POTASH-MAKING IN ESSEX: A LOST RURAL INDUSTRY.
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like Essex there would have been, when this manufacture was
flourishing, several hundreds of persons engaged in the trade, and
obtaining their living and rearing their families, in the pure and whole-
some air of the country. Instead of this, at the present time, the
manufacture of Soda, which drove Potash out, is carried on in
wretched crowded towns, full of every abomination, moral and
physical.
The following notes are the results of inquiries made of old
persons with whom I have come in contact, and also of information
kindly collected, as I have mentioned before, by the Masters of the
Union Houses of Essex, from aged inmates. Thus by enlarging the
area of inquiry, I have been enabled to obtain some knowledge of
the situation of "Potashes" in all parts of the county, and, occasion-
ally, I have also received information of interesting facts with
reference to these little factories and the work carried on in them.
It was very rarely found that information could be had from any but
very aged persons, and it is clear that had this inquiry been delayed
for another ten years, all, or nearly all, knowledge of the industry
would have disappeared.
Mr. William Otway, of Tolleshunt D'Arcy, has written me as follows :
"With reference to the old 'Potash' on the Tollesbury Road, I beg to inform you,
that a man by the name of James Scott carried it on for years ; he died about the
year 1854. There is no one living now who used to work with him, his principal
helps were a woman by the name of Wade, and his grandson, both of whom are
dead."
An old man, Peter Smith, aged 90, living in Tolleshunt Knights, has given me
the following particulars of the "Potashes" formerly in use in that neighbourhood.
They were four in number, the first three being in Tolleshunt Knights parish :
1. One on the Tudwick Road , carried on by Peter Moss.
2. One on the Kelvedon Road ; carried on by George Wallace.
3. One near Oxley Hill ; carried on by — Cook.
4. One in Inworth parish ; carried on by — Cowling.
Peter Smith remembered the process, and thus described it, confirming my
own recollections: "The method of making the Potash was this; you put a
quantity of Wood Ashes in a large tub, perforated at the bottom, pour water upon
the same to drain into a vat which was called the Lye-letch; after the vat was
full, dip in wheat straw and place it over a slow fire of the same material, on the
hearth, not allowing it to blaze, and so continue night and day until the lye and
straw are exhausted or you have made what you require ; it takes a quantity of
wood ashes and straw. Most of the occupiers of the 'Potashes' of this district
used to smuggle, and the places were used as receptacles for the Hollands, Brandy,
Tobacco, etc."
Mr. F. A. King, of Bardfield, writes : "Many years ago potash was made at
Bushett Farm. I remember the place standing, where they used to make it."