Monument record MDO7460 - Salt working site, Fitzworth Peninsula, Corfe Castle

A Romano-British (and Iron Age) salt working site and settlement with evidence of pottery kilns and huts. Pottery and coins date the site from the 2nd to the 4th century AD.

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 oxidised 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. (1) Lies in grassland ploughed once every 5-7 years, to N lie the estuarine silts and salt marsh of Poole Harbour. The site was later examined by geophysical survey and trial excavation. (2)

<1> Calkin J B, 1948, Isle of Purbeck in the Iron Age, 29-59 (Article in serial). SWX1705.

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

<3> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1950, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1949, 62-63 (Serial). SDO49.

<4> 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.)’

<5> 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.'

Record last edited

Jan 21 2016 1:22PM