I love you like salt, as the story goes.
“I love you like salt,” the folktale says-an understated sentiment for something so essential. From the Iron Age to Instagram-age kitchens, it has seasoned life in more ways than one.
Salt has been produced in Britain since the iron age and there are salt producers around the country reviving traditional methods and provenance.
From preserving and making food taste better to throwing it over your left shoulder for good luck, salt has always played an important role in life.
Salt is essential to life ! and everybody has it in the cupboard. With a great choice of British salt brands out there, you can find your favourite.
Salt in Britain
Salt has been harvested, mined and traded across Britain and around the world for thousands of years.
Salt has been extracted from from brine springs, wells for centuries, as well as being harvested along the coast.
Historically it has been the main method for preserving food, and was necessary to sustain the winter months or long journeys.
Salt draws out moisture from food preventing growth of bacteria making food that could be preserved highly valuable.
Read more about the full and fascinating history of salt from the Salt Association.
Originally the Word Salt comes from Latin ‘salarium’, meaning salary, as it was once a hugely valuable commodity.
Buy British Salt
Taste the range of salt from around Britain. From the Scottish coast to the Cornish sea, and from Welsh flats to English brine springs, British salt brands are thriving. You can shop pure sea salt, flavoured blends and rock salt through farm shops, delis, markets and online stores.
If you are visiting the one of the salt producing areas or looking for a foodie gift, pick up some artisan salt.
England
Ireland
Scotland
Wales
Channel Islands
Inland Salt Industry
Mostly we think of salt coming from the sea, however the centre of salt mining in Britain is Cheshire!
Winsford Rock Salt Mine, in Northwich is Britain’s largest and oldest working mine. Active since 1640, the mine is 200m under the Cheshire countryside. You can visit the mine to get a closer look
Rock salt is commercially mined at Boulby Mine, North Yorkshire and Kilroot near Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland.
Salt Marshes and ‘Wych’ Towns
Salt has been extracted from from brine springs, wells for centuries, as well as being harvested along the coast.
Places in England that end in -wich or -wych are often areas with brine springs or wells.
This comes from the Anglo-Saxon word wych, meaning ‘brine town’
There are several towns for example, Northwich, Nantwich, Droitwich and Middlewich that made up the ‘Salt towns’ of Cheshire.
If you are interested in the history of salt production in England The Lion Salt Works, the only salt museum in the country, is in the village of Marston in Cheshire. The restored open-pan salt making site, which closed in 1986, is open to visitors and hosts exhibitions and events.
Harvesting Sea Salt
Britain has a long history of sea salt ‘cultivation’. From Anglesey to Cornwall, coastal producers continue to craft salt using wind, tide and time.
Along the coast, one region still renowned for producing sea salt is Maldon in Essex. Salt has been produced there for at least a millennium. The Domesday Book of 1086 recorded 45 working salt pans in Maldon alone.
From, spilling salt, which brings bad luck, to throwing it over your shoulder for good luck. There are traditions, superstitions and folklore relating to salt the world over.
Taken with a Pinch of Salt
Salt Folklore and traditions
Luck, Lore and a Pinch of Folklore. Superstition has always followed salt.
From, spilling salt which brings bad luck to throwing it over your shoulder for good luck. There are traditions, superstitions and folklore relating to salt the world over.
Because it preserved life and food, salt came to signify character as well as currency. To be ‘worth your salt’ was not a throwaway phrase, but a mark of trust and value.
Such was its value that it would come to be associated with defining good character.
Worth Your Salt
Harvesting Sea Salt
Read the story of Sugar and Salt (links to page 48) in Sidney Oldall Addy, Household Tales, with Other Traditional Remains Collected in the Counties of York, Lincoln, Derby and Nottingham (London and Sheffield, 1895)
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