Monument record TQ 77 NW 1367 - ?Medieval saltern mound, Cliffe

The earthwork remains of a large irregular rectilinear mound at TQ 7271 7778 detected on lidar imagery. The site measures c.30m x 40m and is surrounded on three sides by drainage ditches and appears to have a lower area in the centre. This thought to be a medieval saltern mound, 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 site was mapped from lidar imagery as part of the English Heritage: Hoo Peninsula Landscape Project. (1)

<1> 2001, LIDAR TQ 7276 Environment Agency D0015732 APR-2001 (Photograph). SKE58731.