Salt

Scotland's Newest Oldest Industry

Christopher A. Whatley, Joanna Hambly, Christopher A. Whatley, Joanna Hambly

• Publisher: John Donald
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781910900970
• eBook ISBN: 9781788855907
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Economic History
• Index: History

Salt is a vital commodity. For many centuries it sustained life for Scots as seasoning for a diet dominated by grains (mainly oats), and for preservation of fish and cheese.

Sea-salt manufacturing is one of Scotland's oldest industries, dating to the eleventh century if not earlier. Smoke- and steam-emitting panhouses were once a common sight along the country's coastline and are reflected in many of Scotland's placenames. The industry was a high-status activity, with the monarch initially owning salt pans. Salt manufacture was later organised by Scotland's abbeys and then by landowners who had access to the sea and a nearby supply of coal. As salt was an important source of tax revenue for the government, it was often a cause of conflict (and military action) between Scotland and England. The future of the industry – and the price of salt for consumers – was a major issue during negotiations around the Union of 1707.

This book celebrates both the history and the rebirth of the salt industry in Scotland. Although salt manufacturing declined in the nineteenth century and was wound up in the 1950s, in the second decade of the twenty-first century the trade was revived. Scotland's salt is now a high-prestige, green product that is winning awards and attracting interest across the UK.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• List of Plates
• List of Contributors
• 1 Introduction: Christopher A. Whatley and Joanna Hambly
• 2 A Brief History of Scottish Salt from the Eleventh Century to the Late Twentieth Century: Richard Oram and Christopher A. Whatley
• 3 Working Lives at the Pans: Skills, Serfdom – and the Salt Officers: Christopher A. Whatley
• 4 The Archaeology of Scottish Salt: Joanna Hambly
• 5 The Story of Salt Making in Brora, East Sutherland, 1598–1825 Malcolm Bangor-Jones, Joanna Hambly and Jacqueline Aitken
• 6 A Salter’s Tale: From Clackmannan to Portsoy: John Blair
• 7 Salt on Scotland’s Southern Coast: Nic Coombey and John Pickin
• 8 An Early Modern Salt-Making Complex in Pittenweem (Fife) 1534–1567: R. Anthony Lodge
• 9 St Philips Saltworks, St Monans, Fife: ‘one of the neatest and best contrived saltworks on the coast’: Colin Martin, Paula Martin and Robin Murdoch
• 10 No Salt without Coal, No Coal without Salt: The Painting of an Eighteenth-Century Scottish Industrial Estate: Charles Wemyss
• 11 Cockenzie, 1722, and the Recovery of a Saltwork Community Ed Bethune, Gareth Jones, Alan Braby, Gary Donaldson and Aaron Allen
• 12 Community and Experimental Salt Making in Cockenzie and Brora: Learning about Historic Technologies by Doing: Gary Donaldson, Jacqueline Aitken and Penny Paterson
• 13 Blackthorn Salt, Ayr: Traditional Salt Making in the Twenty-First Century: Whirly Marshall
• 14 Salt Making on the Isle of Skye: Eighteenth Century to the Present (and the Isle of Skye Sea Salt Company): Chris and Meena Watts
• Afterword: Christopher A. Whatley
• Notes
• Further Reading
• Index