Anglo-Saxon coastal fish weir, Sales Point (EHER 2055)

An Anglo-Saxon coastal fish weir at Sales Point, consisting of three timber walls forming three sides of a rectangle. It is thought the site may have been associated with the 7th century monastery at Othona (EHER 31393), and may represent one of the fisheries in the Blackwater area mentioned in Domesday Book.

1967. Field survey. A wooden structure, probably a fish trap, only visible at very low tides. It consists of two rows of stakes about 9ft in diameter and set about 1-1.5ft apart. Small branches were wound in and out of the stakes to provide two walls 8-10ft apart and 1,200ft long. A small piece of the walling remains, roughly rectangular, without the shoreward side. In the Essex Record Office (ERO) there is a map of East Hall Farm, from around 1800, showing a track in this direction. The feature is locally called a 'kiddle' or 'kettle'. <1> <2> See aerial photographs from 1992 <3> <4> <5>. March 1993. Aerial photograph survey. Further aerial photographs taken in March 1993. <6> See also <7> <8>. Research since 1993 has shown the site to be a Saxon fish weir. The site is partially visible on a vertical aerial photograph from 1973, which was enlarged using a Grant Projector (enlarging light table) which allowed mapped features on the aerial photograph to be aligned with the 1: 10,000 map sheet to transcribe the cropmark plot. <9><10> 1997. Radiocarbon dating. The site is situated around Mean Low Water (MLW) on the mud-flats at Sales Point, around 1,200m NNE of the Saxon church of St. Peter's-on-the-Wall (EHER 32). The weir is roughly rectangular in shape with walls measuring approximately 340m (WNW); 290m (WNW) and 180m (NNE). The Eastern wall has at least four phases of rebuilding, all at slightly different angles to the main walls. The existence of the fish weir had first been brought to the attention of Kevin Bruce by a Mr. Rodney Larner in the 1960s. Mr Larner had been made aware of the site by Walter Linnett, a wildfowler. Kevin Bruce first carried out a crude survey of the site in 1974 and again in 1992. The weir appears to have been constructed to collect fish on both the flow and ebb tides. There are three trap areas, two at the West end of the trap and one at the NE corner. The NE trap or pound has an extensive fish-bone deposit just to the South. The layer may represent a fish processing deposit. Large panels of hurdling survive running parallel to the upright timbers that form the walls of the weir; these may have formed the fencing of the walls or walkways along the walls in order to allow access to the traps. C14 samples from the walls show a date range of AD 659-957. <11> See also <12>. October 2000. Scheduled Ancient Monument. The weir is made up of three timber walls forming three sides of a rectangle; two walls are aligned WNW to ESE and measure 340m and 290m; the third measures some 180m and is aligned NNE to SSW. The Western side is open to the tide and is flanked by two funnel shaped fish traps attached to the parallel timber walls. Within the weir, at its NE corner, is another trap with an extensive fish bone deposit located to its immediate South. A large wattle basket recorded nearby may have formed another of the original traps or played some part in fish processing on the site. The presence of the three main traps suggests that, unusually, the weir was constructed to collect fish on both the flow and the ebb tides. <13> <14> <15> A cooking pot was found amongst the remains of a fish trap. The circumstances of discovery are unknown. <16> Digital photographs linked to this record appear to show one intact vessel and another substantial vessel fragment. These are both undecorated, and <15cm tall. NRHE data transfer: The Saxon coastal fish weir was first reported in the 1960s and has been the focus of several ground and air photographic surveys between 1967 and 1997. Radiocarbon dating has indicated a date range of AD 656-957. It is thought the site may have been associated with the 7th Century monastery at Othona (EHER 31), and may represent one of the fisheries in the Blackwater area mentioned in Domesday Book. Fish processing deposits were found within the site and an Anglo-Saxon cooking pot was found nearby (EHER 2056). <17>