The River Adur & Salt

I recently went out to the River Adur to collect some water as the tide was at its height. The idea was to investigate the process of making salt from the brackish water once used by saltmakers at the various "salterns" that existed at certain places along the river. The last time this activity occurred was something like 600 to 900 years ago when the tidal action brought seawater up the river to the local flood plains. It didn't turn out quite the way I expected!

[@everythinginlifeisrecorded5309]

Interesting project. The salt must settle along the way or ?

[@SussexYank]

Perhaps, but not much would settle. Back when salt making was done here, as the incoming tide pushed water upstream, eventually the water would contain perceptible amounts of dissolved salt, and this is when they would collect it at the salterns by boiling off the water. If any dissolved salt settled into the river bottom, it would soon be washed back out by the oncoming fresh water as the tide receded. There would be some salt retained in the overflow on both sides of the river, and this would create salt marshes. In the vicinity of Rye in East Sussex and Kent, there were formerly extensive salt marshes (one of them known today as Romney Marsh). But here, as near Rye, gradual silting up of the rivers Adur and Rother filled up the marshes and flooding ended.