The town of Droitwich is nothing if not unique. While the county of Worcestershire contains many fascinating and beautiful cities, few can compare with Droitwich in terms of individuality. For one, the city rests atop an abnormally massive salt deposit and people have been extracting the salt from Droitwich for thousands of years. It is said that the salt water that comes out of Droitwich is over ten times more concentrated than the ocean! Each gallon contains two and a half pounds of salt, making this deposit second only to the Dead Sea as the saltiest location on Earth.
Salt has been one of the most important minerals to mankind ever since its discovery. In ancient times there was no refrigeration and salt was one of the only preservatives available. Naturally, a town sitting atop an unlimited amount of salt would most assuredly raise a few eyebrows and the might Roman Empire took control of Droitwich which was, at the time, called Salinae. Think of salinity or saltine and you've got it. The Romans immediately set about extracting the salt by pulling out brine and letting the liquid evaporate. The end result was precious, precious salt by the handful. Unfortunately, the Roman Empire was in its last throes in the first century A.D. and no amount of salt could have prevented the inevitable. As control of England switched from Romans to Saxons to Normans Droitwich remained an essential and important city and by the Middle Ages the king had in fact created a salt tax to get even more income from this golden egg-laying town. Unfortunately the salt deposit would begin to take a bit of a Lorax-like attitude. The constant leaching of the salt over thousands of years began to cause subsidence or, in other words, the land started to become uneven. This subsidence continues to this day and some houses in Droitwich are built upon foundations that are not exactly level.
At any rate, Droitwich experienced another rise in popularity during the 19th century. In those days a peculiar new fad began to take the English aristocracy by storm: Spa towns. A spa town was any town that had a natural spring near it. Doctors began to espouse the virtues of resting in a preferably hot natural spring and rich socialites began flocking in droves to these locales. Any town lucky enough to be a spa town in this era saw its fortunes increase overnight and many of the largest cities in England became so as a result of all this income. Droitwich was just such a town although its high salinity made it a bad idea for drinking the water, which was another thing done in spa towns. Resting in the water, on the other hand, was considered to be even more therapeutic than just resting in a fresh water spring and this allowed Droitwich to be one of the premier spa towns at the time. Though it is still a full-fledged, thriving city, Droitwich has a rich history that deserves just as much attention as its modern-day amenities. The best way to appreciate Droitwich, though, is to visit the town and take in the incredible and unique sights.
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