Monument record MDO7459 - Iron Age-Romano-British salt working site and settlement, Fitzworth Point, Corfe Castle

An Iron Age-Romano-British salt working site and settlement with evidence of pottery kilns and huts. Cropmarks of some of these features are visible on aerial photographs.

Occupation debris, Iron Age and Roman, with remains of a hut and salters' waste, comes from a wide area in the N of the low-lying Fitzworth peninsula.

Two oval areas of Romano-British domestic occupation with much shell refuse, each with adjacent working area, were examined in 1947 some 400 yards NE of the farmhouse. The larger domestic area of some 50 yards by 25 yards (9922-8676) had pottery of the 2nd and 4th centuries AD and on the W, remains perhaps of a round hut (99208676) about 20ft wide, with sandstone footings and central hearth; the smaller (99388670) had similar pottery and two coins of the later 3rd and early 4th centuries. The working area (99268674, 99338668) showed no structural remains but much oxidized coarse pottery of the 1st century and later, unfired clay, and `briquetage', mostly broken brine-containers and props, but including fire-bars possibly from pottery-kilns. Subsequent ploughing revealed similar material in the same field: burnt clay (99318677), sherds and `briquetage' (99208682, 99178672, and especially 99298667). Romano-British sherds also come from the field to NW (99148687), near Iron Age 'A', 'B' and 'C' sherds exposed in a bomb-crater further W. (99038687). (Dorset Procs. LXX (1948), 42-3, 51, 57-8; LXXI (1949), 62-3; LXXXIV (1962), 137, 142). <1>

Cropmarks of pits and bank features are visible on aerial photographs of Fitzworth Point <5-6>. They are considered likely to be the remains of the Iron Age/Romano-british settlement, kilns and saltworks recorded in this area. The cropmarks were digitally plotted during the South West Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey (Dorset). Some of these features are still visible on the most recent comprehensive imagery available to the project <7>.

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 597 (Monograph). SDO150.

‘(226) FITZWORTH (SY 98NE). Occupation Debris, Iron Age and Roman, with remains of a hut and salters' waste, comes from a wide area in the N. of the low-lying Fitzworth peninsula.
Two oval areas of Romano-British domestic occupation with much shell refuse, each with adjacent working area, were examined in 1947 some 400 yds. N.E. of the farmhouse. The larger domestic area of some 50 yds. by 25 yds. (99228676) had pottery of the 2nd to 4th centuries A.D. and, on the W., remains perhaps of a round hut (99208676) about 20 ft. wide, with sandstone footings and central hearth; the smaller (99388670) had similar pottery and two coins of the later 3rd and early 4th centuries. The working areas (99268674, 99338668) showed no structural remains but much oxidized coarse pottery of the 1st century and later, unfired clay, and 'briquetage', mostly broken brine-containers and props, but including fire-bars possibly from pottery-kilns. Subsequent ploughing revealed similar material in the same field: burnt clay (99318677), sherds and 'briquetage' (99208682, 99178672, and especially 99298667). Romano-British sherds also come from the field to N.W. (99148687), near Iron Age 'A', 'B' and 'C' sherds exposed in a bomb-crater further W. (99038687). (Dorset Procs. LXX (1948), 42–3, 51, 57–8; LXXI (1949), 62–3; LXXXIV (1962), 137, 142.)’

<2> Farrar, R A H, 1949, Corfe Castle, Fitzworth Point, 62-63 (Article in serial). SWX2544.

<2> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1950, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1949, 62-63 (Serial). SDO49.

<3> Calkin J B, 1948, Isle of Purbeck in the Iron Age, 29-59 (Article in serial). SWX1705.

<4> Farrar, R A H, 1973, The Techniques and Sources of Romano-British Black-Burnished Ware (Article in monograph). SDO16399.

<5> Royal Air Force, 17-JAN-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1934 F36 1016-17 (Aerial Photograph). SDO12778.

<6> Royal Air Force, 06-MAY-1959, RAF/58/2843 F41 0085-86 (Aerial Photograph). SDO12783.

<7> Channel Coastal Observatory, 15-OCT-2010, CCO Aerial Photographic Coverage 2009 (Aerial Photograph). SDO12622.

<8> Papworth, M D J, Trust for Wessex Archaeology, 1983, Isle of Purbeck Survey, IOP 56 (Index). SDO147.

'Lies in grassland ploughed once every 5-7 years, to N lie the estuarine sites and salt marsh of Poole Harbour. OS SY98NE5. 7/7/B.'

<9> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/093 RCHME Inventory: Dorset II (South-East) (Unpublished document). SDO17434.

<10> National Record of the Historic Environment, 456628 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Dec 7 2022 4:23PM