 When talking about salt history in England, it's hard not to start with the witches. It's just a bunch of hulkers, hulkers! No, not those witches. The witch or wick towns. The problem is it's not what many people think. In many places the English towns with the witch suffix are reported as being called this because they were known for producing salt there. Like Middle Witch, which is currently the biggest salt producing area of England. But it's not the case for every English city ending with this suffix. For example, Sandwich, named after the Earl of Sandwich, is not much of a salt producing town. Ooh, I like sandwiches. The truth is that whether witch comes from the Latin Vicus or the Old Norse or Anglo-Saxon, in most definitions it basically just means village, dwelling, or town. Though I will say that the witch towns that are associated with salt are the epicenters of the most provocative salt history in England. The biggest problem with salt history in England is, well, to be brutally honest, the UK has always struggled to be a major salt producer. Historically, most of England's salt production came from the wealth of its coastal areas. In Yorkshire, there's evidence of salt production going back to the early Neolithic era, and in Somerset from the Bronze Age. In the Iron Age, it's believed that the English used mostly coarse pottery vessels known as bricotage for their salt making. But this was a limited production for most of the early salt history in England. Things didn't really pick up until the Romans came to town. The Romans established military bases in Chester and Middlewich in the course of their conquests. And gosh, by golly, Ollie, wouldn't you just know it? Salt was mighty important to the Roman army. I mean, there's a reason that people said that the Roman army was paid in salt. Even if that wasn't entirely true. See this video to find out more. The Romans did have a major hand in improving the saltworks in England. In fact, they introduced advanced methods of salt production that would remain unchanged in England for over a thousand years. However, the nature of some of these improvements was, what's the word, odd, kooky, bizarre? They're all together, kooky, the Adam's family. It was definitely not what you'd expect. Many people know that boiling down saltwater is a traditional means of creating salt. However, did you know that some of the main coagulants used to form salt used to be from ale, the white of an egg, or blood? And one of the primary froth flotation agents of salt was urine. Was it animal or human urine? Do you really want to know? Ooh, must have been some tasty salt. It's okay because all this stuff was actually pulled off the top and doesn't affect the taste of the salt. But you're okay. You're okay. Liverpool salt. Now, I've already mentioned that Cheshire is a key location in British salt history. But what many people don't realize is that it was the salt production all around Cheshire that led to the development of the major port city, Liverpool. In fact, Liverpool was the last place to fall to William the Conqueror in 1070 AD. And it's believed that William destroyed various saltworks around Liverpool in order to break the final will of the resistance against him. While salt did become a major export of Liverpool by the 17th century, there were several big reasons the British didn't excel as salt producers. Now, until the Industrial Revolution, one of the primary reasons for producing salt was food preservation. And the British ended up salting their foods a bit more than most people. In particular, bacon was salted so heavily that it had to be soaked in water before it could be used. Another very tricky item to preserve was butter. Without salt, it would spoil very quickly. So the British made extra sure their butter wasn't going bad. They layered so much salt on their butter that you would have to scrape the salt off before you could use the butter. So this is the biggest problem for British salt history. While true, the British did end up with a thriving salt industry, particularly in Cheshire. They just couldn't seem to make it terribly profitable. Why? The cost to transport salt across the English land was just too expensive. The Cheshire saltworks could have provided a major salt income to Britain. Unfortunately, the fuel required to operate was, again, too expensive and dirty. But that didn't stop them from mining the heck out of the area. The forests of Cheshire were chopped down to fuel salt furnaces, and the sky was blackened all day long from these furnaces of the saltpans. It is estimated by the end of the 17th century, England was burning over 300,000 tons of coal each year just to produce salt. This overmining eventually led to large portions of land sinking into the earth. And by 1880 and Northwich alone, over 400 buildings had been destroyed due to overmining from salt. There was even a lake over 100 acres wide that was created from one sinkhole that disrupted both railroads and bridges. Religious sermons would even be held over these large gaping holes, which preachers use as an illustration of what hell might look like. The sinking of houses and businesses also led to very messy legal battles over who was responsible for the sinking. Because of the way saltmining works though, a saltworks that was responsible for the sinking might look completely stable. But it actually could be causing sinkholes that are as much as three or four miles away. And because of this, it made it really difficult for people to lay the blame on any particular saltmining company. Salt taxation As you might expect despite all this turmoil, the British government would still try and tax salt throughout their history. But surprisingly, the British were rather easy going in their taxation of salt. That was until William III came along. He started a manufacturing salt tax, which of course raised salt prices, especially for basic white salt. The one thing he did right was be especially nice to the Irish. Ireland was free from salt tax on its exports. This made it so Ireland became a major league producer of salt, and concurrently, salted butter. This freedom from taxation was partly because they exported to America, and the British earned a tax off of that. This caused a few problems because those pesky yanks just didn't like being taxed very much. Anybody see where this is going? In retrospect, we now see just how silly the British were in their taxation methods. Not only did salt help start the American Revolutionary War, but the common Brits weren't taking their salt tax lightly either. According to accounts, in 1785 alone, 10,000 people were arrested for smuggling salt. SIDEBAR The Winsford Rock Salt Mine is the largest salt mine in the UK. It's the size of over 700 football pitches. That's British football pitches, not American football. And it keeps growing as more salt is removed. So what do you do with all that space? Well someone got the bright idea to create deep store. It is more than 1.8 million square meters of storage space, and includes more than 2.2 million boxes. Imagine the room at the end of the Raiders of Lost Ark, only bigger. Yeah, that's big. In the midst of the elimination of the salt tax, and the establishment of the salt union, came a very important improvement in salt mining called vacuum evaporation. This allowed for the production of the much more uniform type of table salt we see today. With its much more refined and cost-effective methods, the old style of using open iron pans was becoming extinct by the 1930s. If you're loving all this salty history, I'd say go to this salty video next. Until next time, be kind, take care of each other, and watch out for those salt mine sink holes.