Monument record MDO6794 - Occupation and saltmaking debris, Turlin Moor, Hamworthy, Poole

Roman pottery, amphorae, and briquetage was found in a charcoal-rich soil during the construction of a new housing estate in 1963. This may indicate a saltworking or occupation site in the vicinity.

Turlin Moor. Occupation debris was found in 1963 in a housing estate in the N. part of the Hamworthy peninsula (978916). The material from drainage trenches comprises samian and Romano-British sherds, and some fragments resembling salt-boiling briquetage, in black soil some 2 1/2ft below surface. <1-2>

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 604 (Monograph). SDO150.

'(403) TURLIN MOOR (SY 99 SE). Occupation Debris was found in 1963 in a housing estate in the N. part of th eHamworthy peninsula (978916). The material frim drainage trenches comprises samian and Romano-British sherds, and some fragments resembling salt-boiling 'briquetage', in black soil some 2 1/2 ft. below surface (Dorset Procs. LXXXVI (1964), 115-6).'

<2> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1965, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1964, 115-116 (Serial). SDO64.

A Romano-British site on Turlin Moor, Poole
In 1963 a boy of Henry Harbin's School, Poole, recognised some samian and Romano-British coarse ware in sewage trenches cut on Turlin Moor for a new housing estate. The site (SY 978916) lies on Bagshot Beds below the 50ft. Contour, near the E. shore of Lytchett Bay and about 1 1/2 miles N.W. of the Iron Age and Roman site at Hamworthy, and was formerly poor farmland.

Investigation by N. H. Field showed that the finds occurred in the fillingof a hollow, perhaps an old clay-pit, some 100ft. E.-W. by at least 45ft., and he suggests that they may have come in fairly recent times from a destroyed occupation site in the vicinity.

Natural sand was found in the centre of the hollow about 3 1/2 to 4ft. below present surface, overlaid by some 9ins. of even brown charcoal-flecked soil or silt; a band of very dark soil some 6ins. thick contained the Roman remains, much charcoal and some lumps of pure clay, and over this lay some 18ins. of blackish soil below about 12ins. of loose topsoil. The pottery included samian, a cream ware (flagon?) sherd, a piece of buff-coloured amphora, and coarse ware perhaps of the 1st and 2nd century A.D. including a 'pie-dish' rim.

Four small pieces, 1/2in. or more thicl, of very coarse handmade quartz (?)-gritted red ware, submitted to the writer, seem to be salt-boiling 'briquetage' as found elsewhere on the shores of Poole Harbour and in Purbeck, especially at Hamworthy where alleged pottery-kilns found by the Late H.P. Smith appear to have been ovens, certainly associated with 'briquetage' and perhaps therefore connected with this industry.

<3> National Record of the Historic Environment, 457400 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jan 26 2022 5:17PM