Salt in Nantwich

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At first salt making or 'walling', from the Anglo-Saxon word 'weallan' meaning 'to boil', was carried out as near as possible to the main brine spring. 'Wich', too, is of Anglo-Saxon origin, suggesting that certainly by the tenth century salt making had developed substantially. The Welsh, who came to trade, knew the place as 'Hellath Wen' or 'White Salt Pit' and Nantwich's salt was always prized for its purity.

The Doomsday entry states

There was a Wich where there was a saltpit and eight salthouses... bounded on one side by a river and on the other by a dyke.

This dyke would be a channel cut round the walling area to denote ownership and ensure collection of taxes,

If any of it were sold, the King had two pence of the toll and Earl Edwin the third penny

The oldest street name in Nantwich is also Anglo-Saxon in origin, 'beam' meaning 'tree' or 'plank'. Beam Street, today, winds out of the town towards Beam Bridge and suggest from very early times there was a wooden structure spanning the river downstream from the ford. It would be needed to carry the huge loads of wood used in the walling process which required 3 boilings to clarify the brine. The Forest of Mara and Mondrum reached right to the edge of the area (there is the village of Aston-juxta-Mondrum a few miles to the north of Nantwich today) and must have provided a ready supply of fuel, which would be slowly transported on carts pulled by oxen. The finished salt on the other hand could be more easily moved in panniers on pack animals which could wade through the river.

In 1980 there were important excavations in the car park at Wood Street. The remains of two medieval salt houses were discovered.

These two salt houses were constructed differently. One was a flimsy building with a double wall of stakes interwoven with wattle while the other had ten massive supporting posts, five on each side. However, they were roughly the same size and situated in the same east/west position with their storage yards fronting on to Wood Street. Tree Ring Dating and the pottery found on the site gave the period 1170 - 1250 for the construction of the salt houses so the walling area had by then been extended across the river.

Making salt was arduous work. The wallers were often women such as 'Ales Whorral' and there is an old Nantwich saying 'to scold like a wich-waller', presumably some early colourful language.

The full report of the Wood Street Excavation is well worth reading and is available in Nantwich Museum.

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