A HISTORY OF SALT-MAKING IN ESSEX. I97 



In Thurstable Hundred, lying still further south, on the north 

 bank of the Blackwater Estuary, there were no fewer than twenty 

 salt-pans and one-half, of which three-and-one-half (and seven 

 others which had disappeared) had existed in the time of the 

 Confessor. Tolleshunt D'Arcy, Tolleshunt Major, Layer Marney, 

 and Heybridge had one each ; Goldhanger had one-and-a-half ; 7 

 Great Totham had two ; Little Totham had three ; while 

 Tollesbury had six (five ot these being in the manor of Tolles- 

 hunt Guisnes, where there had been no fewer than twelve pans 

 in the time of the Confessor). Further, somewhere in this 

 Hundred, the King had four pans, which were in charge of the 

 Sheriff of the County. Most of these pans (probably about 

 twelve of them) were on Tollesbury Creek (an inlet merely), and 

 the remainder on the north side of the Blackwater Estuary. 



The only other Essex salt-pan mentioned in Domesday Book 

 was at the opposite extremity of" the county, namely at 

 Wanstead, in Becontree Hundred. The locality is not one in 

 which a salt-pan might have been expected ; yet the pan in 

 question had existed since the time of King Edward the Con- 

 fessor. 7A Wanstead lies mainly upon the River Roding, but it is 

 scarcely credible that salt-water can ever have come up that river 

 thus far. In all probability, therefore, the salt-pan was in the 

 semi-detached portion of the parish (some 38^- acres in extent) 

 which abutted on the River Lea, and was connected with the 

 rest of the parish by a long narrow strip, known as Wanstead 

 *• Slip " or " Water slip." 8 . The right to this " Water-slip " was 

 formerly guarded very jealously by the parish authorities, but 

 later it became a source of trouble, and it has now been merged 

 in adjacent parishes. In early days, the salt water may have 

 come up the Lea to this point. The only other possible solution 

 is that the so-called salt-pan was a salt refinery of some kind, 

 but there is no evidence in support of this. 8A 



From the foregoing, it would appear that, in Norman times, 

 salt-making in Essex was confined practically to the three 

 Hundreds mentioned above (namely, Tendring, Winstree, and 



7 The other moiety belonged, no doubt, to some other parish. The rights of the two 

 parishes were satisfied, probably, by dividing either the produce or the profits. 



7A See Victoria Hist, of Essex, i, p. 438. 



8 For this suggestion, I am indebted to the kindness of our Vice-President, Mr. Walter 

 Crouch, of Wanstead. 



8a As Professor Meldola has pointed out to me, a century ago there was a Salt's Green in 

 or a little to the south of Leytonstone, but there is nothing to show that it had any connection 

 with salt-making. It does not appear on modern maps. 



