The Ancient Mounds of the Crouch Valley

Plumberow Mount as it stands today.

Despite having lived in the Rochford borough for most of my life I've never once heard anyone speak of the ancient earthen mound on the outskirts of Hockley. The mound in question named Plumberow Mount, stands three to four meters proud of an already high vantage point overlooking the river Crouch to the north and the town of Hockley to the south. As a scheduled monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act of '79, it is recognised as being of national importance, but you may be wondering why this random mound of earth is so important. Its perhaps an obvious question, but unfortunately far more difficult to answer.

Plumberow Mount at some point in the 1910s, 
complete with summerhouse on top.

Most mounds of this shape in Britain are typically found to be burial mounds, often known as a tumulus. Many examples of these exist all across the British Isles and further afield (in fact it was a cultural custom used by Indo-Europeans all across Europe and beyond the Caucasus.) The issue with them however from an archaeological point of view is that their use in the British isles spanned thousands of years, starting around the middle neolithic until their final use as late as the 5th century during a period of Anglo-Saxon dual faith observance. Just locally, an example of a Saxon burial mound can be found just outside of Priory Park in Southend.

If Plumberow Mount was a burial mound then, its construction date could fall anywhere between Stonehenge's bluestone construction phase, and around 650AD. Just to make matters even more confusing, the Saxons very often re-used much older mounds to bury their dead, making their correct dating solely reliant upon any substantial artefacts or remains found in or around the site.

The first recorded investigation at Plumberow was performed by an antiquarian group called the Morant Society in 1913, who cut three trenches in to the mound, carefully working their way into the centre. At that time no doubt owing to the locals ignorance to the site's historical importance, a summerhouse stood proudly atop of it for use by the local children.(1)

The Morant Society performing the excavation was probably hopeful of some great finds as they had recently successfully retrieved a number of early Roman era treasures from a similar site at Mersea Island. The excavations at Hockley however failed to turn up anything significant at all, even to this day the site remains an enigma. No traces of a burial were found inside, and the only artefacts of note was some Romano-British pottery, a few beads of jet and a coin from the reign of the Roman emperor Domitian (84AD.) A few shards of Saxon pottery found in the upper part of the mound may allude to some later re-use as a grave by a local Saxon as it is known that the Plumberow area was the site of a Saxon hamlet, but there is no proof of any burial here at all to say with any confidence.

So what could Plumberow Mount be for, if not a burial mound? 

• There are a few theories. The first and most obvious is that were this a burial mound to begin with, it may have been subjected to grave robbers. Being highly conspicuous, the monument would certainly have implied to any would-be grave-robbers that it had interred treasures within - but it is unlikely that any relic hunter before the 19th century at least, would have had the consideration to carefully back-fill the mound as to prevent its collapse. 

• The second theory, considering that the hill commands views over the river Crouch and surrounding areas, is that Plumberow was in fact either a signalling station or a watchtower. Such a rudimentary observation tower may have been helpful in the latter part of the Roman period in protecting the Essex marshes and creeks from any encroaching Saxon or Danish raiders.

• The third theory, which is as good as any other, is that the mound was a pagan religious grove. It is worth noting that almost all of the churches in this area of the world are built on top of hills, which considering the generally flat topography in this part of Essex, should be seen as somewhat significant. It is generally accepted that Christianity in the middle-ages embarked upon a policy of deliberate iconoclasm throughout Europe and the rest of the world by destroying pagan religious sites and erecting their own churches on top of them. This is precisely what is alleged to have happened in the nearby village of Thundersley located between Rayleigh and Benfleet, as the village actually derives its name after an original grove dedicated to the Saxon God of thunder, Thunor (or Thor as he is known to the Vikings and popular culture.) It may just be that Plumberow Mount is one of the few local sites that managed to escape the ignorance of the early Christian church.

Mounds on the North Bank

An aerial photograph of the largest 
grouping of the mounds near Clementsgreen Creek.

Whilst I had originally intended this post to be nothing more than a quick research piece on the Plumberow Mount mound, I happened by chance upon two other books in the local library also penned by the Morant Society, which may or may not be linked to what has already been discussed so far. In the book Marsh Mounds written by Miller Christy and W.H Dalton in 1925, it details the investigations held into the origins of a collection of strange earth mounds near the north bank of the river Crouch near South Woodham Ferrers. Whilst these mounds are dotted over a fairly wide area, the vast majority of them lay just outside the Marsh Farm Country Park just south of Clementsgreen Creek. The mounds at this site however differ substantially to the one found at Hockley, being of a mostly oblong shape.

For many years, antiquarians had associated the existence of these mounts near South Woodham Ferrers with the battle of Assundun (Ashingdon) which is alleged to have taken place three or four miles to the south east on the southern side of the river Crouch in 1016. Why exactly these early historians believed the remains of fallen soldiers would have been transported to the other side of the river seems unexplained, but as we might have expected later excavations of this site in the early twentieth century revealed nothing to suggest that this was the case. In fact in the partial excavations performed on a few selected mounds, no substantial artefacts or human remains were found at all. The only items found were a few shards of medieval pottery which, as with the Plumberow Mount, makes correct dating difficult.

Members of the Morant Society digging for neolithic
artifacts on the Crouch's riverbank, circa 1911.

The consensus made in 1925 following the investigation was that the mounds were the result of an early salt manufacturing industry, although the exact period is hard to pinpoint. Redhill salterns typical for the bronze and iron age occur quite regularly in the surrounding area along the Crouch and elsewhere in this part of the world. Similar remains of saltern are found on Canvey Island too in the West Canvey Marshes nature reserve. We shouldn't be too surprised that this industry existed here then, particularly as it even appears to be written onto the modern maps with 'Saltcoats Park' being less than mile or so away from the main cluster of South Woodham mounds. However there still remains some confusion even to this day as to the actual purpose of the mounds themselves.

Salterns were usually built by digging large tanks in the earth into which salt water would be allowed to flow. Salt water would then be left to evaporate until salt crystals formed on the surface, at which point a labourer would scim and take the salt for storing. The basic principle was exactly the same in the bronze age as it was for the Romans and in fact, in some poorer nations such as Sri Lanka, the same method is still performed the exact same way today.

The conundrum is that if these mounds were simply the result of the earth having been dug up for the saltern tanks, why would you go through the effort of stacking the thick and heavy clay into mounds to begin with? With the creeks nearby its not as if there was nowhere else to dump the soil. It seems an awfully pointless waste of manhours to have half of your work force piling up mounds of earth in some form of Coggleshall Job. To answer this question, it has been supposed that the earth works might be the remnants of medieval farms, with the mounds perhaps left to provide livestock with shelter during flooding. Many more publications have been released about the site's use since that initial excavation in 1925, but none have yet made a full conclusion as to whether these mounds are the remains of Romano-British salterns or later medieval farms. It may well be both. Or neither.

Its pretty unlikely that  the Plumberow and South Woodham Ferrers sites should share much in common aside from general geographic location, but it certainly begins to build a picture in the mind of what this part of the Essex landscape looked in prehistoric days.

Illustrations of the stone tools 
found in the Hullbridge river bank.

Believe it or not though, the late bronze to early iron-age isn't the oldest evidence of human settlement found in the Crouch Valley. I happened across another book in the library whilst doing this research entitled On A Neolithic Floor by Francis Reader written in 1911. Inside it details neolithic artefacts found on the river Crouch's banks at Hullbridge that had been become dislodged through soil erosion. Between a layer of clay and a bed of peat, a number of flint tools were uncovered during excavations there.

It may well be that there are many more neolithic artefacts laying around all over this area.  As an example, on Hambro Hill (or Hamborough Hill as it was written in 1911) just outside Rayleigh town centre, a number of neolithic knives, arrow heads and pottery was found. This could then suggest that Plumberow Mount is older than all of the current estimations, but unless we ever find more evidence in the area then we'll likely never know for sure.

It does make you wonder what is still in ground, sadly being covered up by the rapid urbanisation of this part of Essex. Unfortunately, such development seems to continue unabated. As the landscapes of Essex are tamed beyond all recognition, we're sadly losing all links to a past that has been 6000 years or more in the making.

Sources:

(1.) Hockley, Hullbridge & Hawkwell Past written by Lesley Vingoe

(2.) Marsh Mounds written by Miller Christy and W.H Dalton for the Morant Society in 1925

(3.) On a Neolithic Floor written by Francis Reader for the Morant Society in 1911.

Further Reading:

Historic England's Webpage on Plumberow Mount: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1017451

Essex County Council PDF explaining re-wilding efforts on the marsh land by encouraging cattle crazing. Mentions the existence of the mounds to quite some extent: http://content.historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/essex-historic-grazing-marshes-project/Final_Grazing_Marshes.pdf/