Possible Roman saltern/red hill at Benfleet Creek (EHER 7190)

A possible site of a Roman saltern/red hill that was further investigation during road works in 1972.

Red hill. Much Roman pottery. <1> Much pottery found during excavations for foundations of a bridge over Benfleet Creek which disturbed an unknown 'red hill' site and a Roman settlement. The remains were not recorded and the pottery was dispersed to various sources, some to the Southend Museum and some to the Benfleet Historical Society's Dutch Cottage Museum on Canvey Island. Information from Society members "indicates that the finds were made mainly in (or more likely on the surface of) the London Clay at a depth of 2-3m below present ground level. The brown alluvial clay which formed the overburden was said to be sterile of finds. The material which was excavated for the bridge foundations was spread over the triangular piece of land immediately to the south-west. Although some of the finds are certainly from a 'red hill' there is no record that one was encountered in the works. Therefore, one must be presumed to lie in the immediate vicinity, to provide a source for the salting debris. The finds seen by Rodwell comprise: briquetage, hearth structures and vitreous slag; tegula, imbrex and Roman brick; animal bones; a mid-late 1st century brooch; amphorae fragments comprising sherds from a Spanish globular amphora (probably Dressel 20) and a sherd from a cylindrical amphora in Peacock's Dressel 1, Fabric 1, a fabric not exclusive to Dressel 1 forms, and possibly, though unlikely, from a Koan amphora. The latter sherd could well be late iron age; Samian pottery; fragments of a flagon; much coarse pottery, including colour coated wares e.g. some of the latest Nene Valley products, and Hadham sherds. A number of sherds are illustrated in <2>. A body sherd from a jar or bowl has a relief moulded animal similar to examples from Dunmow and Chelmsford. <2> - <4> Sherds of Romano-Saxon pottery were found during road construction in 1971 at South Benfleet. <5> <6>