The Saltpans at Saltcoats: by Owen Kelly

[down south]

The salt industry was so important in Saltcoats for centuries, that the town was named after it. Yet I doubt if most of us have much idea of its history, or of the processes that were involved.

Something of that story is told in the following article , which appeared in the Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald at the beginning of 1972. It was researched and written by Owen Kelly himself; main founder and curator of the North Ayrshire Museum, who needs little introduction to Threetowners ( see http://www.threetowners.net/forum/viewt ... 677#p72677 ; I think I'm right in saying that would have been not long before he died.

Full acknowledgements therefore are due to both the author and the Herald for its appearance here.

Susan


THE SALTPANS OF SALTCOATS

Since the earliest times man has used salt to change, disguise, flavour and preserve food. In Eastern countries it represents hospitality, durability, fidelity and purity.

Until comparatively recent years salt was obtained by evaporation from sea water and while this presented no problems in warm climates, in temperate countries a different method had to be employed. Even so solar evaporation was used on the South Coast of England during the more or less brief periods of hot summer weather.

In Scotland salt works were scattered over the East and West coasts and it has been suggested that the original salt workings at Saltcoats were begun by the monks of Kilwinning Abbey. In 1189 the monks of Newbattle established a salt works and the neighbourhood came to be known as Prestonpans. Another district on the East Coast was named Saltpan Hall and there were similar salt activities on the coast of Buchan in Aberdeenshire and the shores of the Moray Firth.

The monks of Paisley worked salt pans in Kalentyr while the monks of Melrose had a salt work at Redkirk which was let in 1294 to the monks of Holmcultram, the owners of other saltworks on the Solway. One of these which remained Church property until the Reformation was known as Lady Saltcots while another on the shore of Caerlaverock parish was named Saltcotknowes. Locally, and contemporary with Saltcoats, there were salt works at Troon, Prestwick, Ayr and Arran.

As far as Saltcoats is concerned little documentary evidence is available as to the origin of salt making but the name itself is significant. The parishes of Ardrossan and Stevenston in which the village of Saltcoats was situated were dependencies of the Abbey of Kilwinning itself founded by Hugh de Morville in 1146. There is a tradition that Hew Fergus, 'curate of ye kirk on the Chappel Brae, Sautcottes' died in 1272. In 1544 the Earl of Glencairn granted 999 year leases to nine fishermen in Saltcots concerning Nine Yards or plots of ground (still so-called today) for ferrying the Earl's furniture to Findlaystone in the Spring and bringing it back in the Fall.

Until towards the close of the 17th century salt had been obtained by boiling seawater in small pans or kettles using mainly peat or seacoal. But in 1684 with the opening of the coal pits at Stevenston a change took place.

The process of extracting salt was kept a closely-guarded secret. In the early days wooden pipes conveyed the water to the pans but later iron pipes, serviced with a pump, were used. The water was brought to boiling point and kept at this temperature for eight to twelve hours during which small flakey crystals formed and settled on the bottom of the pan. When the brine had almost evaporated the damp salt was removed in wicker baskets, drained and dried in stoves and became known as "stoved or lump salt."

On heat being applied to the water various impurities, mainly lime and iron, separated, rose to the surface and were removed. Sometimes the impurities allowed to sink to the pan bottom were raked out along with the salt. Hence the "clearing" of the pans. After three or four weeks an incrustation which formed on the pan bottom had to be chipped off with picks.

In preparing "common" salt the brine was quickly brought to the boil with the double object of rapid evaporation and the separation of impurities. The fires were then slackened for another 24 hours and the resultant salt, in quadrangular pyramids and hard and close in texture, removed in wicker baskets to the store or garnel. Large grain or " fishery " salt required slow evaporation from seven to ten days.

For ordinary domestic purposes " stove " salt was used But for the " striking " or preservation of fish or meat intended for home consumption " common " salt sufficed. In warm climates or during long voyages " fishery " salt became necessary. A special variety— Sunday salt— so named because the fires were slackened from Saturday to Monday— large-grained and crystalline in appearance, was held in high esteem.

Another process, pioneered at Saltcoats and of outstanding industrial value, concerned the making of magnesia and Epsom Salts. After boiling the brine for eight hours until it had evaporated and the residual damp salt placed in wooden troughs with holes in the bottom, a bitter liquid or " bittern " drained into pits. This liquid was collected during the summer months with salt-making in full operation and reboiled and evaporated in the salt pans in the winter to produce magnesia and Epsom Salts. On its way from the trough to the pit the bittern passed over upright stakes and part of the salt which had escaped evaporation crystallised and formed lumps of about 40 to 80 pounds known as " Sea Cats ". Blood and lime were used to hasten the separation of impurities from the brine and barrels of these commodities were much in evidence. The brine which produced 100 tons of salt also produced four to five tons of magnesia and one ton of sea cats.

The reason for the existence of the salt pans at Saltcoats is attributed to the high salt content of the water, the close proximity of sea coal and a small community of fishermen. Salt-making was an important industry closely associated with coal-mining. Until 1775, and partially to 1795, salters, like coaliers, were bound to this occupation.
There were two sets of salt pans in Saltcoats during the 18th century. One, the North Salt Pans (the site of the present bathing pool), belonged to the Earl of Eglinton while the other, close to the harbour, was owned by the Cuninghame family.

In 1726 600 bushels were shipped from Saltcoats harbour and taxed at the rate of 20 pence a bushel. In 1737 2029 bushels (say 102 tons) were produced at both sets of pans of which exports amounted to 800 bushels. The salt tax in 1737 was only sixpence a bushel but a system of rebates and bounties makes comparison difficult. Arran too, had its salt pans situated at the Cock of Arran where there was an outcrop of coal. The Salt Officer in 1714 was James Sempil and during that year the Duchess of Hamilton paid tax on 16 bushels of salt sent "coast-wise" while during the following year she paid tax on 184 bushels of which 146 were sold "coast-wise" and 38 sold locally or "retail." In 1733 the tax on 180 bushels of Arran salt had been paid.

From 1766 to 1794 the usage of coal at the Cuninghame salt pans amounted to eighty-six thousand tons at an average cost of three shillings per ton. In 1794 salt was sold at eleven shillings per boll of fifty-six pounds and cost, according to Cuninghame, eight shillings to produce. For the six years ending March 5, 1808 the five pans yielded a profit of £534. In 1817 two thousand five hundred tons of small waste coal were used in the Cuninghame salt pans compared with eleven thousand tons of domestic or round coal shipped from Saltcoats and Ardrossan harbours and valued respectively at £759 and £4,794. Salters wages amounted to £256 with a further £44 to the grieve or foreman. Salt sales totalled £1,065.

From the earliest times salt was a favourite commodity selected for taxation. During the reign of James VI an Act of the Scots Parliament banned its export except in exchange for timber. Heavy duties were imposed on French and Spanish salt with, in 1726, a tax of eight shillings per bushel. The Customs Office staff at Irvine consisted of a Collector, Supervisor, Officer ( annual salary £ 25 ), Watchman ( £ 15 ) augmented with an Assistant Watchman at Saltcoats. In 1728 six hundred bushes of Scots white salt were shipped from Saltcoats harbour to Ayr, Dumfries, Wigton, Kirkcudbright, Fort William and Bangor. One hundred years later Saltcoats magnesia, already marketed throughout the British Isles, was being exported to America, particularly New York.

With the removal of the Salt Tax in 1828 a gradual decline in salt-making took place. Smuggling was universal and a respectable occupation. The tax was complicated and difficult to enforce. Foreign and home rock salt being cheaper to buy captured an increasing share of the market yet the traditional salt commanded a faithful following.

The farming community, using it for hay-making, butter and cheese, maintained that its unique qualities far surpassed that of other salt. But the competition could not be halted and the pans at Saltcoats, as elsewhere, fell into disrepair. By the middle of the nineteenth century the North Salt Pans were already out of use and the Cuninghame Pans, now owned by the Bairds, the coalmasters and ironfounders, urgently required repair.

Around 1874 John Smith, manager of Eglinton Iron Works and better known for his archaeological research, being asked to examine the condition of the Salt Pans reported that they were in poor condition and uneconomic to repair and maintain. This adverse assessment sealed the fate of the Salt Pans and shortly thereafter they were abandoned. Thus ended an era not only for Saltcoats and Scotland but probably also for Great Britain. An activity, an industry and a way of life, in existence for seven centuries, had vanished.
OWEN KELLY

[BobP]

Jings

It`s a long time since I read that- Really does make you appreciate Owen`s love for the history of the area- Oh that we had a couple of him in Schools now

[down south]

There are some good images these days relating to the Salcoats salt works in the Flickr " Yesterd@ys " collection . These ones show general scenes of the saltmaking process in operation, and must date back to the 1870s or earlier:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/44850481@N05/6302124344/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/44850481@N05/6301635947/

There's also this terrific one showing the remains of a saltpan building, still complete enough to show what it looked like:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/44850481@N05/6347458870/

I would guess it may be the same , or a similar building in the background of this one too, showing shipbuilding at the harbour:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/44850481@N05/6347861474/

The two activities were very much mixed in together apparently on the Braes, up till they finally declined in the late nineteenth century; some of this is detailed here in Chapter 7 of " Old and New ", including a rather more romanticised description of the saltmaking processes than Owen Kelly's:

http://www.threetowners.com/old-new/chapter-07/

One which also gives more to work on in imagining just where exactly the saltpans area was in relation to the Braes and the harbour.From the description it seems that it must have been concentrated up at the quay end of the Braes, not least because the bottom end of Quay Street on old maps has the name Pan Brae; that would have been the convenient end for the coal suppiles to arrive too.

The major part of Braes of course wasn't' filled in and levelled out till the 1920s,and then continued as an open space, bigger than today, until the seafront flats were built; so I'm intrigued to read in the " Old and New " account , written in around 1909, that the site of the old salt pans had been built on by then and was " now covered with large dwellings " . I wonder if that could perhaps have been Hirst Place ?

http://www.threetowners.net/forum/viewt ... 839#p95839

Susan

[down south]

I think Sam's labelling of this picture of his ( the first one ) , that appeared an earlier post, may well answer my question; you certainly get the best idea of all from it, of where the Saltpans operated:

http://www.threetowners.net/forum/viewt ... 931#p72931

Or to be more specific, the South Pans. The North Pans, which were abandoned at a much earlier date, were , as Owen Kelly tells us, on the rocks at Winton Circus where the Saltpans bathing pool was later created.

Old maps from the earlier 19th century were still showing a number of ruined buildings scattered around there, and this remaining gable end is seen here still surviving towards the end of the century. Looks like it's before many of the houses were even built:



But in fact it lasted longer than that. I've mentioned this before elsewhere, but here it is again; in Chapter 10 of "Old and New ", the author remarks that on the rocks

" there still rests the gable of the North Pans , against which was built the Bathing House "

And it's that same gable you can see built up into a small hut here:

http://www.threetowners.net/forum/viewt ... 588#p91588

and even still, I strongly suspect, with the crowstep and the flag atop it ,surrounded by a bigger bathing house in this much later picture;

viewtopic.php?p=87948#p87948

Though it will have finally disappeared when the pool was upgraded and the bathing house replaced in the 1930s.

Susan

[down south]

And so here's all that remains now of the famous salt industry of Saltcoats ; this picturesque bottle of Saltcoats salt preserved in the North Ayrshire Museum ...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/44850481@N05/5588628052/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Susan

[brian f]

I discovered this company that produces salt recently. Have a look i found it interesting.

https://www.blackthornsalt.co.uk/tradition

[bonzo]

Brian, I cycle past there quite often, I can't remember what series it is but there is a hairy bikers telly program that goes to blackthorn salt and explains how it works.

[brian f]

Brian, I cycle past there quite often, I can't remember what series it is but there is a hairy bikers telly program that goes to blackthorn salt and explains how it works.

Thanks, bonzo i found it

The Hairy Bikers Go Local
Series 1:Episode 2


Looks a lovely area for a bike ride