Exploring Kent's Past

It should not be assumed that this site is publicly accessible and it may be on private property. Do not trespass.

Monument details

Summary

An incomplete single ring ditch visible as a cropmark

Monument Types

• RING DITCH (Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 701 BC)

Full description

If you do not understand anything on this page please contact us.

An incomplete single ring ditch visible as a cropmark centred at TR 2175 5862 with an approximate diameter of 14.5m. The northern half is obscured by the modern field boundary, the southern edge by the darker cropmark traces of deeper soil or alluvium. On the eastern side of this ring ditch is a linear ditch which on some images gives the impression of part of a second circuit to this ring ditch. However on clearer aerial photographs the ditch appears straight and extends beyond the ring ditch into the darker cropmark.

This ring ditch is part of a collection of five probable Bronze Age barrows forming a linear cemetery running NE-SW alongside the Little Stour. It is possible that the barrow cemetery extends further to the north-east beneath Wickhambreaux village and south-west into adjacent fields. However the area to the south-west is cultivated with orchards and so traces of buried features are unidentifiable from aerial photography as with the village. As this site has been ploughed for a number of centuries all features appear to have been levelled. It is likely that very little of the barrow structures survive, though on the southern edge of the alignment deeper soil which appears to obscure parts of some of the ring ditches may have helped to preserve more of the buried remains. (1)

<1> English Heritage, 2009, Wickhambreaux, Kent: Ring Ditch Survey (Unpublished document). SKE16345.

Sources and further reading

Related records