Salt works

The National Monuments Service's description

Located on the S side of Slade Harbour and SE of the fortified house (WX054-008002-). In 1685 Henry Loftus rented the castles and land of Slade to William Mansel, who was a brother-in-law of his wife’s and who had been implicated in the Monmouth rebellion in England against James II in 1685. Mansel developed the saltworks, which functioned by dissolving rock-salt, and evaporating the brine into a purer commodity to be used in the fishing industry. Rock-salt from Cheshire was imported using the pier (WX054-017----) built by Henry Loftus in 1684. Coal for both the saltworks and the lighthouse (WX054-010----) was also imported at Slade, The saltworks may have been in decline by the 1770s (Hore 1900-11, vol. 4, 425-6), and the works are described as 'disused' on the 1839 ed. of the OS 6-inch map. Much of the E end of the structure was destroyed in the later 19th century (ibid. vol. 4, 419-20).
The E end of the complex originally consisted of four E-W corridors, arranged four-square. Each corridor was divided into four chambers (int. dims c. 5m E-W; c. 3.5m N-S), and each chamber is corbelled separately. Only the SW corridor survives complete (int. dims 20m E-W; 3.5m N-S) but fragments of corbelling or piers from the NW and SE corridors are present. The contiguous W end of the complex consists of the remains of small corbelled chambers centred on a large square corbelled chamber (dims 7m x 7m), which was open at the top. The total length of the complex is c. 60m E-W. The corridors were probably used for storage while the evaporation might have been conducted in the open-roofed chamber. (Colfer 2004, 150-2)

The abpve description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Wexford' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1996). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload/revision: 31 March, 2014

References

Hore, P.H. 1900-1911 (Reprint 1979) History of the town and county of Wexford, 6 vols. Dublin. Published by arrangement with W.A. Hennessy Esq.

Colfer, B. 2004 The Hook peninsula. Cork, University Press