Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Earthworks have been recorded in Well Wood, Aylesford. Farming, building and quarrying in the area have destroyed much of the evidence but the earthworks have been recorded as approximately 65m long and 0.6m high internally and 1.2m high externally and 0.6m deep. A section in Well Wood contains stone and roofing tiles, probably medieval. No entrances are visible but there is a well in the SW corner with a causeway nearby.

The earthworks may have been used as boundaries rather than fortifications.

Monument Types

• ENCLOSURE (Medieval to Post Medieval - 1066 AD to 1540 AD)
• WELL (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)

Associated Finds

• ROOF TILE (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1535 AD)

Full description

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(Centred at TQ 72175646) Ancient Earthwork (NR) (1-2) A slight entrenchment half a mile SW of Barming St. is named 'Camp' on the OS but is more like the boundary of a wood. It stands on practically flat ground and has no natural defences. The rampart and ditch are small and narrow and the earthwork would have had little strength. The 'camp' theory is untenable but it may be the remnants 'of a never strong place guarded by a palisade of timber or the bank' [A similar work at Navestock Essex] Included under 'Ancient Village Sites' - Aylesford, Preston Woods. (3) Rectangular earthwork 120 yards long in Well Woods. The banks are very slight and more in the nature of boundaries than fortifications. (4) Camp at Fossberry, one and a quarter miles ESE of East Malling. (5) Identifies OS published site with authy 5 ref. (6) Earthwork, Well Wood. In a non-defensive position on an E-W ridge at a height of 200 ft. O.D. there are the slight remains of an earthwork. It is oblong on plan measuring approx 115m N-S by 62m E-W within a single bank and ditch of comparatively feeble profile. The north half, which extends down the slight north slope of the ridge, falls within an orchard and has been nearly obliterated; the SE corner has been destroyed during the construction of a pair of cottages. The best preserved portion (see section) which lies in Well Wood, contains much stone and at a point of 10m north of the footpath there is a concentration of roofing-tiles, probably medieval. No entrances are now visible; there is a well in the SW corner. The date and prupose of this earthwork are uncertain but it may be similar to one recently excavated at Joyden's Wood, Bexley [Kent] (SeeArch. Cant. vol 72 1958 pp 18-40) which enclosed a number of medieval buildings dated to the late 12th - early 13th cent. (TQ 57 SW 92) Ant. model survey carried out. (7) Survey of 10 7 59 checked and correct. (8) (TQ 72175644) Earthwork (NR) (9) Centred TQ 72175646. This enclosure has been reduced to two separate fragments; the bank and ditch of the SW angle in dense woodland, and the ploughed down L-shaped ditch of the NE angle is an orchard. Since the reports of 1959/64 the general area has been further mutilated by surface quarrying (on the south side) and by the demolition of the semi-detached Keepers Cottages. The bank and ditch is c.65.0m long and 0.6m high internally, 1.2m high externally and 0.6m deep respectively; there is a pronounced causeway near the well. The ploughed-down ditch at the NE angle is up to 0.5m deep.

<1> OS 6' 1909 (OS Card Reference). SKE48295.

<2> OS 6' 1931-47 (OS Card Reference). SKE48297.

<3> VCH Kent vol 1 1908 435 plan (OS Card Reference). SKE51203.

<4> Arch of Kent 1930 159-160 252 (R F Jessup) (OS Card Reference). SKE36889.

<5> Arch Cant vol 13 1880 9 (W M Flinders-Petrie) (OS Card Reference). SKE36375.

<6> Rec 6' (O G S Crawford undated) (OS Card Reference). SKE49016.

<7> F1 AC 10.07.59 (OS Card Reference). SKE41738.

<8> F2 ASP 02.03.64 (OS Card Reference). SKE43073.

<9> OS 1:10000 1974 (OS Card Reference). SKE48159.

<10> F2 MJF 19.03.86 (OS Card Reference). SKE43348.

<11> Field report for monument TQ 75 NW 9 - July, 1959 (Bibliographic reference). SKE3856.

<12> Field report for monument TQ 75 NW 9 - March, 1964 (Bibliographic reference). SKE3857.

<13> Field report for monument TQ 75 NW 9 - March, 1986 (Bibliographic reference). SKE3858.

<14> Not applicable, SMR Kent uncatalogued index entry, Kent Arch Review, No. 100, Summer 1990, p.226. (Miscellaneous Material). SKE6440.

Sources and further reading