Monument record TQ 77 NW 1391 - ?Medieval saltern mound, Redham Mead

The earthwork remains of an irregular mound measuring 24m x 35m which may be a medieval saltern mound seen at TQ 7163 7805 at Redham Mead in the Cliffe Marshes. A sheepfold is recorded on 1st, 2nd and 3rd edition Ordnance Survey maps, occupying the mound. The mound is surrounded on two sides by water-filled ditches and has the traces of a further possible ditch along its eastern side, extending south of the mound. This ditch and an inner bank enclose an elongated area 20m x 35m to the south of the mound. This site was mapped from Environment Agency lidar imagery as part of the English Heritage: Hoo Peninsula Landscape Project.

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. (1-4)

<1> Environment Agency, 2001, LIDAR TQ 7076 Environment Agency D0015720 APR-2001 (Unspecified Type). SKE58859.

<2> Ordinance Survey, 1879, Ordnance Survey: Kent Epoch 1, 1:2500 1879 (Map). SKE55861.

<3> Ordinance Survey, 1896, Ordnance Survey: Kent Epoch 2, 1:2500 1896 (Map). SKE55862.

<4> Ordinance Survey, 1908, Ordnance Survey: Kent Epoch 3, 1:2500 1908 (Map). SKE55863.