A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



The salt was extracted by perpetual boiling and 

 reboiling of sea water ; at Ross in Northumber- 

 land the salt water was first exposed to the heat 

 of the sun for some time, and then salt could be 

 extracted by one boiling of twelve hours, but in 

 Durham the usual plan was to apply artificial 

 heat at once, and this often necessitated eight 

 different boilings before salt could be obtained. 6 

 Until within the last few years distinct traces of 

 salt-pans having been worked were to be seen 

 at Seaton Carew near the present golf links ; the 

 inquisitions post mortem and Chancery enrolments 

 furnish a complete history of these for more than 

 a century. In 1381 a salt-pan was in the 

 possession of Robert Lumley, 7 but Avisia, 

 widow of Thomas Elmeden, in 1425 inherited 

 estates round the Tees, the passage of the river, 

 ' una salina edificata et una salina et quarta pars 

 unius saline,' also rents issuing out of divers 

 lands and tenements and out of a salt-pan with 

 the ominous name of make-beggar ' ('de una salina 

 vasta vocata Makebegger 8 ); later, Thomas de 

 Carrowe owned four salt-pans there. 9 



During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries 

 ' salt de Gretham ' had more than a local celebrity, 10 

 but the award of 1650 states that the salt-cotes 

 were long since washed away or rendered useless 

 by the tides of the sea. One of the branches of 

 the Salters' Track, an old road running south- 

 wards from Wearmouth, which got its name 

 from the fact that it was constantly used by the 

 salt pedlars, leads to Greatham. 11 Surtees says 

 that traces of these ancient salt-works were still 

 to be seen in his day, and that several farms in 

 the neighbourhood paid a salt rent to Greatham 

 Hospital 13 



A considerable quantity of salt was made at 

 Sunderland, but it is not until the reign of Eliza- 

 beth that any definite account is found of the 

 trade ; then John Smythe asked Lord Burghley for 

 a lease of the salt-pans and ' other implements 

 appertaining to them ' in Sunderland. This lease 

 could not be granted without Mr. Bowes's con- 

 sent, for Ralph Bowes had in 1511 been granted 

 the ' fermhold ' called Sunderland, for the term 

 of five years at 66s. 8d. per annum, and his de- 

 scendants had retained their hold on the neigh- 

 bourhood. 13 Smythe asked also that the licence 

 for making salt which had been granted to Mr. 

 Wilkes should be made so stringent that other 



6 Portland Papers (Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiii), App. 

 pt. v, 100 ; 'Journeys in England of Lord Harley,' 

 MS. at Welbeck Abbey. 



7 Dur. Curs. Rec. P.R.O. Inq. p.m. 36 Richard de 

 Bury Reg. ii, fol. 107. 



8 Ibid. 20 Thomas de Langley Reg. ii, fol. 227. 



'Dur. Curs. No. 31, m. 12. 



'"Thorold Rogers, Hist, of Agric. and Prices, ii, 

 390 ; Compotes Finchale (Surtees Soc.), 1447. 



" W. H. D. Longstaffe, Dur. before the Conq. 72. 



11 Surtees, Hist, of Dur. (under ' Greatham ' ) ; 

 J. Brewster, Hist, of Stockton, 6 1. 



"Dur. Curs. No. 71, m. 2. 



makers would be prevented, and that any salt 

 made at Sunderland should have free sale, other- 

 wise the salt-pan would be useless, but in return 

 for these concessions he offered to make a yearly 

 payment of ^8oo. 14 



It is however in South Shields that the salt 

 trade eventually centred, although as late as 1580 

 the inhabitants of Cowpen petitioned Mr. Thomas 

 Wylson, Secretary of State and dean of Durham, 

 against the sale of salt at Yarm in Yorkshire by 

 the Scots, who paid no duty for unloading. 15 

 Shields is referred to as having salt-pans in 

 1448-9, 1449, 1453." 



Certain deeds 17 of 1489 and subsequent years, 

 preserved in the treasury at Durham, record the 

 successive leases granted by the prior and convent 

 of land near St. Hilda's Chapel between Jarrow 

 and South Shields, where salt-pans existed. The 

 substance of one of these, which is in English, can 

 alone be given here. 



Indenture made 10 January, 1490, between John 

 Prior and the Convent of Durham of the one part 

 and John Raker of Duresme of the other part : 



' berith witnesse that the Prior and Convent hath 

 grauntyd ... to the said John Raket a parcell of 

 ground lying betwix Shelys milne and Ebgare con- 

 tinuyng xi yerdys in lentn lying Est and West and 

 iiij yerdys in breyd above the hough, and from that 

 ground into the ground-eb of the watyr of Tyne,' to 

 hold from Whitsunday next ensuing for the term of 

 Ix years, paying yearly to the Bursar of Duresme 

 3/. 4</. at ' Martynmasse in Wynter ' and Whitsuntide. 

 Power of re-entry. Power to John Raket and his 

 assigns to have free issue and entry to pass and repass 

 for all manner of carrying as well horse wayne, cart as 

 other, as well ' for bying of salt and sellyng as for re- 

 payryng, mendyng and upholdyng of all maner of 

 bildyng.' Raket to have ' fre licence to byg a salt pan 

 or als mony salt pannys upon the forsaid parcell of 

 ground with the appurtenaunce as they shall thynk to 

 them expedyent or behovefull with fre licence to breyk 

 the erd ther to make pittes for the kepyng of salt watyr 

 and condettys for the same for makyng of salt and the 

 forsaid John Raket and his assignes the seyd parcell of 

 ground with housys for the same pannys or to kepe salt 

 in duryng the seyd terme shall uphold, reparelle and 

 maynteyn at their owne propre costys and chargys." 



Raket and his assigns to have tymber and stone 

 sufficient during the said term ' within the woddys and 

 quarellys ' of the Prior and Convent for building, 

 keeping and upholding of the said houses, ' heyeying ' 

 stathes, pits and conduits. Raket and his assigns on 

 the expiration of this lease to have power to take 

 away, hold and ' rewse ' the said pan or pans without 

 interruption." 



During the first quarter of the sixteenth cen- 

 tury the Church seems to have kept the salt trade 

 at Shields in its own hands. 



"S.P. Dom. Eliz. 15 Sept. 1591, vol. 240, No. 13. 

 15 Ibid. vol. 146, No. 38. 



16 Compote Domus de Wermouth (Surtees Soc. xxix). 

 " 2da, 413, Spec. Nos. 24, 26-28 from the tran- 

 scripts kindly made by Canon Greenwell. 

 18 No. 24, ut supra. 



294 



