A 1923 map shows the historic boundaries of Cheshire
From the earliest times, one commodity worth carrying for considerable distances was salt. It is essential for life in small quantities in both humans and animals. It is critically important for nerve and muscle function, it also plays a role in the body’s control of blood pressure and volume. However, these functions require only small quantities of salt; the really important role for salt as a commodity in the Middle Ages was as a preservative for meat and other food throughout the winter. There were no facilities to shelter stock throughout the winter and not enough fodder to feed them, so most animals were slaughtered and salted down.
The salt industry was firmly established in Cheshire by Roman times and there are some indications of it being traded in 500 BC. By the time of Edward the Confessor, the Cheshire wiches (Nantwich, Middlewich and Northwich) were owned jointly by the King and Earl Edwin of Mercia who shared the tolls in the proportion of two to one. The industry continued after the Norman Conquest. There are details of the wiches in the Domesday survey but ownership had changed from Saxon overlords to Norman. The Abbey of Basingwerke in Flintshire took control of some of the salt and, after 1157, it was given the manor of Glossop which occupied a strategic position controlling one of the natural routes over the Pennines.
A Victorian illustration of a 16th century packhorse train
Salt would be collected from the Cheshire wiches by cart or by horse load and carried through Stockport, Mottram and on through Longdendale en route for South Yorkshire. Before the major changes to county boundaries in 1974, the whole of the route as far as Salterbrook would be in Cheshire, much of it along an incongruous spur of land that penetrated into the hills between Lancashire and Derbyshire. This odd shape to the old county was no accident. It was intended to protect the interests of the Earls of Chester who had gained considerable income from the sale of salt and who had no wish to pay tolls in order to pass through other counties.
It is important to remember that the thin strip of land was not ‘stolen’ from another county as it passed under the control of the Earls before county boundaries were firmly established, particularly in the poorer, less inhabited upland areas. The natural boundary along Longdendale is the River Etherlow. Originally it was the approximate boundary between the areas of influence of Lancashire and Derbyshire, just as it had been the fluid boundary between Mercia and Northumbria. However, “might is right”, and the powerful Earls of Chester took control of the strip of land because they had a monetary incentive; the other landholders, much less of an interest. As the county boundaries gradually took shape, this strange salient became incorporated within the County Palatine of Cheshire.
The packhorse trade in salt continued until the 18th century when canals and turnpikes gradually put them out of business. Some indication of the former importance of the trade can be inferred from the number of salt place names along the routes; Salter’s Gate; Salter Edge and Salter’s Brook. And in this area we have Salter’s Bridge which is generally understood to be where the A626 crosses Poise Brook, on the edge of Stockport Golf Club, next to Broadoak Farm.
