18 MR. THOMAS WARD ON THE 



The first pans used in the manufacture of salt of which 

 we have any record were made of lead. A sheet of lead 

 about £ inch thick and 2 feet 8 inches square, in the case 

 of a pan in my possession, was obtained, and bent up at the 

 sides, and the corners hammered together. This pan was 

 from 3 to 4 inches deep *. Six of these pans were usually 

 set over flues in a small room. The contents of these six 

 pans, or " leads " as they were called, formed the unit of 

 measurement in the salt-trade when every maker was regu- 

 lated by laws as to quantity of brine, time of taking it, 

 hours of drawing salt, &c. So strict were the laws that an 

 officer (called a "pan-cutter ") was employed to see that all 

 the pans conformed to the standard pan; if any were 

 larger, he was to cut them down. After a time four pans 

 took the place of the six, and were of equal capacity in the 

 whole. Dr. Jackson, about 1 668, describes these four pans 

 as made of iron and superseding the six leaden ones. Their 

 size, he says, was about a yard square and about 6 inches 

 deep, and they held 28 gallons. In Dr. Brownrigg's time, 

 1765, the pans held 800 gallons; and Jars says the largest 

 pans at Northwich in 1765 were 20 feet long by 9 or 10 

 wide, holding about 1 1 00 gallons. Now the small pans 

 used for boiled salt, which are the smallest in the trade, are 

 from 25 to 35 feet long by from 20 to 24 wide, and 15 to 

 18 inches deep, averaging 5000 gallons to the pan. The 

 pans used for making coarse-grained salt vary from 50 to 

 70 feet in length (some few being even longer than this) 

 and are about 25 feet in width, the depth being 18 inches. 

 These would contain over 16,000 gallons. The growth in 

 the size of the pan has been equalled by the growth in the 



* There is an old lead in Warrington Museum, found at Northwich. It 

 measures 3 feet 8 inehes in greatest length, and 2 feet 8 inches in width, 

 being 4 inches deep. It would hold about 20 gallons at most. The old pan 

 in my possession, which is 25 inches square by 3 inches deep, would only 

 contain about 7 gallons. 



