A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



was endowed by Maurice de Man with a place 

 in the territory of Ayringthwait close to 

 Whitehaven, whereon they might construct a 

 saltpan, with free access by the same road that 

 he had granted to saltpans in the same place 

 belonging to the monks of St. Bees. 1 The 

 two priories were at liberty to take their 

 estovers and easements as well in land as in 

 water as they thought most convenient. In 

 addition to several saltpans in Galloway and 

 Dumfries the priory of St. Bees had one on 

 the sands of Duddon 2 of the gift of Adam son 

 of Henry, lord of Millom, known before 1247 

 as ' Salthus in Coupland,' beside which the 

 monks of Furness possessed a grange. 3 On 

 the principle that sal sapit omnia we may be 

 sure that convenience for the manufacture of 

 salt was regarded as a valuable perquisite by 

 the religious communities. At all events by 

 their frequent mention in local chartularies, 

 it may be taken that concessions of saltpans 

 were eagerly sought after and carefully pro- 

 tected by them. 



The profits arising from the manufacture 

 of salt were not an inconsiderable portion of 

 the revenues of lay proprietors as well as of 

 religious houses. At the time of the dissolu- 

 tion of the monasteries the annual rent of 

 saltpans belonging to the abbey of Holmcul- 

 tram was estimated at 13 us. 8d.* After 

 this date the industry in the lordship ofHolm- 

 cultram fell into decay, though the ' pannes ' 

 continued to be farmed by the Chamber 

 family for almost a century. In one of the 

 rentals of Henry VIII., now among the parish 

 papers, it is stated that there were within that 

 lordship certain saltpans, the most part of 

 which were utterly decayed, and the rest were 

 likely to decay unless they were demised to 

 tenants for a term of years. 5 In 1589 in the 

 survey of the manor of Bowness on Solway 

 after the attainder of Leonard Dacre, ' the 

 profit to be aunswered for makinge of sake 

 yerely,' together with the turbary set apart 

 for that purpose, was valued at 5 i6j. 

 according to the rate of the market. The 

 rent varied according to the quantity pro- 

 duced and the price in the market. In that 

 year ' the said sake came but to a xiiij lodde 

 that is in busshels Iviij,' the price of a bushel 

 ranging from twenty pence to two shillings. 



1 Reg. of Wetherhal (op. cit.), 233 ; Reg. of St. 

 Bees, MS. v. 4. Ayringthwait is given on Green- 

 wood's map of 1830 as Harrathwaite. 



2 Reg. of St. Bees, Harl. MS. 434, i. 23-5. 



3 Coucher Book of Furness (Chetham Soc.), iii. 

 604 ; Beck, Ann. Furnesiemes, 208. 



4 Dugdale, Mon. v. 619. 



6 Trans. Cumb. and Westmld. Arch. Soc. (new 

 ser.), i. 199. 



The saltpans on the coast in the parish of 

 Crosscanonby, presumably the property of the 

 dean and chapter of Carlisle, were worth 40 

 a year in 1684 without coal, 6 and those ' under 

 the hill called Lowkey ' near Workington 

 were of the same value. 7 From the evidences 

 it would appear that pitcoal was substituted for 

 peat as the fuel used in this industry during the 

 latter period of its history. In the eighteenth 

 century, when salt became subject to excise 

 duty, we learn from the records of the quarter 

 sessions that badgers and sellers of salt were 

 often in trouble with the magistrates for evad- 

 ing the law. The fair of Rosley enjoyed a 

 considerable reputation at that time for the 

 sale of such merchandise. 



The great industry of coal mining, for 

 which Cumberland has a well merited dis- 

 tinction, cannot be traced back to a very early 

 period. Though we have frequent mention of 

 the use of coal we have not found any record 

 of coal mines being worked in Cumberland 

 before the fifteenth century. It is true that 

 the monks of St. Bees 8 were acquainted with 

 the coalfields near Whitehaven as early as the 

 reign of Henry III., but it is doubtful whether 

 the value of coal was sufficiently recognized at 

 that period to encourage them to work it as 

 an industry. It is at a much later date that 

 digging for coals became an organized institu- 

 tion. The Dacres of Naworth worked the 

 coal mines of ' Tynyelfell ' or Tindal Fell 9 

 in the eastern part of the county till they 

 were forced to desist by the inroads of the 

 Scots. In 1485 the mines were valueless for 

 that reason. In the sixteenth century the 

 uses of pitcoal became generally recognized in 

 the county, and coal mining sprang up into 

 one of the most extensive industries in the 

 north. 



The copper mines of Newlands near Kes- 

 wick were selected by Camden to disprove 

 the assertion of Caesar that ' the Britons had 

 ore of copper brought unto them beyond the 

 sea,' and as these mines contained veins of 

 gold and silver the great antiquary showed 

 the groundlessness of Cicero's statement that 

 there was not a particle of silver in the island. 10 

 The Keswick mines appear to have been 

 worked at intervals since the reign of Henry 

 III. 11 This is very probable, for in 1318 

 Edward II. appointed two engineers to search 



6 Ibid. i. 1 1 . 



i Thomas Denton, Perambulation of Cumb. in 

 1687-8, MS. f. 31. 



s Reg. of St. Bees, Harl. MS. 434, lib. v. 5. 



Cal. oflnq.p.m. Hen. Vll. i. 157. 



10 Brit. (ed. Holland), 767. 



" Camden quotes a Close Roll for this statement, 

 but we have not succeeded in finding the reference. 



342 



