“In the same hundred of Mildestvic there was a third Wich called Norwich (Northwich), which was in farm at eight pounds. In it there were the same laws and customs as in the other Wiches, and the King and the Earl divided the receipts in the like manner. All the thanes who held salt-houses in this Wich gave no Friday’s boilings of salt the year through. Whoever brought a cart, with two or more oxen, from another shire, gave 4 pence for the toll. A man from the same shire gave for his cart 2 pence within the third night after his return home. If he allowed the third night to pass, he was fined 40 shillings. A man from another shire paid 1 penny for a horse load. But a man from the same shire paid 1 styca within the third night after his return, as aforesaid. A man living in the same hundred, if he carted salt about through the same county to sell, gave a penny for every cart, for as many times as he loaded it. If he carried salt on a horse to sell, he gave 1 penny at Martinmas. Whoso did not pay it at that time was fined 40 shillings. All the other customs in the Wiches are the same. This manor was waste when Earl Hugh received it. It is now worth 35 shillings.”
“Nantwich.—In King Edward’s time there was a Wich in Warmundestron hundred, in which there was a well for making salt, and between the King and Earl Edwin there were 8 salt-houses, so divided that of all their issues and rents the King had two parts and the Earl the third. But besides these, the Earl had one salt-house adjoining his manor of Acatone (Acton) which was his own. From this salt-house the Earl had sufficient salt for his house throughout the year. But if he sold any from thence, the King had twopence, and the Earl a third penny, for the toll. In the same Wich many men from the country had salt-houses, of which this was the custom—
“From our Lord’s Ascension to Martinmas, anyone having a salt-house might carry home salt for his own house. But if he sold any of it either there, or elsewhere in the county of Chester, he paid toll to the King and the Earl. Whoever after Martinmas carried away salt from any salt-house except the Earl’s, under his custom aforesaid, paid toll, whether the salt was his own or purchased. These aforesaid 8 salt-houses of the King and the Earl, in every week that salt was boiled or they were used on a Friday, rendered 16 boilings of salt, of which 15 made a horse-load. From our Lord’s Ascension to Martinmas, the salt-houses of the other men did not give these Friday’s boilings. But from Martinmas to our Lord’s Ascension, these boilings were given according to custom, as from the salt-houses of the King and the Earl. All these salt-houses, both of the lord and other people, were surrounded on one part by a certain river, and on the other part by a ditch. Whosoever committed a forfeiture within these bounds, might make amends, either by the payment of 2 shillings, or by 30 boilings of salt, except in the case of homicide, or of a theft, for which the thief was adjudged to die. These last, if done here, were dealt with as in the rest of the shire. If out of the prescribed circuit of the salt-houses, any person within the county withheld the toll, and was convicted thereof, he brought it back and was fined 40 shillings, if a free man; or if not free, 4 shillings. But if he carried the toll into another shire, where it was demanded the fine was the same. In King Edward’s time, this Wich, with all pleas in the same hundred, rendered 21 pounds in farm. When Earl Hugh received it, except only one salt-house, it was waste. William Maldebeng now holds of the Earl the same Wich, with all the customs thereto belonging, and all the same hundred, which is rated at 40 shillings, of which 30 shillings are put on the land of the said William, and 10 shillings on the land of the Bishop, and the lands of Richard and Gilbert which they have in the same hundred, and the Wich is let to farm at 10 pounds.”
“Middlewich.—In Mildestvich hundred there is another Wich between the King and the Earl. There, however, the salt-houses were not the lord’s, but they had the same laws and customs that have been mentioned in the above-mentioned Wich, and the customs were divided between the King and the Earl in the same manner. This Wich was let to farm for 8 pounds and the hundred wherein it was, for 40 shillings. The King had two parts, and the Earl the third. When Earl Hugh received it, it was waste. The Earl now holds it, and it is let to farm for 25 shillings, and two wain-loads of salt. But the hundred is worth 40 shillings. From these two Wiches, whoever carried away bought salt in a wain drawn by four oxen or more, paid 4d. for the toll; but if by two oxen, 2 pence if the salt were two horse-loads. A man from another hundred gave 2d. for a horse-load. But a man of the same hundred gave only a halfpenny for a horse-load. Whoever loaded his wain so that the axle broke within a league of either Wich, gave 2 shillings to the King’s or the Earl’s officers, if he were overtaken within the league. In like manner, he who loaded his horse, so as to break its back, gave 2 shillings if overtaken within the league, but nothing if overtaken beyond it. Whoever made two horse-loads of salt out of one, was fined 40 shillings if the officers overtook him. If he was not found, nothing was to be exacted from any other. Men on foot from another hundred buying salt, paid 2d. for eight men’s loads. Men of the same hundred paid 1d. for the same number of such loads.”
The first private record relating to salt appears in the foundation deed of Combermere Abbey, dated 1132, in which Hugh Malbane, the founder, caused it to be written: “And I also grant to the same monks the fourth part of the town of Wych, and tythe of my salt and of the salt pits that are mine, and salt of Blessed Mary the Virgin, and salt on Friday, and salt for the Abbot’s table as freely as I have it at my table.”
Ancient Deeds in the Record Office contain occasional reference to salt properties in the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries which show that salt was made in limited quantities in Cambridgeshire and at Rye, Mimera, and Brembre (formerly Hayerskys), in the County of Sussex.
Protests against the importation of salt from abroad, and of salt-making by foreigners contrary to the liberties and ancient customs of the borough of Northwich, are recorded in the Harleian MSS. In response to a complaint made on behalf of the burgesses and inhabitants of Northwich concerning the mischievous irregularities committed in the making of salt by “p’sons forrayne and not inhabiting w/thin the Sḍ towne,” King Henry VIII issued an Order to the Justice and Chamberlaine of the County Palatine of Chester to the effect: “WHEREFORE we will and command you that in any case such forrayne p’son or p’sons not inhabiting within the s/d towne, do, or hereafter at any time shall attempt to use makeing of salt contrary to the lib/erties and ancient customes of the same within the same towne without lycence of the burgess and the rulers thereof. THAT then without delay ye and ether of you from tyme to tyme upon complaynt or of the rulers and govnors of the same towne do send for all and every such forrayne p’sons as do or hereafter shall attempt to make any salt within the s/d towne of Northwich contrary to the libties and ancient customes of the same, without the assent and agreem/t of the s/d Burgess and ruler by o/r writts of subp: to appear before you in o/ Castle of Chester at there appearance to punish and reforme them: And also further to order them as right and good conscience shall require according to the lawes and customes heretobefore used now in other wyches there abts w/thin o/r s/d County Palatyne, for the reformacon of such transgressions fayle ye not hereof as ye maye intend to please us.”
In the time of the Tudors, the salt-makers of Cheshire were composed of natives and “forrayners,” or residents born outside the boundaries of the county, and in the Northwich Book of Orders is given a list of ten “outliers” in the town of Northwich who occupied between them no fewer than eighty-nine salt pans or leads. Although we have no information as to the exact size and capacity of the evaporating pans of the period, it is evident that they were made to a regulation scale, and we read that it was the business of an officer of the Court Leet to examine the leads and see that they conformed with the standard dimensions. If the prescribed measurements were exceeded, the official cut a piece out of the corner of the pan with a pair of shears with which he was furnished for the purpose, so as to reduce its capacity to the legal limit.
Only three of these old salt-pans have been recovered, and, of these, one was cut up and sold as old lead. One which was drawn out of the river at Northwich in 1866 was forwarded by the River Weaver Trustees to the Warrington Exhibition, and was transferred subsequently to the Northwich Museum. This pan measures 3 ft. 8 in. long on one side, and 3 ft. 4½ in. on the other; it has a width of 2 ft. 8 in., and is 4 in. deep. The thickness of the lead is about half an inch. and the weight of the pan is 2 cwt., 1 qr. 18 lb. There are raised patterns on each end of the pan, which was evidently cast, and the sides are rounded up from the bottom. In 1878, in the vicinity of Ashton’s Salt Works at Witton, was found a smaller pan made out of a sheet of lead 2 ft. 8 in. square. The sheet was bent up to form a pan and the corners were hammered together. This lead is 25 in. square by 3 in. in depth, and has a capacity of about 7 gallons.
In the early years of the reign of James I we have particulars of the salt districts in Camden’s Britannia, and in a letter received in February, 1605, from Chomley written by one George Johnson. Camden explains that the Cheshire Wiches were so-called because “there bee here very notable salt pits and many salt springs often-time have been found which notwithstanding are stopped up, because it was provided (as wee read) that for the saving of woods, salt should not be boiled but in certain places.”