Entrance to Willow Tree Fen.
View looking towards north west towards Willow Tree Fen.Field walking the fen.
Briefing the volunteer field walkers.
Excavation reveals a ring ditch with a saltern site in the centre. The sandy colour shows one side of the ring ditch. The other side of the ring ditch is at the far end of the machine cut trench. The hearth is in the centre.
We demonstrated how brine is evaporated to make white salt crystals. Given the very cold weather conditions we used our metal salt pan to show the process. We felt that the ceramic salt pans would suffer in the sub zero temperatures. We were able to show those who attended the weekend different replica ceramic salt pans and they were able to take away salt crystals at the end of the day in replica briquetage pots.
Our attempt to fire ceramic salt pans in a paper kiln were not so succesful. Due to the very cold conditions the two raw clay salt pans and the replica Adlington doll froze whilst they were transported cross country (temperatures eaching minus 6 degrees C) . The paper kiln we made fired well but the clay shattered during the firing process. We hope to be able to retry again in warmer weather conditions later in the year. David Hopkins, illustrator for Heritage Trust for Lincolnshire, stands next to the paper kiln. It was his sketches that suggested wattled and daub structures might be used as covers over salt kilns which suggested our use of a paper kiln to fire pottery as part of this demonstration day. A paper kiln was something we could build in a day and fire. We hope to try a proper wattle and daub structure over a kiln in a future experiment.
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