124 POTASH-MAKING IN ESSEX : A LOST RURAL INDUSTRY.
the manufacture of soap, and for almost every purpose we now use
soda ; and it was when this last cheap detergent came into com-
petition with potash the final deathstroke was given to a manufacture
already in a very languishing condition.
With the assistance of the Masters of the various Union Houses
throughout the county, I have made inquiries among the aged male
and female inmates, and have been able to obtain much information,
both with reference to the situations of the Essex "Potashes" and
the work that went on therein. This information will appear below,
grouped under the names of my informants, and to these gentlemen
my thanks are due for the help they have so kindly given ; and I
have also to thank Mr. Wm. Otway, of Tolleshunt D'Arcy, for the
trouble he has taken in seeing and obtaining information of a very
useful kind from some old people in his district. I am also indebted
to numerous other friends for facts of importance, and to whom also
I beg to tender my thanks.
Personally, I only remember the two "Potashes" I have before
referred to ; but according to the information I have received, two
others—one at Buttsbury and one at Purleigh—were finally closed
about the same time.
My remembrances of these two "Potashes" are very distinct.
One of them was situated near the corner in the road from Fam-
bridge Ferry to Rochford, just where the road from Ballard's Gore
falls into it. This corner was known and spoken of as "Potash
Corner." The other one was on the left side of the road from
Tolleshunt D'Arcy to Tollesbury, but only a short distance out of
Tolleshunt D'Arcy. Both have now disappeared entirely.
The description of one will be sufficient for both, and, in fact,
for the whole of the "Potashes" formerly existing, for there appears
to have been a considerable family likeness in these village factories.
On the Tollesbury road, a short way out of Tolleshunt D'Arcy,
was a small enclosure or field, and in this was a rough, tumbledown
kind of building, covered with pantiles and having a very capacious
chimney, from which, when work was going on, clouds of white
smoke were always issuing. The sides of the building, which had a
very home-made appearance, were formed by rough round timbers,
with a covering of wattle and clay daub, and I have no doubt that
these places were frequently erected by those who owned and worked
in them. On going inside several large tubs were seen, some with
perforated bottoms contained ashes, and others held water which