Monument record TQ 67 SE 1328 - A possible Late Iron Age/Roman roundhouse

A circular clay-built feature measuring approximately ten metres in diameter is intermittently visible on the lower foreshore. It survives as a low, slightly raised clay annulus, exposed only at favourable low tides and frequently obscured again by shifting silt. A south‑facing entrance gap, about 1.5 metres wide, breaks the ring, and a short section of brushwood trackway extends from this opening toward the south. Several isolated stake positions lie nearby, though none are clearly associated with the ring itself.

The form of the structure is characteristic of Late Iron Age to early Roman circular enclosures, raising two principal interpretations: that it represents the drip‑ditch or gully of a roundhouse, or alternatively that it functioned as a livestock pen or small animal‑management enclosure positioned on the edge of the marsh. Supporting material is sparse but includes animal bone and oyster shell clustered outside the entrance, consistent with low‑level domestic or pastoral activity.

A fragment of a Colchester‑type mortarium—a Roman flanged mixing bowl typically dated to AD 140–180/190—was found just outside the entrance. The sherd is almost certainly secondary material that has washed into the feature's vicinity rather than a primary component of the structure, but it nonetheless provides a mid‑second‑century date for at least some of the activity occurring within the same horizon. The morphology of the clay ring itself, however, suggests origins rooted in Late Iron Age or early Roman construction traditions, leaving its precise date uncertain.
Stratigraphically the ring sits within the Roman horizon band of the lower foreshore and occupies a position within the broader SMF complex, lying close to the main salt‑working installations at SMF 02 and SMF 03. Its relationship to these features remains unclear, but its placement may reflect incidental or seasonal use connected with nearby industrial activity.(1)

<1> Steve Trim, 2026, SHORNE/HIGHAM THAMESIDE ROMANO-BRITISH SITES 2012-2015+, SMF (04) (Unpublished document). SKE58794.