Salt Pie Farm - etymology?

[Mosaic]

I wonder of anyone can throw light on the origin of the place name Salt Pie? It is a farm inbetween Lothersdale and Kelbrook in NE Lancashire. The 'salt' seems pretty straightforward, but a more inland and unsalty location would be difficult to find. And as for the Pie....?

[bert_h]

Possibly the "pie" is a contraction of French "pied" = foot. Also "salt" could be alluding to something that jumps - see "saltation" in the dictionary - and in particular a waterfall. So if the farm is near the foot of a waterfall, all is explained.

[jno]

there's a Saltby in Leicstershire where Salt or Salti is a Scandinavian man's name. Is Salt Pie Farm in the Danelaw?

[Mosaic]

No waterfalls bert - just on an open hillside.
Yes Jno, well inside Danelaw. But how do we unpick the 'Pie'?

[jno]

well, I thought it might be the same as Salt By ("by" being a farmstead or a village - probably the former in this case, unless it's a vanished community).

[Mosaic]

Interesting Jno. There are many other Scandinavian and hybrid names in the area, and many with -by endings.
Thanks to you both for having a bash!

[Nibble]

I bet these people will know http://www.nottingham...amesociety/index.aspx

[Mosaic]

Been using the existing database there Nibs - neither element comes up. Thanks though.

[jno]

ah, now...

http://www.flickr.com.../fishchap/4534738937/

[HowardKennitby]

jno

Nice work, you English will do anything to make money :-).

[craft1948]

Well done jno....................

[jno]

well, I don't know that an entire farm would be devoted to salt pies (unless they grew fields full of them). But apparently there were/are such things as salt pies, so the origin could be that simple.

[HowardKennitby]

This thread has just brought back a memory of when I was at Uni and a flat-mate was cooking a curry to impress a woman. He was not a very good cook and confused the salt measure of tsp with tbs. We spent some time in the pub later.

[Mosaic]

Thanks Jno - that is very interesting as the farm lies along ancient upland packhorse routes, so a reputation for refreshment would perhaps make sense in a bleak landscape.
I reckon they must have sold the ale in the same place though - there isn't a pub for miles.
But I'm also coming back to the name and questioning it, even in the Kirby Lonsdale plaque.....there are loads of similar tales that account for odd names, nearly all apocryphal.

[jno]

googling suggests there's more than one Salt Pie Farm in Britain so it may be the name was once not as odd as it now sounds.

There are even images of salt pies, though I'm not clear what they actually are.

[Mosaic]

Just as a matter of interest, I got a reply back from Nottingham University on this place name. I think you'll like their answer: a salt pie appears to be a local name for those wooden salt boxes you see in antique shops - the sort you hang on the wall. Buildings that had lean-to extensions often got referred to as 'Salt Pie' because they looked like these boxes.
In salford we used to call a certain old building 'teapot hall' because its dome looked like a teapot....similar process to Salt Pie.

[carlingp1]

A salt pie was a wooden square container to hold salt. The word also became used for a lean-too shed possibly because of the shape and sloping top of the salt container