Monument record TQ 87 NW 1285 - ?Medieval saltern mound, St Marys Marshes

The earthwork remains of an irregular mound measuring 14.5m x 16m and 17m seen at TQ 8091 7858 within St Marys Marshes. This may be the remains of a medieval saltern mound which was mapped from aerial photographs as part of the English Heritage: Hoo Peninsula Landscape Project. The mound lies immediately to the west of the linear embankment of a former sea wall (NMR Monument Number :TQ87NW 132).

These 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)

<1> RAF, 1947, NMR RAF/CPE/UK/1923 3005 16-JAN-1947 (Photograph). SKE55858.