Early/Middle Iron Age Activity on Land East of Clare Park Estate, East Malling

During June-July 2021 Archaeology South-East (UCL Institute of Archaeology, hereafter known as ASE) was commissioned by Dandara South East Limited to undertake an archaeological excavation on land east of Clare Park Estate, East Malling (NGR 570159 157587; Fig. 1). Previous trial trenching, undertaken by ASE (ASE 2021) had encountered archaeological ditches, gullies, pits and postholes. Many of these features were undated, however, what dating evidence was retrieved spanned the Iron Age and Roman periods.

[fg]png|Fig. 1 Site location and mitigation areas.|Image[/fg]

Following these results, the Heritage Conservation Group at Kent County Council identified the need for further investigations involving the excavation of two areas. This was conducted in order to fulfil a condition of planning prior to the construction of a new housing development. The land comprised of two fields, divided by a hedge line. The fields were previously used as an orchard and for horticultural research.

The site was located to the north-east of the village of East Malling within land which was in use by East Malling Research. It was bounded by New Road along the western boundary, horticultural research land to the east and the Grade I listed Bradbourne House to the north-east. The topography gradually sloped from south (23.16m AOD) towards the north (20.04m). The underlying geology of the site was Hythe Beds – sandstone and limestone that had been heavily disturbed by tree throws and vegetation. The majority of the site had no recorded superficial deposits, but an area of underlying tufa was located in the northern extent (BGS 2022).

Prior to the excavation, a desk-based assessment was carried out (CgMs 2018). This document reviewed the Kent Historic Environment Record (KHER) for a 1km radius around the site. This revealed evidence of activity dating from early prehistory through to the post-medieval period.

Mesolithic flintwork was found throughout the study area, alongside Iron Age/Roman settlement activity to the north and south of the site. The latter includes the remains of a Roman villa (Scheduled Monument, ref. 1003555). A number of Anglo-Saxon/medieval artefacts have been discovered in the vicinity and the site is also located within two Areas of Archaeological Potential (AAP). AAP15 relates to the northern area, which has possible tufa deposits that have high potential for [pg340][pg341]preserving paleoenvironmental evidence. The second, AAP19, relates to the rest of the site, which is characterised as having early prehistoric potential.

Overburden and Early Prehistoric activity

Excavations within the majority of the site revealed a typical sequence of top and subsoil overlying natural geology. However, in the north-west corner of the northern area of site, the natural geology was overlain by a layer of reworked white, sandy gravel with tufa inclusions followed by a layer of dark grey brown, silt sand, likely a levelling deposit which was then sealed by subsoil and topsoil.

The earliest datable evidence from site was from a small assemblage of worked flint which was retrieved from later Early/Middle Iron Age features spread across both areas. A total of 11 pieces of worked flint were recovered, comprised of six flakes, two blades, two chips and a retouched flake. Although these are all residual within much later features, they do indicate a background activity from the Mesolithic to Early Bronze Age.

Period 1: Iron Age/Roman activity

The first clear evidence of archaeological activity began during the Iron Age and was evident across both excavation areas. The site during this phase comprised of an Open Area (OA1) with Routeway (R1) running along the eastern boundary (Fig. 2). Found along the western limit of excavation, was a small enclosure (ENC1) formed of gullies/ditches and pits. Although these features produced no datable material, the similarities with the surrounding Early/Middle Iron Age features would suggest that the enclosure could relate to contemporary livestock farming within the area.

[fg]png|Fig. 2 Plan of period 1 activity.|Image[/fg]

OA1 was bordered by a field boundary ditch (G1) recorded running c. 68m north-west to south-east across the north of the excavation area, its continuation being encountered in surrounding evaluation trenches. Consistent in profile throughout, this ditch had concave sides and a U-shaped base and had a distinct dark, brown grey, silty clay fill with a small assemblage of quartz-rich flint-tempered wares of an Early/Middle Iron Age date. A firmly dated fragment from a rim/shoulder of a well-burnished necked jar was recovered from Trench 7, and can be securely dated to the Middle Iron Age (c. 400-50 bc). A single residual flint flake and an unworked, water-rounded flattened pebble of Lower Greensand (which is a well- known type for the area) were also retrieved from the boundary ditch. A second smaller field division (G4), within the southern excavation area, was aligned north- west to south-east and produced two small fragments of pottery dating to the Early/Middle Iron Age alongside a residual early prehistoric flint flake. This feature was clear against the natural geology and was a regular U-shaped ditch which appeared to terminate to the east. Considering the shallowness of the feature, it is, however, likely to have been truncated and probably originally continued and provided a boundary for another set of fields.

Running alongside the eastern boundary of site, two parallel ditches, spaced 5m apart, were encountered and formed a north-east to south-west aligned routeway (R1) which also delineated the eastern edge of OA1. At 75m in length, both of these ditches appeared to continue beyond the areas of excavation and were seen within the evaluation trenches further south. The two ditches varied slightly with [pg342][pg343]the western ditch producing the only datable finds, primarily of Early/Mid Iron Age pottery alongside two intrusive bodysherds of Late Iron Age/early Roman grog-tempered pottery and a sherd of post-conquest white-slipped ware. The western ditch was the slightly larger of the two, measuring 1.25m at its maximum width by 0.50m in depth towards the north, becoming more V-shaped and measuring 0.70m in width by 0.29m in depth towards the south. Whereas the eastern ditch was slightly shallower with a maximum depth of 0.25m. It started more rounded in profile to the north, getting shallower and flatter to the south. Located within R1, a few shallow features were encountered as well as a spread of material likely relating to erosion from use of the trackway.

Within the north-west corner of the southern excavation area a series of gullies/ditches and pits were encountered forming part of a small enclosure or pen-like area (ENC1) which continued westwards beyond the limit of excavation. The northern edge of ENC1 was a lot shallower and flatter compared to the eastern and southern boundary, which was deeper and move V-shaped. The north-east corner of the enclosure was a small entrance which comprised of several irregularly shaped undated pits. These varied in shape and size and had a much darker fills than other Early/Middle Iron Age features. This could suggest they relate to the post-medieval/modern activity within the site. The latter was characterised by darker features, former fence-lines and root disturbance, all of which likely corresponded with the previous orchard and surrounding horticultural activity.

Although a small assemblage of intrusive finds of Late Iron Age/Roman date were recovered from features which were predominantly Early/Middle Iron Age, there appears to have been little or no activity from the late prehistoric until the post-medieval period.

Discussion and conclusions

Evidence of low-level landscape exploitation of the site during the early prehistoric period was suggested from the 11 fragments of residually recovered worked flint broadly dating to the Mesolithic to Early Bronze Age.

The earliest stratified evidence of activity on site came from a series of Early/Middle Iron Age ditches which could suggest the presence of agricultural activity, livestock movement and corralling. Only a small assemblage of pottery was retrieved, predominately from two ditches (G1 and the western ditch of R1). Though the pottery is featureless and difficult to date, the sherds do have a similarity with the fabrics found within the Early/Middle Iron Age phase at nearby White Horse Stone on the High Speed 1 route (Hayden and Stafford 2006; Booth et al. 2011). This is where an Early/Middle Iron Age settlement was located that was mainly characterised by numerous pits and four-post structures which produced numerous finds ranging from cremation burials, iron-working, pottery and animal bone. The field-team also recorded a series of trackways dating to the late Iron Age/Early Roman period although the White Horse Stone routeways were slightly wider at 11m to 13m, compared to the routeway found here which was 5m in width, (Booth et al. 2011, 255).

The excavations on land east of Clare Park Estate, East Malling also showed similarities with a site to the north-east where Canterbury Archaeology Trust carried out an evaluation within Bradbourne Fields (CAT 1996; Fig. 3). Here [pg344][pg345]a Roman farmstead was found including evidence of a hollow-way, measuring a maximum width of 19m appearing to narrow to a width of 3m. Though on a different alignment, the hollow-way potentially relates to the same network of tracks through agricultural fields as R1 found within the excavation area. The Brabourne Fields routeway was found alongside a series of Iron Age/Roman drainage gullies that were likely to have marked the locations of roundhouses and produced a single copper alloy hair pin, alongside pottery of second-century date as well as a few sherds belonging to the Middle to Late Iron Age.

[fg]png|Fig. 3 The site in relation to archaeological activity at Brabourne Fields (CAT 1996).|Image[/fg]

During excavations in 1955 and 1965, the remains of an Iron Age farmstead which included a number of postholes and ditches were found to the south of the present site, located 100m south of the church of St James. The settlement predates the nearby first to fourth century villa (Scheduled Monument ref.1003555) that comprised of a number of floors, stone foundations alongside evidence of internal decoration.

Although the site only produced a small assemblage of finds of Late Iron Age/Roman date from features which were predominantly Early/Middle Iron Age, the activity would appear to be part of a much more extensive and well utilised Iron Age to Roman landscape.

Lucy May

References

ASE, 2021, Archaeological evaluation report land to the East of Clare Park Estate, East Malling, Kent, Archaeology South-East unpubl. report no. 2021093.

BGS, 2022, British Geological Society geology of Britain online viewer. [Accessed 10th January 2022].

Booth, P., Champion, T., Foreman, S., Garwood, P., Glass, H., Munby, J. and Reynolds, A., 2011, On Track: The Archaeology of High Speed 1 Section 1 in Kent, Oxford: Oxford Wessex Archaeology.

CAT, 1996, An Archaeological Evaluation at Bradbourne Fields, East Malling. Canterbury Archaeological Trust unpubl. report.

CgMs, 2018, Archaeological desk-based assessment, site C, East Malling, Kent. CgMs Heritage unpubl. report.

Hayden, C. and Stafford, E., 2006, The prehistoric Landscape at White Horse Stone, Aylesford, Kent, Oxford Wessex Archaeology Joint Venture unpubl. report.