Ingoldmells Fenland Salterns
About
Along the marshy arc where the Lincolnshire Fens met the sea, Roman salt-makers inherited and expanded an Iron Age industry already centuries old at Ingoldmells. More than 300 salterns are recorded across the Fenland edge, their broken briquetage pans still turning up on the beach at low tide. Workers evaporated seawater over fires in disposable clay vessels, smashing each batch open to reach the salt block inside. The scale here rivaled Roman Cheshire's, built from mud and reeds rather than timber and lead.
What happened here
Shallow pans are cut into the flats behind a beach or a lagoon and filled at high tide through a gate. The water is walked through a sequence of pans, each shallower and saltier than the last, and the sun does the rest over the summer. In late season the crust is raked into ridges, left to drain, then carried off in baskets. The work is hot, glaring and hard on the feet, and it is done by contracted labour on a short season. Salt preserves fish and meat, cures hides and pays part of the state's revenue, so the pans are regulated and often leased from the state. A salina needs sun, wind and a tide, and it shuts down entirely when it rains.
Sources
- Heritage Lincolnshire, 'A Millennium of Saltmaking'
- researchframeworks.org, 'The Roman period' (East Midlands Research Framework, Lincolnshire)
Nearby
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →