Monument record TQ 67 NE 1330 - Site of artefacts washed out from nearby Roman both house

A stratified Roman horizon is exposed within the eroding marsh face, where material is being winnowed downslope from a height of approximately one to three metres below the present surface. The sequence comprises two principal tiers: an upper mat of small sherds compacted into a thin surface, which seals a lower layer rich in ceramic building material (CBM), masonry, large pottery sherds, and associated industrial and domestic debris. The horizon lies around four to five metres above the lower foreshore scatter recorded at OB 01.

The assemblage points to the destruction and dispersal of a high‑status Roman building, very probably a heated facility such as a bath‑house. Indicators include fragments of hypocaust tile, tegulae and imbrices (roof tiles), flue tiles, worked masonry blocks, and vessel glass, together with a glass aryballos neck—a small toiletry bottle type frequently associated with bathing contexts. Pottery from the lower layer is dominated by Black‑Burnished Ware Type 2 (BB2)—including flanged dishes with intersecting‑arc burnish, bowls with wavy‑line burnish, and a larger globular vessel decorated with wavy lines and ruled bands—alongside Nene Valley products (including beakers and so‑called Castor Ware boxes), samian ware (including a Dr. 43/45 form mortarium and beakers), and Verulamium Region Ware (VRW) mortarium fragments. Thames and Medway greywares are present in quantity. The ceramic suite, combined with glass and architectural fragments, is consistent with mid‑second‑century activity.

Structural and infrastructural traces bolster the interpretation. Eroding wattling and worked stakes attest to stabilisation or revetment along the marsh edge, while a timber drain or culvert—about 1.5 metres long with a D‑section channel, capped by thin planks and wedged in place with sherds from a greyware vessel—was recorded within the face. Localised burnt patches appear intermittently. Faunal remains include fish bone (probably sea bream) and oyster shell, consistent with coastal provisioning and dining, while worked antler and antler tools/offcuts indicate small‑scale craftworking. A radiocarbon‑dated horse skull from the lower element has returned AD 100 ±19, providing an early datum beneath the principal activity horizon.

Taken together, the hypocaust components, CBM, glass, and fine tablewares strongly imply a heated, well‑appointed building—most plausibly a bath‑house—that once lay nearby and has since been destroyed by shoreline retreat, its debris incorporated into the marsh‑edge stratigraphy. The setting suggests service to officials and travellers using a nearby crossing, with the upper small‑sherd layer representing trampling/consolidation or reworking episodes subsequent to the main phase of deposition. OB 03 sits upslope of OB 01, whose funerary washouts and table assemblages likely form a related but more dispersed component of the same wider landscape.(1)

<1> Steve Trim, 2026, SHORNE/HIGHAM THAMESIDE ROMANO-BRITISH SITES 2012-2015+, OB 03 (Unpublished document). SKE58794.