Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

In 1936 a ring ditch cropmark was excavated at this site by Major Cotton-Powell. Notes taken at the time and a plan in the Powell-Cotton Museum described two hearths within this feature, as well as a Bronze Age pot and fragments of another. The identification of this pot is uncertain and it may in fact be a 1st century Roman bowl on exhibition in the Cotton-Powell Museum. During subsequent excavations in 1939 at the site a 2/3rd century urn was reportedly found. The precise location of this monument is uncertain, but aerial photographs of the area have identified cropmarks of a number of ring ditches and enclosures. There are no visible remains of these features today.

Monument Types

• DITCH (Prehistoric or Roman - 500000 BC? to 409 AD?)
• ENCLOSURE (Prehistoric or Roman - 500000 BC? to 409 AD?)

Associated Finds

• BOWL (Roman - 43 AD? to 100 AD?)
• URN (Roman - 100 AD to 300 AD)

Full description

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A crop mark on Acol Farm, which showed as a ring about 3' wide and 64' in diameter, was partially excavated in 1936 by Major Powell-Cotton. Notes and a plan in the Powell-Cotton Museum describe the ditch as having the outer slope steeper than the inner, and notes the discovery of 2 hearths, a B.A. pot and the fragments of another. There is some doubt as to the identity of this pot as it is thought by Miss Cotton to be the 1st c. Ro. bowl on exhibition in the Museum. A 2/3rd c. urn was found when the excavation was continued in 1939 but no details are known, this is also on exhibition. Major Powell-Cotton is dead but the approximate site of the excavation was pointed out by the owner of the farm, Mr. C. Willett, at TR 30236687. It is on flat ground, under cultivation, and no trace survives. (1) St. Joseph AP's of this area show cropmarks of a number of ring ditches and enclosures centred at TR 301669. The ring ditch excavated by Powell-Cotton is almost certainly that at approx. TR 3025 6698. Nothing of any of these features can be seen on the ground. (2)(a)

<1> oral - Miss Powell-Cotton Quex Park Birchington (OS Card Reference). SKE47891.

<2> F1 CFW 07-OCT-63 (OS Card Reference). SKE42474.

<3> St. Joseph A/P's. WT 70, 71, and VB 41 (OS Card Reference). SKE49660.

<4> F1 CFW 09-MAR-65 (OS Card Reference). SKE42498.

<5> Field report for monument TR 36 NW 38 - March, 1965 (Bibliographic reference). SKE6241.

Sources and further reading