Site of possible medieval saltworks at Barrowhill Mills, Heybridge (EHER 7840)

Now destroyed. A group of some 50 mounds, probably medieval salt workings and possibly including a wind mill mound (see EHER 7839). A tumulus marked on OS maps is unlikely to be so. The mounds were probably destroyed during the making of Heybridge Saltworks (EHER 15052) in approximately 1810-1815.

Tumulus (NR). <1> According to the 1953 OS card the feature is no longer extant. <2> September 1976. Field survey. No evidence survives to indicate that these mounds were burial mounds. The area delineated by <3> lies below the high water mark in an area of reclaimed saltings with a tradition of early saltworkings. (Note name Saltcote Hall, 19th century). <4> According to OS report of 1976, a group of some fifty mounds know as Barrow or Borough Hills, which were destroyed in the making of Heybridge Saltworks (EHER 46203, approximately 1810-1815), and were situated on the neck of land between the Heybridge to Goldhanger road and the head of Collier's Reach. The earliest reference to them was in 1574, and in 1773 J. Strutt visited the area and watched the destruction of one mound (<5>), which contained similar material to the red hills, coarse pottery and brick material, but this mound was different from the others. <6> A detached dining room from the Mill Beach Restaurant appears to be built on a mound which is probably the one published as Tumulus by the Ordnance Survey. It is also probably the site of a windmill known as Barrowhill Mill which was close to the restaurant. See EHER 7839 for more on the windmill. The mounds were thought to be barrows because of the significant name but are unlikely to be, on such a low-lying site. They have been likened to medieval salt working sites at South Woodham Ferrers (EHER 13497) and Tolleshunt D'Arcy (EHER 12062), but those sites had earth tanks in association with the mounds and were also considered to be possible fish storage tanks, the mounds being the spoil from the tanks. <3> According to source <3>, some of the mounds are in Great Totham parish. This source discusses the mounds and gives early documentary and antiquarian references. The authors conclude the mounds were from medieval salt working, by analogy with other sites. Apparently, the mound which produced salt working remains was oblong, the others were cone-shaped. See also <5> <7> - <12> which are in-text references from <3>. See also <13> <14>. Original HER entry merged with NRHE data import.