Monument record TQ 77 NE 1356 - ?Medieval saltern mounds, Cliffe

The earthwork remains of possible medieval saltern mounds can be seen on aerial photographs taken in 1970. This compact group of mounds is centred on TQ 7524 7867 and situated on marshland east of Cliffe Fleet. Conjoined mounds occupy an area circa 155m by 45m defined by drainage channels (one of which is no longer in use). A separate mound is immediately to the south of the southern channel partly occupying an area also defined by drainage channels ¿ again, one of which is no longer in use. There are a series of depressions in these mounds and these are thought to mark the site of original buildings. The mounds represent the discarded waste material from salt manufacture, a process - known as sleeching - in which brine was extracted from salt-rich sands and sediments, concentrated and evaporated. Sites such as this could no longer operate once sea walls were constructed resulting in the conversion of an area from salt to fresh marsh. This site was mapped from aerial photographs as part of the English Heritage: Hoo Peninsula Landscape Project.(1)

<1> Ordnance Survey, 1970, OS/70298 20-21 14-AUG-1970 (Photograph). SKE58568.