Site of Iron Age or Roman red hill, 'Red Hill X', east of Lauriston farm (EHER 12107)

Now destroyed. A Red Hill was excavated in 1907 when large quantities of briquetage and 'late Celtic' pottery were found along with kiln furniture. The salt works are of Iron Age and Roman date.

1907. Archaeological excavation. Red Hills Exploration Committee Hill X Goldhanger excavated in 1907. Approximately 3.5 acres in extent. Produced briquetage including pedestals, T-pieces and firebars. The pottery was of Late Celtic character. <1> Red Hill X Goldhanger. [see plan - AO:60:122:8.] A large mound of 3 1/2 acres in extent, completely surrounded with a ditch broken only at the north end. Excavated in 1907 by the Red Hills Exploration Committee. Sixteen large cuttings were made [see plan] but no other feature was revealed than that the soil was an accumulation of shot material. The sections showed a series of conical heaps such as would result from material having been brought from elsewhere and tipped. Large quantities of briquetage were found and the pottery was of late-Celtic character. <2> The 'Red Hills' of the Essex coast:- mounds consisting largely of red burnt earth interspersed with the broken remains of troughs, pillars, bars and of coarse reddish ill-baked clay - were explored by a Committee of the Society of Antiquaries (<3> <4>) and subsequently explained by Mr. Reginald Smith as the remains of a mainly Iron Age industry for the production of salt by the vaporization of brine (<5>). The extreme duration of this activity was from the pre-Belgic Iron Age into Roman times, but in Essex at least its peak seems to have lain in the Belgic period. <6> 1972. Field survey. The remains of a Red Hill. The surrounding ditch has been filled in and the mound reduced by ploughing to a maximum height of 0.5m. The general shape is as indicated by F. W. Reader. <7> Red hill marked on OS map. <8> No 74 in Rodwell's list. <9> A reference in the EHER to an excavation of the hill in 1908 and 1909, described in the RCHM volume, in fact refers to Hill VIII, EHER 12123. <10> <11> Red Hill [T.I.]. <12> The Red Hill at Lauriston has been destroyed. <13> See also <14> <15>.