Monument record TQ 77 NW 1056 - Possible sheepwick, Cliffe Marshes, Cliffe

Possible building remains, marked as sheepwick on OS (1,2,3). Photographs (4-6).

The site of a 19th - 20th century sheepfold at TQ 7370 7828 recorded on historic and current Ordnance Survey maps and RAF aerial photographs. The site occupies an irregular lobed area surrounded on all sides by water-filled channels, and the map sources depict several phases of sub-divisions presumably for stock management. At the eastern end of the enclosed 'island' aerial photographs show an irregular mound. The location and setting of this enclosed area surrounded by creeks and drains and the presence of traces of a mound indicate that this site could possibly be a former medieval saltern mound, a number of which have been noted in the immediate vicinity.

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. (7-10)

<1> Ordnance Survey, 1862-1875, Ordnance Survey 1:2500 1st Edition : 1862-1875 (Map). SWX11831.

<2> Ordnance Survey, 1893-7, Ordnance Survey 1:2500 2nd edition : 1893-1898 (Map). SWX11832.

<3> Ordnance Survey, 1905-10, Ordnance Survey 1:2500 3rd edition: 1901-1912 (Map). SWX11833.

<4> 1947, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9780.

<5> 1946, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9633.

<6> 1946, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9443.

<7> RAF, 1953, NMR RAF/82/713 01229 16-FEB-1953 (Photograph). SKE57156.

<8> Ordinance Survey, 1879, Ordnance Survey: Kent Epoch 1, 1:2500 1879 (Map). SKE55861.

<9> Ordinance Survey, 1896, Ordnance Survey: Kent Epoch 2, 1:2500 1896 (Map). SKE55862.

<10> Ordinance Survey, 1908, Ordnance Survey: Kent Epoch 3, 1:2500 1908 (Map). SKE55863.