Monument record TQ 77 NW 1384 - ?Medieval saltern mound, Cliffe Marshes

A large oval mound measuring 16m x 22m, possibly the remains of a former medieval saltern mound was seen centred at TQ 7428 7699. It is surrounded on two sides by water-filled ditches or creeks in the Cliffe Marshes.

Saltern mounds are the result of large-scale salt manufacturing where brine was extracted from salt-rich sands and sediments, concentrated and evaporated using process known as sleeching. The discarded waste material from the process built up around the production area into a sizeable mound, often with a hollow in the centred where a hut stood. These medieval saltern mounds are typically described as floriate in form because of their irregular lobed formation of dumped waste. They often occur in clusters around former and surviving tidal water-courses within the marsh. There has been considerable reclamation and subsequent sea wall construction since the medieval period which has isolated these sites from the sea.

Many of these mounds were subsequently utilised as sheepfolds, sheep washes and stock refuges in the post medieval period because of their slightly elevated position in the readily flooded marshes.

Roman finds have been extracted from some of these sites, but are believed to be from the lower levels and not associated with the mounds. Post-Roman flooding and silt deposition has resulted in Roman sites lying typically several feet below the current land surface.

This was seen on RAF aerial photographs taken in 1953 and mapped as part of the English Heritage: Hoo Peninsula Landscape Project. (1)

Description from record TQ 77 NW 143:
Possible medieval / post-medieval saltmound, though some of the other mounds in the area have been suggested to be Roman kilns. Visible in Google Earth images of 2007 and 2012.

<1> RAF, 1953, NMR RAF /82/713 0506 06-FEB-1953 (Photograph). SKE58854.