Anglo-Saxon pottery sheds and possible settlement at Thorney Bay (EHER 7182)

Three sherds of Anglo Saxon pottery dated to the early 5th century are described and illustrated from the Thorney Bay site. Their presence establishes for the first time early Anglo-Saxon settlement on Canvey Island.

Original HER entry merged with NRHE data import: Traces of occupation ranging from Iron Age to Medieval including the site of a red hill (destroyed by the sea) were found on the edge of the low water mark at Canvey Island. <1> - <3> Amongst the large collection of pottery finds, three Anglo-Saxon sherds are particularly important (illustrated in <4>), including a "bowl rim in hard, brown fabric, with the surfaces fired reddish-brown to grey; the finish is smooth and soapy to the feel, but it is not overtly burnished. The rim is beaded and the neck is accentuated by four neatly-delineated flat-bottomed grooves; on the shoulder - probably a rounded carination - is a small group of vertical burnished lines. The vessel belongs to a class of squat bowls which is widespread in eastern England, in 5th century contexts: the form and emphasis on horizontal linear ornament find many parallels" (examples given). This vessel is probably early 5th century in date. The other two sherds were both from cooking pots. One has an "outward flared rim in a hard, black, very coarse fabric, heavily tempered with chopped vegetable material; surfaces fired red to brown". This pot may have been lugged and possibly pedestalled (though no lug is on the extant sherd). Probably 5th century in date again. The other cooking pot sherd has an "upright rim in a hard, coarse black fabric, being heavily tempered with chopped vegetable material". The form is a common one and the vessel compares closely to one from a 5th-century context at Rivenhall. "The importance of these sherds is that they establish, for the first time, the presence of early Anglo-Saxon settlers on Canvey Island; this in itself is not a remarkable fact since it is now becoming clear that settlement at this date, on a modest scale, took place around the coastal fringes of Essex", but the sherds are also interesting concerning the inundation of Canvey Island by tidal waters. Although water-level was rising relative to land-level in Roman times "it is now clear that the island was not liable to submergence by high tides in the early years of the Anglo-Saxon era as has generally been assumed in the past". Some later Roman sherds could be contemporary with the Anglo-Saxon ones, and there seems no reason to suggest a significant break in settlement from middle or late Iron Age to early Anglo-Saxon times. Saxon occupation is suggested to be early 5th century in date. <3> <4> See also: <5> <6>