680 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



were nearly as much neglected ; 

 there being then in use only one 

 salt-work out of eight which had 

 been formerly worked. 



At the lime of the survey, the 

 salt-works had somewhat reco- 

 vered their value, those at Nant- 

 wich being let to farm by the 

 crown at 10/., those at Middle- 

 wich at 25s., and those at North- 

 wich at 35s. The Survey gives 

 the particulars of the duties paid 

 for each waggon-load, horse-load, 

 &c. which varied for that which 

 was sold in the hundred or county, 

 or carried out of either ; the cus- 

 toms in the different VViches va- 

 ried also. The earl had a salt-pit 

 at Nantwich, for the use of his 

 own household, toll-free ; but if 

 he sold any salt, he was to ac- 

 count with the king for two-thirds 

 of the tolls. The proprietors of 

 private salt-works were also per- 

 mitted to have salt for the use of 

 their families toll-free ; but paid 

 toll for all which they sold. It is 

 probable that the chief exporta- 

 tion of salt at this early period, 

 was to Wales ; the people of 

 which country are said to have 

 called Nantwich Hellath Wen, or 

 the white salt-pit, from the white- 

 ness of the salt there made. As 

 no mention is made by Pliny of 

 the salt of Britain, it is probable 

 that there were no salt-works in 

 this country so early as the time of 

 the Romans. King Henry III. 

 during his wars with the Welsh, 

 caused all the salt-works in Che- 



shire to be destroyed, and the pits 

 to be stopped up, to prevent the 

 enem}' from procuring any supply 

 of that valuable article. 



The art of making salt appears 

 to have been but imperfectl}' un- 

 derstood in England for several 

 centuries after the Conquest. — 

 King Henry VI. invited John de 

 Sheidam, a gentleman of Zealand, 

 to come over to this country, with 

 sixty persons in his company, to 

 instruct his subjects in the im- 

 proved method of making salt. 

 Mr. Lowndes, a Cheshire gentle- 

 man, received a reward from par- 

 liament about the beginning of 

 the last century, for making pub- 

 lic some supposed improvements 

 in this art ; soon afterwards. Dr. 

 Brownrig published a treatise on 

 the art of making common salt, 

 in which he suggested some im- 

 provements, which have been 

 since adopted. Partly in conse- 

 quence of those improvements, 

 and partly from other causes, the 

 manuflicture of white salt has 

 greatly increased in Cheshire : 

 about a century ago, the salt ma- 

 nufacture there was not morethan 

 adequate to its own consumption, 

 and that of a few adjoining coun- 

 ties. From May 1805, to May 

 1806, the salt manufactured at 

 the Cheshire brine-pits,* exclu- 

 sively of that made at Nantwicht 

 and Frodsham, which was dis- 

 posed of for home consumption, 

 amounted to 16,590 tons, 77 

 bushels. The annual average of 



* At Lawton, Wheelock, Roughwood ; in the townships of Anderton, Bechton, 

 Leftwich, Middlewich, and in the neighbourhood of Northwich and Winsford. 



t The manufacture of salt at Nantwich \vas much more extensive in the early 

 part of the seventeenth century than at the present time ; for it appears, by some 

 papers relating to the brine-pits, written in the reign of Charles I. that there were 

 then two hundred and sixteen wich houses, or salt-works, at Nantwich ; there is 

 now only one. 



