Open-pan salt making from lead using wood as a fuel. In Britain they established towns for salt production at Droitwich in Worcestershire, and Nantwich, Middlewich and Northwich in Cheshire. In the early Middle Ages these developed into the 'wich' towns of Cheshire. Small 'wich' houses containing several lead pans to evapourate the brine into salt, clustered around brine springs within each of the towns. The open-pan process continued largely unchanged throughout the medieval period. A 17th-century German wood-cut by Georgius Agricola shows the process in detail. Excavated evidence has uncovered wooden rakes to draw salt crystals to the side of the pan, and
-wich town -wich town A "-"wich" town" is a settlement in Anglo-Saxon England characterised by extensive artisanal activity and tradean "emporium". The name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon suffix , signifying "a dwelling or fortified place". Such settlements were usually coastal and many have left material traces found during excavation. Eilert Ekwall wrote: As well as "-wich", "-" was the origin of the endings and , as, for example, in Papplewick, Nottinghamshire. Four former "-"wīc" towns" are known in England as the consequence of excavation. Two of theseJorvik (Jorwic) in present-day York and Lundenwic near Londonare waterfront sites, while the other two,