To exploit their environment to the maximum, Cistercian
monks required a variety of holdings and rights including mills
and fisheries, the right to mine and to dig turf as at Redley,
which was the gift of a
Nicholas de Bellun in the late twelfth century.(103) Another
important resource was salt. This was vital for preserving food,
but was also needed for the
manufacture of cheese, the tanning of leather, the curing of shoes
and the soldering of pipes. The monks did not mine salt but collected
it through
evaporation at salt pans.(104)