202 A HISTORY OF SALT-MAKING IN ESSEX.
be seen the ruins of extensive walls, built of shingle, bricks, and
cement. Close at hand is a large salt-pan, about fifty yards
square and still full of water, while traces of other pans may also
be seen. Near the high road skirting the marsh is the store-
house in which the manufactured salt was kept. It is now used
as a malting. Local tradition says that the business carried- on
at these works never yielded a profit, and that they ceased
working altogether on the abolition of the salt tax in 1825, a few
years only after the buildings had been erected.26 Indeed, the
name of Bridges does not appear in Pigot's Directory for 1826.
At this time, however, one Robert Worraker, described27 as a
"salt-maker," was living at Heybridge, having, perhaps, bought
Bridges' business. Later, either he or one of his descendants
appears to have removed the works to near Full-bridge, at
Maldon, on the opposite bank of the river. Here he carried on
a small and dwindling business till 1882,28 when, as the only
alternative to closing the works altogether, he sold the whole
concern to Mr. T. Elsey Bland, of Maldon. That gentleman
has since carried on the business in the old works (Fig. 2
Pl. xxxi), with increasing success, trading as the Maldon Crystal
Salt Company. The method of manufacture is as follows:—
At the top of the highest spring tides (unless there has been
recent heavy rain), the salt water of the river is let into a small
reservoir (Fig. 3, Pl. xxxi), some thirty-five feet square and
fifteen feet deep, on the river bank. After sufficient time has
been allowed for any sediment to settle, as much of the water as
is required is pumped up into a large wooden tank, holding
some 1,000 gallons, in which it is clarified by a simple process,
the exact nature of which is not disclosed. This tank is in the
works (shown in Fig. 2). After this, the water is run off into
two large boiling-pans, each about ten feet square and a foot
deep, in which it is again "fined" by a simple process. The
fires which heat these pans are lighted every morning between
seven and eight o'clock; and, in about three hours, the water
begins to boil, but is not allowed to continue to do so for more
than ten or fifteen minutes. It is kept hot, but not boiling, for
about ten hours, and is then allowed to cool gradually, any
impurities which rise to the surface being removed by means of
26 See Fitch, Maldon and the River Blackwater [1898], pp. 50-51.
27 Pigot's Directory, 1826, p. 544.
28 At the Census of 1871, four persons (all, no doubt, in Womaker's employ) were
returned as engaged in salt-refining in Essex.