Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Alleged long barrow - natural mound, but prehistoric flints and medieval pottery recovered from it

Monument Types

• FINDSPOT (Neolithic - 4000 BC to 2351 BC)

Associated Finds

• ARROW (Neolithic - 4000 BC to 2351 BC)
• FLAKE (Neolithic - 4000 BC to 2351 BC)
• ARROW (Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 701 BC)
• SCRAPER (TOOL) (Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 701 BC)

Full description

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[Area centred TR 1777 4168] Two Neolithic long barrows opened in Hunts Rough Wood probably c. 1921, when chalk pit encroached. Leaf arrowhead, sole content. Given to the Museum 1955 via Mrs Walton, from Mrs Solly, wife of finder (d. 1955). (1)

At TR 1780 4160 is a shapeless mound about 40.0 metres in diameter and1.0 metres in height with no visible ditch. There is a small pit on the E. side. The feature is not a long barrow. There are many large and small pits in the wood, some probably mine pits (q.v. TR 14 SW 19)(See TR 14 SE 57). (2)

[TR 1780 4160] A Neolithic flint arrowhead and several pieces of 14th and 15th century course pottery were found by a boy digging out rabbits from a large mound in Hunts Rough Wood in 1966. His schoolmaster and other boys later dug in many places about and on the mound, apparently finding only more sherds from the original hole. The Gazetteer at Maidstone Museum contains a note under Lyminge: "Hunts Rough Wood, 2 small long barrows, one quarried away circa 1921, but a leaf-shaped arrowhead found. One remains untouched." As a result of this in 1967 the Ashford group of the Kent Archaeological Society reopened the 1966 holes and cut a trial trench on the west of the mound. The reopened hole produced only sherds similar to those already found and seemed to have been dug into a natural clay deposit.The trench cut proved to be a natural geological formation and finds from it consisted of struck flint flakes, two scrapers and one broad- backed flake with secondary working on a cutting edge, probably Bronze Age, and a barbed and tanged arrowhead. The only explanation for the single hole containing any quantity of sherds is that it may have beena small rubbish pit adjacent to a dwelling. There was no visible evidence of buildings in the area but the nearness of two public footpaths may be an indication that a dwelling might have existed nearthis junction in earlier years. The flint material is larger in quantity than normally found in the surrounding fields, but not excessively so. (3)

<1> Maidstone Museum Kent Archaeological Society 6" (Anon) undated (OS Card Reference). SKE46475.

<2> F1 ASP 17-MAY-63 (OS Card Reference). SKE42153.

<3> Bradshaw, J., 1968, Reports on Excavations by Groups 1967: Lyminge (Ottinge) (Article in serial). SKE8002.

<4> 1963, Field report for monument TR 14 SE 29 - May, 1963 (Unpublished document). SKE5431.

Sources and further reading