Monument record MWX644 - Salt working site, Kimmeridge

The earliest industrial activity identified at Kimmeridge is salt working. The salterns date from the Early Iron Age and Romano-British periods. The remains include burnt shale deposits, a distinctive `briquetage or remains produced by the extraction process, including vesicular slag, distinctive handmade bricks and the remains of vessel containers. This material relates to the simplest form of artificial extraction using heat. Scheduled.

Debris from salt-boiling exists above high-water mark from SY 90807872 to 90817870. Burnt and unburnt shale, briquetage and slag have been found in some quantity near the site of the former pier below Clavel Tower. Fragments of trays of pebbly Hobarrow fabric found here in 1962 suggest a Roman date. <1-2>

<1> Farrar, R A H, 1962, A Note on the Prehistoric and Roman Salt Industry in Relation to the Wyke Regis Site, Dorset, 140, 142 (Article in serial). SWX1049.

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 601 (Monograph). SDO150.

<3> DCMS, 2000, Scheduled Monument Notification 2000, 07-JUL-2000 (Scheduling record). SWX2721.

<4> National Record of the Historic Environment, 456570 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Sep 6 2024 4:39PM