#ThrowbackThursday – Abbotts Hall Farm

This #ThrowbackThursday we are learning about the red hills of the Essex coast, which are intriguing windows into the industrial practices of the distant past… 

‘Red hills’ are the remains of salt extraction, with the extreme heat required to evaporate salt water resulting in the characteristic reddish appearance of the sea or estuary edge. Essex has at least 300 examples due to its abundant source of saltmarsh, with many more having been destroyed over the years. Nowadays, however, erosion of the coast has led to many being discovered for the first time. This is exactly what happened in Great Wigborough…

In 2002, CAT undertook a watching brief onland at Abbotts Hall Farm ahead of work to create a new nature reserve. A former red hill was found to the south on the ‘dryland’ bank of the River Crouch, evident from a spread of reddish brown clayey silt and vast amounts of briquetage, which are the remains of probable troughs used during the salt-making process. Remains of Middle Iron Age and Roman pottery give an indicator of the time period when the salt was being extracted

Middle Iron Age red hills are very unusual on the River Crouch, and it is likely that salt was being extracted here right through the peak of Iron Age salt-making just before the Roman Conquest.

Have you spotted a Red Hill on your travels along the Essex coast?

For more information, check out the CAT report here: http://cat.essex.ac.uk/reports/CAT-report-0213.pdf