196 A HISTORY OF SALT-MAKING IN ESSEX.
very narrow and no river of any kind flows into it. At all
events, there were many salt-pans round its shores in early
days.
That the Romans made salt on our Essex coast is
extremely probable, but I know of no actual evidence.5 That
the Saxons did so is certain; for not a few of the salt-pans
mentioned in Domesday Book are stated to have been in
existence in the days of King Edward the Confessor.
By the time of the Normans, salt-making was a considerable
industry upon our coast, and some forty-six salt-pans (salinae) are
mentioned in the returns of the Great Domesday Survey made
in 1086.6 All of these (with one exception) were situate on the
northern half of our coast-line, in the Hundreds of Tendring,
Winstree, and Thurstable, as shown on the accompanying map
(Plate xxx).
In Tendring Hundred, there were seventeen salt-pans, three
of which (and one other which was disused) had existed in the
time of the Confessor. Lawford, Wrabness, Ramsey, Great
Bentley, Thorrington, and Elmstead had one each; Bradfield,
Great Oakley, Beaumont, and the three Sokens jointly had two
each; while Moze had three. Several of these parishes and
others which follow lay mainly inland and scarcely touched the
salt water, as will be seen on reference to a map. Of these
seventeen pans, it will be found that five were situated on the
south bank of the Stour Estuary; nine round the shores of
Hamford Water; and the remaining three on the north side of
the Colne Estuary.
In Winstree Hundred, further south, there were eight salt-
pans, none of which are stated specifically to have existed in the
time of the Confessor. Of these eight pans, Peldon and
Langenhoe (both on the channel separating Mersea Island from
the mainland) had one each and Great Wigborough (near the
head of Salcot Creek) had no less than six. In this Hundred, too.
is the manor or parish of Salcot, which must have derived its
name from salt-cotes which existed there in Saxon times, for
none remained at the time of the Great Survey.
5 The late Canon J. C. Atkinson considered (see Archaeol. Journ., xxxvii., pp. 196-199;
also Essex Review, iii., pp. 276-277) that our "Salting-mounds" or "Red-hills" (which are
probably older than Roman times) were the sites of old salt-works. Others have held
the same view, but the evidence available so far does not suffice to enable us to decide
of what ancient industry these mysterious mounds are a relic.
6 These were first studied by Dr. J. Horace Round (Victoria Hist. of Essex, i.,
pp. 580-382), to whose remarks on the subject I am much indebted.