NHER 42410 (Monument record) - Possible undated saltern mound in Halvergate marshes

January 2006. Norfolk NMP.
A possible saltern mound is visible as an earthwork and soilmark on aerial photographs (S1)-(S3), centred at TG 4989 1003. It is situated along the west side of a curvilinear drain (Pickerill Holme) which may have originated as a natural channel. Given its location in former estuarine marshland (see Faden’s 1797 Map of Norfolk (S4) for example) the site seems most likely to be the remains of a saltern mound, perhaps the product of a medieval salt industry utilising the sand-washing technique. A natural or recent agricultural origin for the mound, however, perhaps as the spoil from dredging the adjacent drain, cannot be entirely ruled out. Further possible salterns lie approximately 220m to the southeast (NHER 42411). The mound was visible as an earthwork in 1955 (S1) but has since been levelled.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 18 January 2006.