Ancient wooden posts in the Creek There are many pieces of ancient wood projecting out of the mud in middle of the Creek, on the north side about 100yds east of the remains of the wreck of barge Snowdrop...
There has been much speculation in the past as to the origins of these posts: o Fishing weirs or Kettles used to catch shoals fish See... fishing in the Estuary o An earlier wooden abatement or seawall that took a different path to the present walls. See... Seawall construction o Part of a tide mill or water mill that has been referred to as being near Goldhanger in the past. See... Watermill at Goldhanger o Part of an enclosure that made the creek into a harbour (there are also many stones lying in this area) o A pier used by the Roman o A jetty used by the village fishing fleet in the 18th &19th centuries. See... fishing in the Estuary Today it seems that one, or both, of the two later alternatives above are the most likely, as much more evidence has come to light over the years...
In 1910 a report of excavation work on Redhills by Francis Reader, undertaken in Bounds Farm at the edge of the Creek included a map which showed a Pile Foundation in the middle of the Creek... It was also referred to in the text of the report... This square arrangement of posts is unlikely to have been a fishing weir.
				Goldhanger's notable character and amateur historian Crawshay Frost investigated the posts in the 1940s and this article appeared in a local newspaper in 1947. He was clearly convinced he had found the remains of a jetty and large ancient boat. We know that Frost employed many young men to build a barrage to drain the water and clear the mud from around the piles to access the boat remains, so he is likely to have disturbered and maybe destroyed the rectangular form described in the 1910 report. A piece of that Ship's keel is still in the village...
the “keel” over Mr Frost’s driveway in the 1950s					the “keel” in another garden in more recent times
the “keel” as it was when retreived for Frost’s Fish St back garden in 2007ish it was moved with the kind permission of Mick West the property owner at the time it was then about 3m long and clearly slowly decaying At that time Colchester Museum was contacted with a view to asking if they thought the piece of wood was likely to be from the Roman period. However, their expert’s initial response was “it should never have been taken out of the Creek”! Having explained the the person who did that had been dead for 40 years, the expert declined to give any opinion as to its age and said they would not be interested in acquiring it. When asked the best way to preserve it, the response was “burn it”.
This amazing photograph and caption appeared in 1947 in the London based magazine called The Sphere. Crawshay Frost probably took the photograph. One can only wonder if these substantial posts are still there under the mud in the Creek.
			In 1970 this letter was published in the Essex Countryside magazine. Little is known about Mr Morrish other than that he wrote descriptions of 200 churches in the Diocese of Chelmsford in the 1940s, some of which were printed in that same magazine, so he was clearly an Essex historian of some note. It refers to 1947, the year in which Mr Frost declared the find.
This 1987 paper identifies a potential Roman Road from the Colchester to London road at Kelvedon travelling to the coast and the Red Hills / salt works at Lauriston Farm and Bounds Farm, Goldhanger...
In 1991 samples of wood from the Creek were radiocarbon dated by the Isotope Measurements Laboratory at Harwell and found to be of 13^th century origin. [Radiocarbon, Vol 33, No. 1, 1991, P 87-113]
Here are extracts from a thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham in July 2013... Transformations of Identity and Society in Essex, c.AD 400-1066 by Alexander Mirrington available at... eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/Transformations_of_Identity_and_Society_in_Essex_c.AD_400-1066_Vol.I.pdf
	This study examines the archaeological reflections of group identity and socioeconomic networks in the region of Essex and London in the Anglo-Saxon period, between c.400 and 1066. Given its location in the south-east of England, Essex was a key zone of socio-political interaction during the early medieval period. ...In the later 9^th/10^th –century, the pottery record may also testify to the emergence of a trading centre at Maldon ... The town would have attracted trade up the Blackwater Estuary, and probably facilitated great onward movement on radiating inland routeways – perhaps Roman roads emanating from Roman settlement in the Maldon area. ... As a royal mint in 925, it is clear that Maldon rapidly grew in importance following the West Saxon reconquest. The products of its mint have not been found in Maldon, but are relatively common in Scandinavia. ...Stephen Rippon* has perhaps provided the greatest individual contribution our understanding of the later Saxon Essex...Rippon‟s work on coastal Essex has proposed the existence of sites of exchange at Tilbury, Goldhanger Creek, and Canvey Island. ...Rippon has also suggested Goldhanger Creek as an AngloSaxon trading place on the Essex coast... excavations in the area have found an early Saxon settlement and cemetery, a series of middle Saxon fish weirs, and perhaps contemporary settlements at Chigborough Farm, Rook Hall, and Slough House Farm. These settlements may have functioned together as part of a single estate, with Rook Hall engaged in specialist metalworking for external clients... There is certainly much more evidence in the Goldhanger area of productive activity, datable to the Anglo-Saxon period than in most other excavated rural areas of Essex...
* Professor of Landscape Archaeology, Exeter University
and this 1994 paper summarises a talk given by Ron Hall about the large and small ancient posts he indentified in the Blackwater near Goldhanger...
		from... https://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/essex/vol3/pp105-107 An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Essex, Volume 3, North East. Originally published by His Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1922. GOLDHANGER Goldhanger is a village and parish on the N. side of the Blackwater estuary and 3½ m. E.N.E. of Maldon. During the excavation of a Red Hill in 1908 and 1909 near the outlet of the creek, in the northern part of Fish Pit Marsh, evidence of the intrusion of a Romano-British settler was disclosed. Below the extreme eastern edge of the red earth on the old salting surface was found a kitchen midden of considerable size, containing masses of oyster and mussel shells, animal bones, many of which had been cut and split, and Roman pottery, including "large jars with a heavy roll rim." Over this had been spread red earth from the mound on the west side, and over this again was a layer of brown mould. In the red earth and mould of the mound had been built some seven flues, and three or four fire-floors filled with Roman pottery. The flues were chiefly in parallel pairs, and were from 18 to 30 in. wide, 2 ft. deep and from 5 to 8 ft. long. They were carefully made and lined with puddled clay about an inch thick and were filled with black ash and burnt clay. Some of the flues were laid on the floors, some below them. The floors consisted of hard material burnt yellow, and from 1 to 3½ ft. in thickness, and measured from 9 ft. by 13 ft. to 12 ft. by 18 ft. 'Samian' and other ware, bones of domestic animals and shells were abundant in and about the flues, but details of the smaller finds are lacking, and the date of the occupation cannot be fixed. It was the opinion of the excavators that while the Red Hill itself had been built on the open marsh, the mould could only have formed after the sea-wall had been constructed. Hence they would assign a pre-Roman date to the Hill itself, and conjecture the seawall to have been built possibly in Roman times. The Roman occupation of a Red Hill, of which this is the only recorded instance, may possibly have been due to a recrudescence of the industry - whatever it may have been - with which the original formation of the Red Hill was connected. NOTE: The walls of St. Peter Church in Goldhanger are of coursed flint-rubble and limestone, with of Roman brick dressings. The Chancel has E. quoins of Roman brick.
A study on this website of Past local highways and byways also indicates that the village may once have been on a significant north-south Roman road that would have connected Colchester to Osea Island. There is a map in the Elms Farm Project Report (260 pages) from the archaeological dig undertaken near the Causway in Maldon showing known Roman roads in the area and one of those is the Goldhanger Road from Heybridge to Goldhanger... Today posts can be seen on satellite images in the middle of the Creek between the Sailing Club ramp and the Shoe...
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Much more recently, with access to the huge amounts of information on the web about the Roman occupation of Britain, and by looking at how many harbour and ship remains have been found in the UK, we can perhaps add a little more credence to Mr Frost’s assement of his finds from Goldhanger Creek...
from... A Maritime Archaeological Research Agenda for England at... https://researchframeworks.org/maritime/roman-c-ad-50-to-400/#section-14 Harbours, ports and landing places: With the notable exception of London, few remains of Roman harbours and quays have been identified in Britain. Large numbers of harbours probably existed, as an island province like Britain was heavily dependent on its sea communications with the Continent. Their absence in the archaeological record may reflect the vulnerability of harbour installations to destruction, as a result of coastal change or continued later use of harbour sites... With the notable exception of London, comparatively few remains of Roman harbours and quays have been identified in Britain. Large numbers of harbours probably existed, as an island province like Britain was heavily dependent on its sea communications with the Continent. Their absence in the archaeological record may reflect the vulnerability of harbour installations to destruction, as a result of coastal change or continued later use of harbour sites... Beginning around AD c 225, the early forts (Reculver, Brancaster, Bradwell, and Walton Castle) were constructed... Ships and boats found: Five vessels from the Roman period have been discovered around the UK: · mid-2nd-century Blackfriars ship · late 2nd-century New Guy’s House boat · c 300 Barland’s Farm boat · late 3rd-century County Hall ship · St Peter Port ship of similar date
from Facebook...						and also from Facebook...
Roman boat - found during the building of County Hall in London. During the construction of County Hall on the south bank of the Thames in 1910, workers discovered the wreck of an ancient ship embedded in the silt. Constructed from English oak in the third century in a Roman style, the ship dated back to the era when London was known as the Roman colony of Londinium. The ship was extracted from the river intact using a large wooden crane. The London Museum acquired the wreck and exhibited it until the 1930s. Parts of it are believed to still be in the possession of the Museum of London, the successor to the London Museum.						Roman Wharf Piling - located within the porch entry beneath the bell tower of St Magnus the Martyr Church, London, stands an actual pile from the Roman period. This part of the ancient Roman riverside wall was unearthed at Fish Street Hill in 1931 during foundation excavations for a nearby building. Wood sampling has dated this pile to around 75 AD.
it seems remarkably little else has been found to date _______________
From all this accumulated evidence it is reasonable to assume that there was once a substantial wooden jetty in the Creek, and may well have been of Roman origin. It would have been repaired and rebuilt many time since then, and been used by the village fishing fleet between the 13th and 19th centuries. Today we can only envisage what that jetty might have looked like in those earlier times...
artist's impression of the ancient jetty DWN 2024
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