medieval mills at Efford and Gordleton still exist as places and names. Upper Common used to be called New Mill Common on account of the Mill that was at Wainsford just across Avon Water. This can be seen in the 1841-2 tithe map. The Church and the Ecclesiastical Parish There was also a chantry chapel at Pennington, the earliest known record of which dates from 1285. The advowson of the chapel seems to have belonged to the three lords of Pennington, and the chapel was dedicated to Mary Magdalene. The last-mentioned record of the chapel shows that it survived the confiscations of 1547–8. The first parish church in Pennington, dedicated to Saint Mark, was erected in 1839. The church was replaced with the current building around 1858–60. Saltworks For most of the 18th century Pennington & Lymington were the main producers of sea salt in the country. It was an industry that had existed along these shores for many hundreds of years, from at least 1217 and possibly dating back to Roman times. There was a continuous line of salt works along the five miles of coastline from Lymington to Hurst Spit. The greatest concentration was in an area of two miles by half a mile wide situated in Oxey and Pennington marshes. In Pennington Remembered – A Pictorial Recollection, Joan Stephens recounts that ‘there was a time that this part of Pennington was far from beautiful for.. the great local industry was the manufacture of salt. Along the marshes were the salt pans, where sea water was evaporated by the sun; and boiling houses, where day and night smoky coal furnaces made the final extraction, causing a dirty smudge on the coastline… Philip Fallé writing in 1694, saw Pennington Marshes as “a most unhealthy place, without fresh water.. with stinking vapours and smoke that arise out of the neighbouring marshes.” Per Stephens, the sea salt undertaking was finally abandoned in 1845 ‘when an inexhaustible supply of mineral salt could be provided from Cheshire. Thus ended a great local industry going back to very early times when in 1217 we are told the Sheriff was ordered to restore to Henry de Pont the possessions of his “customs” of salt in Pennington and Efford which had been taken into the King’s hands.’ Other commentators cite the duties imposed on sea salt as a significant contributor to the downfall of the Pennington