During July/August 1970 gas-main excavations cut through a possible Roman occupation area. Roman pottery was found along with a layer of reddish clay which suggest that it is a possible "Red Hill" type (Saltern) site.Aerial photographs and lidar imagery indicate the presence of a large amorphous mound at this location (cut by the scar of the gas-main) thought to be the remains of a medieval saltern mound.These mounds are the result of large-scale salt manufacturing where brine was extracted from salt-rich 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. 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 extracted from these sites are believed to be from the lower levels and not associated with the mounds because Post-Roman flooding and silt deposition on the Hoo Peninsula has resulted in Roman sites lying typically several feet below the current land surface.