Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Enclosure cropmarks were previously identified on the parish boundary between Acol and Birchington. These features were recorded from aerial photographs taken by the Royal Commission on the Historic Monuments of England as part of a project to identify and classify cropmarks across Kent. The cropmarks show an incomplete sub-circular enclosure, three pits and a macula feature as well as parts of two rectilinear enclosures and a small, single-ditched ring ditch.

Monument Types

• MACULA (Unknown date)
• RING DITCH (Unknown date)
• ENCLOSURE (Early Bronze Age to Late Iron Age - 2350 BC? to 42 AD?)
• SETTLEMENT (Early Bronze Age to Late Iron Age - 2350 BC? to 42 AD?)
• TRACKWAY (Early Bronze Age to Late Iron Age - 2350 BC? to 42 AD?)

Full description

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Site identified during transcription of features recorded on air photographs. (1) RCHME AP shows sub-circular enclosure, with NE side missing and 3 pit and a macula feature adjacent at TR 3112 6777. TSMR 0558. Parts of 2 rectilinear enclosures at TR 3110 6765 and a small, single-ditched ring ditch at TR 3115 6770. (2)

The cropmark traces of the enclosure complex described above have been seen on aerial photographs (NMR 962/73 09-JUL-1976, CUCAP ALA43 04-JUN-1965 and US/7PH/GB/LOC286V 2012 19-APR-1944) and mapped as part of the Historic England Thanet Landscape Mapping Project 2024. The site appears as a broken linear ditch c. 417m long with one short parallel ditched section (possibly a trackway) aligned NW-SE. Possibl attached to the northern side of the SE end of this ditched feature are two elongated rectilinear enclosures (35m x 75m and 36m x 85m) with internal pits. Their ditches are fragmented with interruptions. A third sub-rectangular enclosure 39m x 46m with traces of internal sub-division and pits is located to the north of these, similar in appearance and possibly part of the same settlement complex. (3-5)

<1> David McLeod/1986-7/RCHME Air Photo Unit Survey of Kent (OS Card Reference). SKE39678.

<2> Not applicable, SMR Kent uncatalogued index entry, RCHME Kent pilot mapping programme plot. (Miscellaneous Material). SKE6440.

<3> Historic England Archive, 1920-2024, Historic England Archive Specialist oblique aerial photographs, NMR 962/73 09-JUL-1976 (Archive). SKE57106.

<4> Historic England Archive, 1944, Historic England Archive USAF vertical aerial photographs, US/7PH/GB/LOC286V 2012 19-APR-1944 (Archive). SKE57114.

<5> Historic England Archive, 1949-1976, Historic England Archive CUCAP oblique aerial photographs, CUCAP ALA43 04-JUN-1965 (Archive). SKE57107.

Sources and further reading