Monument record MDO7061 - Romano British saltworks and a possible pottery kiln, Salterns Copse, Arne

A scatter of 1st to 4th-century pottery was seen after ploughing of a field north of Bank Gate Cottages. Subsequent geophysical survey and test pitting at Salterns Copse located Iron Age/Roman settlement and possible industrial activity.

Occupation Debris from salt-boiling and possibly also from pottery manufacture has been ploughed up in heathland afforestation N of Bank Gate Cottages, a few feet above sea level some 300 yards from the present shore of the Wareham Channel of Poole Harbour (95748723). The remains comprise several concentrations of coarse-ware sherds (in D.C.M), almost all oxidised and brittle, with much 'briquetage' associated, as elsewhere in Poole Harbour and the Isle of Purbeck, with crystallisation of salt from brine (see Introduction, P.526). The pottery ranges from the 1st or 2nd century to the 3rd or 4th century A.D.; the 'briquetage' includes fragments of large thin-walled containers, perhaps semicircular troughs, with knife-cut rims or edges, and perhaps one piece of hand-moulded support. Shapeless fragments of fired clay, some with vitrified surface, may belong to associated structures. (Dorset Procs. LXXIV (1962). 140). <1-3>

Listed by Swan. <4>

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1963, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1962, 140 (Serial). SDO62.

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 593 (Monograph). SDO150.

‘(52) ARNE HEATH (SY 98 NE). Occupation Debris from saltboiling and possibly also from pottery manufacture has been ploughed up in heathland afforestation N. of Bank Gate Cottages, a few feet above sea level some 300 yds. from the present shore of the Wareham Channel of Poole Harbour (95748723).
The remains comprise several concentrations of coarse-ware sherds (in D.C.M.), almost all oxidized and brittle, with much 'briquetage' associated, as elsewhere in Poole Harbour and the Isle of Purbeck, with crystallization of salt from brine (see Introduction, p. 526). The pottery ranges from the 1st or 2nd century to the 3rd or 4th century A.D.; the 'briquetage' includes fragments of large thin-walled containers, perhaps semicircular troughs, with knife-cut rims or edges, and perhaps one piece of a hand-moulded support. Shapeless fragments of fired clay, some with vitrified surface, may belong to associated structures. (Dorset Procs. LXXXIV (1962), 140.)’

<3> (R A H Farrar), 1975, Prehistoric and Roman Saltworks in Dorset, 14-20 (Article in monograph). SWX2805.

<4> Swan V G, 1984, The Pottery of Roman Britain, 260 (Monograph). SWX2897.

<5> Papworth, M D J, Trust for Wessex Archaeology, 1983, Isle of Purbeck Survey, IOP 92 (Index). SDO147.

‘Site lies within a coniferous plantation managed by the Forestry Commission. 7/7/D.’

<6> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/093 RCHME Inventory: Dorset II (South-East) (Unpublished document). SDO17434.

<7> National Record of the Historic Environment, 456637 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Apr 20 2023 4:26PM