5° 
fPotes on a Sali-cMlarsh at Branston, 
(WITH ONE PLATE). 
By Joun E. Nowers snp James G. WELLS. 
(Read before the Society, December 12th, 1890). 
WHE existence of saline springs in the neighbourhood of 
Branston is not by any means a recent discovery, for 
pst in Dr. Plot’s ‘“ Natural History of Staffordshire,” 
published as early as 1686, the following passage occurs, showing 
that not only was their existence a matter of common knowledge 
at that time, but that an attempt had actually been made to 
manufacture salt from the water :—‘In Newbold grounds, about 
midway between Burton and Braunston, there are salt springs, 
where one Mr. Fownes about ten years since (then owner of the 
lands) attempted to make salt; but the mixture of freshes proved 
so unavoidable to him that his laudable endeavours were 
frustrated.” 
Braunston, we need hardly say, is one of the many old ways of 
spelling Branston; and though the Newbold grounds are here 
stated to be midway between Burton and Branston, there can be 
no doubt that they are really to the south of the latter place, a farm 
and cottage there, both adjacent to the salt district we are about to 
describe, being still designated by the appellation of Newbold. 
This passage from Dr. Plot’s work is quoted by Shaw in his 
“ History and Antiquities of Staffordshire,” published in 1800; 
and the late Robert Garner, in his work on the “ Natural History 
of the County of Stafford,” includes Braunston among the places 
at which salt springs occur, probably on the same authority. Sir 
