Salt on the Screen

Salt-making has taken place in Lincolnshire for over 3000 years. The long coastline, formerly fringed with salt marshes, provided the perfect conditions for this vital industry to emerge.

Today, evidence of salt-making is barely visible in the landscape. Successive changes to the coastline have buried much of the evidence under layers of clays and silt. Salt-making mounds, some as much as two metres high, once littered the landscape. Now, though, many have been levelled through decades of intensive agriculture.

The map below show the locations of salterns - salt-making sites - within the Lincolnshire landscape. It can be made full screen by clicking the icon in the top-right corner. Each data point can be clicked on to reveal further information about the salt-making site it represents.

Below the map, two separate pathways, Fen and Coast, are available for exploring the history of salt-making in greater depth. These offer a virtual tour of the Lincolnshire landscape and presentation of some of the key evidence. Through this, a changing landscape over time is revealed that reflects how the environment determines human activities, and in turn, how humans impact their surroundings.

We hope you enjoy exploring this new resource.

Use the link below to explore the history of salt-making in the fenland region.

Use the link below to explore the history of salt-making in the coastal region.

Salt on the Screen is a University of York Digital Creativity Lab Summer School 2021 project. The project seeks to use interactive digital media to explain and explore historic Lincolnshire salt making. Salt on the Screen was developed by environmental scientist Dr Katherine Selby (project lead), design researcher Dr Debbie Maxwell (project co-lead); and HCI researcher Alexandra Leigh (project researcher). You can contact the research team and  find out more about the project here .

Salt on the Screen was created with the support of

• Tom Lane
• Dave Bromwich & The Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust
• Tish Cookson & the Dynamic Dunescapes Project
• CITiZAN