Neyland and Llanstadwell Heritage Group

By Simon Hancock

 

18^TH CENTURY SALT REFINERY

An Eighteenth-Century Salt Refinery at Neyland

 

‘This is the place where sugars from Ireland are discharged and pay the English duty at Pembroke; and here woolen yarn from Ireland is imported; Milford Haven being one of the open ports allowed by Act of Parliament. At this place there is also a salt refinery, which supplies the whole country.’ ¹

 

 

Such was the description of Neyland by Lewis Morris (1701–65) in the narrative accompanying his Harbours, Bays and Roads in St George’s Channel (1748) which also suggested improvements and development possibilities for Milford Haven. At Neyland, he ventured, a dock might be constructed where vessels might lie at the dock head in four, six or eight fathoms. Some sixty years later Richard Fenton (1811) repeated Morris’s description almost verbatim except for an important change of tense when referring to the salt refinery. ²
Clearly by the first decade of the nineteenth century the refinery had closed.

Information on this facility is conspicuous by its paucity although the salt refinery must have gone far in meeting the domestic and commercial needs of Pembrokeshire inhabitants and provides an interesting example of an early eighteenth-century industrial enterprise. Salt is absolutely essential for human existence and from time immemorial has been used in the preservation and preparation of food and with numerous applications in agriculture, fishing and industrial processes. In 1785 it was estimated how every person in Britain consumed around 25 lb. of salt each year. ³

Although there had been continental imports of salt into Pembrokeshire those obtained from Cheshire soon dominated local supplies. In the seventeenth century the main salt-producing areas were the baronial borough of Nantwich, the manorial borough of Northwich, and the royal borough of Middlewich. ⁴ Salt could also be obtained from seawater and brine springs. The salt industry was scattered throughout the British Isles although the location of salt refineries depended upon cheap water transport. ⁵

The industry was transformed when in 1670 rock salt was found at Marbury near Great Budworth. Unrefined rock salt could easily be transported for refinement at Bristol and other locations (including Neyland), and the discovery led to the establishment of salt refineries in the North West like those at Frodsham (1694) and Dungeon on the Mersey.

The river Weaver was seen as the cheapest and most effective means of transporting rock salt from the salt field to the Mersey for export. Making the river navigable as far as Winsford received the support of the City Corporation of Liverpool and an Act was secured in 1721, which eventually opened to traffic in 1732. ⁶

The legislation was also supported by the common council of Haverfordwest. On 27 February 1719 a petition signed by the mayor, justices of the peace, aldermen, common councilmen and tradesmen of the town and county was presented to the House of Commons. Their petition described how there was a salt refinery near the town (Neyland being eight miles distant) which supplied salt for curing fish, making butter, cheese and other uses. The salt came from rock salt sourced from Cheshire which was carried by land to Frodsham Bridge before export to Milford Haven. The petitioners pointed out how making the Weaver navigable would reduce carriage costs and ultimately reduce the price to consumers. The petition was ordered to lie on the table. ⁷
This petition is the first oblique reference to the Neyland salt refinery, probably established in the early eighteenth century.

The importation of salt to Milford Haven was clearly demonstrated by one local entrepreneur, Abel Hicks, who managed the Industrious Bee and the Priscilla. One entry in his log reads:

‘Oct. ye 22, 1761. Liverpool. Loaded 49 tone of salt for Milford.’ ⁸

Barbara George has demonstrated the long history of salt importation to Pembrokeshire with references in 1387, 1478, 1479, 1480, and between four to fourteen shipments annually (1500–64) in Spanish, Portuguese and French ships. Much salt came coastwise, having originally come from the continent. Six cargoes of rock salt from Liverpool in 1713 must have been destined for the Neyland refinery. ⁹

Considerable amounts of continental salt were landed at Neyland quay, often rendered as “Nayland”. On 17 December 1753 The Fox brought 2,000 bushels of French salt for the herring industry. ¹⁰
Ibid. ¹¹
On 25 February 1755 the Friendly Thomas landed 2,055 bushels of Spanish salt from Cadiz, attracting a duty of £13 3s. 9d.

Neyland also possessed an important herring industry, as described by Matheson. In 1751 some 13,950 red herrings and 32 barrels and 16 gallons of white herrings were landed. The peak came in 1766 when 185,074 “thousands” of red herrings were landed at Neyland — each “one” equating to 1,320 individual fish and 32 gallons to the barrel. ¹² ¹³

Considerable investment went into fishing in mid-century. Twelve “busses” were being built by the Society of the Free British Fishery, requiring 200 men and costing £12,000. Around this time a merchant, William Whittaker of Gloucester, erected at Barn Lake, opposite Neyland, a commodious quay with warehouses for sugar, rice, and American imports to be re-shipped.

The mid-eighteenth century witnessed a hive of activity due to Neyland quays, Barn Lake quays, the salt refinery, and a private dockyard from which the 28-gun HMS Milford was launched in 1759, and the 74-gun HMS Prince of Wales in 1765.

Goods landed at Neyland included fish oil from Rhode Island, soap and staves from Dublin, brown sugar from the Caribbean, whale products from Greenland, pine boards from Boston and Newfoundland.

The perils of such commerce were real. Alan Crosby notes the losses suffered by Mersey salt vessels from weather and piracy (1695–1708), beginning with the ship Supply, captured by a French privateer in 1695. ¹⁷

The late Dr. B. G. Charles noted revealing place-names in eastern Llanstadwell parish: “The Officer’s Close” and “Salt House” on the Lucas map c.1745 of Little Honeyborough lands belonging to William Scourfield, James Child, Mr. Cornock and Mr. Tasker. ¹⁸

The Henry John map (1759) shows buildings at Neyland Point at the entrance to Westfield Pill — one a shipbuilding shed, others possibly the salt house. ¹⁹

Despite limited information, the refinery was likely operating for around a century. Salt taxation was a crucial element of Government excise income, especially during the Nine Years War and War of the Spanish Succession when excise duties, including salt, expanded dramatically. ²⁰ ²¹ ²² ²³

The Salt Office bureaucracy was huge: 298 staff (1708), 484 (1748), falling to 364 (1783). ²⁴

Customs records don’t mention Neyland directly; officers were stationed at Dale, Hubberston, Angle, Pembroke Ferry, Pembroke, and Tenby. But excise officers appear in the Llanstadwell parish registers: baptisms of children of “salt officers” and burials of several officers. ²⁵ ²⁶ ²⁷

A 1740 survey by Mr Talbot, Salt Commissioner, describes the Neyland salt officer Thomas Barzey/Burzey, aged 70, widower, earning £10 a year, “everything here being dear,” having to go seven miles for necessities. ²⁸ ²⁹

Salt officer salaries were notoriously low. According to the Ninth Report of the Select Committee on Finance (1797), sixteen salt officers in Wales formed part of a national establishment costing £26,942 12s. 11½d, while duties collected totalled over £2.2 million. ³⁰ ³¹ ³² Officers petitioned for increases, estimating they needed £86 3s. 6d to survive. ³³

The first national income tax was introduced in 1799 due to war expenditure.

It is not known exactly when the Neyland salt refinery closed — likely early in the nineteenth century. The local importance of Neyland and Barn Lake in the 1750s was short-lived. The 1852 Act authorising the South Wales Railway to Neyland (Brunel’s chosen terminus) brought destruction of old Neyland including the salt house, shipyard, lime kiln, dwellings, and pubs. Some Barn Lake warehouse walls survived into the twentieth century.

NLW Morgan Richardson 1 139/7/4. The “townred” of Honeyborough

… showing Neyland Point (1759).

 

 

This article is published on the Neyland History website by kind permission of Dr Simon Hancock. It originally appeared in the Journal of the Pembrokeshire Historical Society, volume 12, 2003, pages 59–66.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes

1. Lewis Morris was a noted Welsh hydrographer, antiquarian, poet and lexicographer.
2. Richard Fenton, A Historical Tour Through Pembrokeshire (London, 1811).
3. Joyce Ellis, ‘The Decline and Fall of the Tyneside Salt Industry, 1660-1790: A Re-examination,’ Economic History Review, 33:1 (1980), 45.
4. William Henry Chaloner, ‘Salt in Cheshire 1600-1870,’ Transactions of the Lancashire & Cheshire Antiquarian Society, 71 (1963), 61.
5. Joan Beck, ‘Salt in Cheshire,’ Cheshire Historian, 8 (1958), 3.
6. K.L. Wallwork, ‘The Mid-Cheshire Salt Industry,’ Geography, 44:205 (1959), 172.
7. House of Commons Parliamentary Papers. Fifth Parliament of Great Britain; fourth session (11 November 1718-18 April 1719), 27 February 1719.
8. Francis Green, ‘Dewisland Coasters in 1751,’ West Wales Historical Records, VIII (1919-20), 170.
9. Barbara George, Pembrokeshire Sea Trading Before 1900 (Field Studies, 2:1 (1964), 25.
10. The National Archives (Henceforth TNA) T/1365/7. Treasury Board papers and In-Letters. Papers relating to the harbour of Milford Haven, Co. Pembroke. Account of foreign goods landed at Barn Lake and Neyland quays, 1753-55.
11. Ibid.
12. Colin Matheson, Wales and the Sea Fisheries (Cardiff, 1929), 100.
13. Ibid.
14. The Old England’s Journal, 7 April 1753.
15. Public Advertiser, 29 December 1753.
16. Ibid., 21 January 1757.
17. TNA T/1365/7 Treasury Board Papers and In-Letters, Milford Haven, 1753-55.
18. Alan G. Crosby, ‘By Tempest and Piracy: The Loss of Mersey Salt vessels off Pembrokeshire, 1695-1715,’ Journal of the Pembrokeshire Historical Society, 12 (2003), 59-66.
19. B. G. Charles, The Place Names of Pembrokeshire, II (Aberystwyth, 1992), 610.
20. National Library of Wales. Morgan Richardson 1 139/7/4  Henry John, ‘An exact map of the townred of Honeyboro in the parish of Llanstadwell, in the county of Pembroke.’
21. William J. Ashworth, Trade, Production and Consumption in England, 1640-1845 (Oxford, 2003), 40.
22. Ibid., 65.
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid., 237.
25. Robert M. Kozub, ‘Evolution of Taxation in England, 1700-1850: A Period of War and Industrialisation,’ Journal of European Economic History 32:3 (2003), 363.
26. Ibid., 366.
27. TNA CUST/18/51; CUST/18/55; CUST/18/59; CUST/18/62; CUST/18/66; CUST/18/69; CUST/18/73; CUST/18/77 Board of Customs Establishments.
28. Pembrokeshire Archives (Hereafter PA) HPR/13/97.  Llanstadwell Parish Registers, Baptisms 1714-1812.
29. Ibid., Marriages 1714-93.
30. Ibid., Burials, 1714-1812.
31. ‘Extracts from a Report of a Survey on the Coast of Wales by a member of the Salt Board. Mr. Talbot’s Survey in the Year 1740,’ Choice Chips of revenue Lore being Papers relating to the Establishment of the Excise, Excise Duties, Salaries, Superannuation & c. also cuttings from Excise general Letters of the Last Century and from other documents relating principally to the Excise Revenue in England from 1660 to 1876 (1877), 128.
32. Ibid.
33. Ninth Report from the Select Committee on Finance. Collection of the Public Revenue. Salt Office (1797), 242.
34. Ibid.
35. Ibid., 256.
36. Edward Hughes, ‘The Salaries of the Excise officers and a Cost of Living Index (1795-1800),’ Economic History, 3:11 (1936), 263.