Founded in 1857, the Kent Archaeological Society has following objectives:
The Society’s interests are not confined to fieldwork. Its objectives cover archaeology and local history in the widest sense. They include historic buildings, genealogy, industrial archaeology and local history.
Work continues on day 5 of our dig and what a fantastic amount of work KAS members are getting through. Lady Sondes was impressed and fascinated when she visited the site late in the afternoon.
Another blisteringly hot day on site with the crew uncovering more of the ring ditch running through trench 3. We have established both edges of the trench with an additional cut on what would be the inside. We managed to find the bottom of the main ditch which was cut into the underlying chalk. The feature itself was surprisingly shallow so maybe a ditch for a small family enclosure?
There are still three more features in this trench to examine but tomorrow we will be moving back to trench 1 to finish recording the two ditch slots and to do some teaching for those who would like to learn drawing and recording,
Members will also be examining the three features present in trench 2 which relate to the rectilinear anomaly around the medieval church site and a circular anomaly that they run alongside.
So, plenty to be done and due to the progress made to today, we are bang on target!
Members aplenty at the Badlesmere Bottom dig today, the word has escaped that we have some interesting archaeology to be investigated.
The increase in numbers meant that we could devote our attentions to trench 3 and leave trenches 1 and 2 for now. This trench was positioned along a group of three linear anomalies and the northern edge of a circular anomaly based on the results of the geophysical survey (see the annotated results below)
The working hypothesis was three linear ditches truncating an earlier circular feature such as a settlement boundary ditch or enclosure. Plenty of volunteers were keen to get cracking and finding edges to features from which to work.
No dating material was found but there were a few oddly spherical flints discovered In close proximity to each other which led the diggers to contemplate whether that was significant.
There is a suggestion that the three linears might be part of a trackway but why would it take such an abrupt right angled turn in the adjacent field?
Much more to do in trench 3 tomorrow with some hard work already completed. Let's hope some of the mysteries will be solved.
Day 3 on site and time to start digging in earnest (in very compact clay in actual fact!), The first 'slot' of the season was opened on a very innocuous looking linear in trench 1. The first couple of spades produced some Iron Age potter which puts a whole different perspective on the trench. Any thoughts of a quick clean-up, record and shut-down were quickly put to one side.
Apart from the linear feature, there was what looked suspiciously like a metalled surface in another part of the trench which needed a good clean-up to see what we had to deal with.
Our reward for the considerable effort was that we got to record the features by the end of the day.
The volunteers all got some guidance on recording.
Day 4 will see us taking up the metalling and seeing whether it's hiding anything underneath, we're also putting another slot through the linear and seeing if there's a relationship between the two contexts. That should see us complete trench 1 but, as we saw today, anything could happen in the next 24 hours. We'll update you tomorrow!
Much progress made by the KAS Project Team at Lees Court today.
The containers and office arrived on the Woods Court site newly stocked and refurbished (with some heavy duty security after last year's break-in). Members and council members alike were involved with the setting up of the marquee, organisation of the stock container and preparation of the administrative material, all ready for members to pop down and get cracking straight away.
Three trenches have been stripped back revealing mixed archaeological results but with many possibilities matching anomalies from the geophysical survey results. All members are welcome to come down, join in or just learn more.
Particularly interesting were the results of trench 3 which show some exciting potentially prehistoric features
The digging will start in earnest on day 3. Watch this space for further news.
Logistics day at Lees Court Estate for the first day of the Badlesmere Bottom excavations.
Members of the Folkstone Research and Archaeology Group, the Shorne Woods Archaeological Group and the Faversham Society Archaeological Research Group were out today helping Richard and I to set up for the two week 'warm up' dig in advance of Keith's hoard dig.
The weather was mixed to say the least but after a tour of the Stringman's Field excavation (last year's university of Kent dig) which has been transformed due to some hard work in the spring, we went about setting out the containers and office and staking out the trenches over our geophysics targets. Two out of the three initial trenches have now been stripped of their top and sub soils and are revealing some quite promising features.
Early stages but things are looking good for plenty of work over the next two weeks. More volunteers needed!
Fred
The Lees Court Estate Project 2019 Season
You are cordially invited to come and take part in the 2019 Season excavation on the Lees Court Estate.
We now have a fixed diary of events for the 2019 season on the Lees Court Estate.
Talk at the Kent Archaeological Society Annual General Meeting, University of Kent. May 18th 2019.
By Kerry Brown
Archaeologia Cantiana 2019 - Supplementary information added.
Volunteers needed for the upcoming community dig at Lullingstone Roman villa. Click here for details:
Great news - we have added a new feature to our Kent Archaeological Reports. You can now use an interactive map to find reports in an area and even sort by Phase. You are still able to look at the full reports in a list format as well, however the sorting facility allows you more freedom to find the reports you are interested in for example, Anglo-Saxon etc.
You can find this new feature via the publications drop-down or click on the link below to go there now:-
| Date | Title | |
|---|---|---|
| Monday 09 Sep 19 | ‘Clergy and Criminal Violence in later medieval Kent’ By Peter Clarke | |
| Saturday 14 Sep 19 | Scadbury Manor Open Weekend | |
| Saturday 21 Sep 19 | Revisiting Sources and Themes in Parish Histories conference | |
| Monday 23 Sep 19 | Britain 1870 - 1914 | |
| Tuesday 24 Sep 19 | Michael Nightingale Memorial 8th Annual Lecture | |
| Friday 27 Sep 19 | Maritime Archaeology | |
| Saturday 28 Sep 19 | LUCIT IN TENEBRIS VERITAS | |
| Monday 30 Sep 19 | Britain 1870 - 1914 | |
| Monday 07 Oct 19 | Britain 1870 - 1914 | |
| Wednesday 09 Oct 19 | Maidstone on Film |