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

Possible late 17th-18th century or later park or garden feature/earthwork/conduit in Cobham Park. It was originally identified as a defensive earthwork.

Monument Types

• CONDUIT (CONDUIT, Post Medieval - 1675 AD? to 1789 AD)

Full description

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

A large irregular hillock in Cobham Park has double banks, with an interrupted ditch on the east, and a single ditch on the west. Thought, by earlier authorities (1) (2), to be a fort but proved post-Medieval by P.J. Tester (a) who in 1959, cut two sections across it at TQ 6852 6942 and TQ 6834 6930 respectively. The first disclosed medieval roofing tiles under the bank on the old turf line: the other revealed the remains of a Roman building again, underlying the bank [see TQ 66 NE 23]. Crawford (3) thought the banks were park enclosures: Tester regards the feature as probably the work of Thomas Repton a late 18th c. landscape gardener, who laid out the garden of Cobham Hall. In the position of the east ditch Russell (5) shows a feature which he describes as 'Conduite Pipe'. (1-5) Where best preserved the earthwork consists of two banks and a large medial ditch, along the bottom of which runs an iron fence in the manner of a 'ha-ha'. (6) Scheduled as 'Camp'. (7)

Cobham Hall was originally supplied with water, from the late 17th century onwards, from a spring to the north. Water was fed to the house under gravity from the Fountain House (see TQ 66 NE 207) via a conduit which survives as an earthwork within the park. This function was taken-over in the late 18th century by the pump house (TQ 66 NE 128) and newly laid pipes on a different route to the west. (10-11)

Birmingham University Field Archaeology Unit, 2002, Cobham Park I: Level-2 Survey - Gazetteer of Sites (Unpublished document). SKE17816.

<1> Arch. Cant. 11, 1877, 121 (Roach Smith) (OS Card Reference). SKE36964.

<2> V.C.H. Kent 1, 1908, 392-3, plan. (OS Card Reference). SKE50727.

<3> Maidstone Mus. 6" (O.G.S. Crawford) (OS Card Reference). SKE46343.

<4> Arch. Kent 1930, 158 (R.F. Jessup) (OS Card Reference). SKE37160.

<5> "Map of Cobham Deer Park and Paddock" 1718 (Geo. Russell of Rochester) (OS Card Reference). SKE32670.

<6> P.J. Tester (Hon. Corr.) (OS Card Reference). SKE48452.

<7> F1 CFW 09-JUL-59 (OS Card Reference). SKE42495.

<8> Anc Mons Eng Wales 1965 67 (M.P.B.W.) (OS Card Reference). SKE33049.

<9> Field report for monument TQ 66 NE 3 - July, 1959 (Bibliographic reference). SKE3491.

<10> English Heritage, 2002, Historical Account, Cobham Hall Estate, Part 2: The Gardens and Inner Grounds (Unpublished document). SKE17515.

<11> J.E.L. Caiger, 1969, The Pumphouse on Cobham Hall Estate (Article in serial). SKE17516.

Sources and further reading

Related records