Maldon, on the opposite bank of the river. Here he carried on 

 a small and dwindling business till 1882, 28 when, as the only 

 alternative to closing the works altogether, he sold the whole 

 concern to Air. T. Elsey Bland, of Maldon. That gentleman 

 has since carried on the business in the old works (Fig. 2 

 PI. xxxi), with increasing success, trading as the Maldon Crystal 

 Salt Company. The method of manufacture is as follows :— 



At the top of the highest spring tides (unless there has been 

 recent heavy rain), the salt water of the river is let into a small 

 reservoir (Fig. 3, PI. xxxi), some thirty-five feet square and 

 fifteen feet deep, on the river bank. After sufficient time has 

 been allowed for any sediment to settle, as much of the water as 

 is required is pumped up into a large wooden tank, holding 

 some 1,000 gallons, in which it is clarified by a simple process, 

 the exact nature of which is not disclosed. This tank is in the 

 works (shown in Fig. 2). After this, the water is run off into 

 two large boiling-pans, each about ten feet square and a foot 

 deep, in which it is again " fined " by a simple process. The 

 fires which heat these pans are lighted every morning between 

 seven and eight o'clock ; and, in about three hours, the water 

 begins to boil, but is not allowed to continue to do so for more 

 than ten or fifteen minutes. It is kept hot, but not boiling, for 

 about ten hours, and is then allowed to cool gradually, any 

 impurities wdiich rise to the surface being removed by means of 



26 See Fitch, Maldon and the River Blackivater [1898], pp. 50-51. 



27 Pigot's Directory, 1S16, p. 544. 



28 At the Census of i87i,four persons (all, no doubt, in Woriaker's employ) were 

 returned as engaged in salt-rehning in Essex. 



