I generally agree with Peter King for the use of coastal rutways as he describes for seaweed collection. There were at least seven coastal alum works which were at an advantage over the inland ones because of that very situation with much of the alum produced being shipped to London. The finished product of alum crystals was transported in barrels or sacks from a storehouse at the boiling house to a quayside or jetty for shipment so leading it in carts over the foreshore must have been minimal; to say that the rutways were formed by alum shipping is misleading.
However seaweed was a suitable alkali for use in the production of the alum crystals in the boiling house so carting it for several hundred yards along the rocky foreshore is highly probable; the Yorkshire alum industry had a lifespan of about 250 years, long enough to justify the deliberate formation of rutways.
Simon.
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