Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Earthwork (rems. of)

Monument Types

• EARTHWORK (EARTHWORK, Unknown date)

Full description

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[TQ 77295279] Earthwork [GT] [TQ 77205287] Earthwork [GT] (1)

The earthwork at Mangravet Wood, Maidstone, (now a housing estate) was excavated in 1927 (6) but no evidence for its age was produced. Only small portions at TQ 77205287 and TQ 77295279 survive (surveyed on field document). [See plan AO/LP/63/97]. One side is parallel to and abuts the Roman road. (2-6) This earthwork has been almost completely destroyed by a housing estate. Published 1:1250 survey revised. (7)

Centred TQ 77265297. This kite-shaped irregular univallate enclosure of approximately 7 hectares, presumably part of a larger complex (see plan authy 3) lies on fairly level high ground near the top of a wide ridge. It has been overlain and virtually effaced by a mid 20th c densely packed housing estate although part of its outline is preserved in the southeast and southwest boundaries of the estate. It had two simple entrances, (?later) outerworks on the NW side and Roman Road (3) skirts the west side. Although excavation (6) gave no date ofr the work its alignment with the Roman Road and general form suggests an Romano-British date. The OS 25" 1971 depicts three short sections of ditches and banks:

1. TQ 77195290 - TQ 77215285. A 60m length of minor scarps set against the boundary fence and a small ovoid depression c.11m by 6.5m (TQ 77195286) which is shown on the OS 1927 plan (3). Both features have now been infilled and are lost.

2. TQ 77055310 - TQ 77115301. An 88.0m long, shallow and 6m wide ditch. The plan (3) indicates that it is not part of the enclosure but it could be associated with the Roman Road. it has now been almost completely infilled although a vague fringe scarp not more than 0.2m high marks part of the outer side.

3. TQ 77265275 - TQ 77315282. A 90m long scarp of a ditch with a 24m long ragged bank in the rear garden of number 116. The ditch scarp is now almost non-existent and the bank which has been planted with conifers and landscaped is up to 0.4m high. It is presumably part of the univallate work. A low, spread bank is preserved in a number of back gardens against the rear of the SW boundary fence noteable in 16,24,26,38,44 and 62-76. Elsewhere it has been levelled under vegetable plots or garden huts but the surviving fragmentary parts may represent part of the enclosure bank and the northerly extension. Similarly sections of low spread bank are evident in some of the rear gardens against the SE boundary fence but here domestic rubbish, fallen trees and shrubs obscure much of the alignment. TQ 77205285 - TQ 77255274. A linear ditch 10.2m long, 7m wide and no more than 0.5m deep was identified in woodland with traces of an associated and spread bank 45m long, (in the rear gardens of numbers 110 and 112). This is apparently the outer ditch extending southwards from the ovoid depression as depicted on the 1927 plan (3), its relationship to the enclosrue is not clear but it may be a side ditch of the Roman Road. Its southerly extension is now overlain by a rubbish tip. (8)

HE archive materil: ORD01/01 Ordnance Survey: Portfolios 73 folios with a wide range of material, from original surveys to copies of old maps, acquired from the Ordnance Survey in 1983. Listed and rehoused 1992-93. Includes prints taken in 1995 of Stonehenge and Clausentum plans. Folio numbers: AO 1 - AO 2308

Ordnance Survey: Portfolios (Collection). SKE6541.

Ordnance Survey: Portfolios (Collection). SKE6541.

<1> OS 1:1250 1958 (OS Card Reference). SKE48176.

<2> VCH Kent I 1908 439 plan (I C Gould) (OS Card Reference). SKE51176.

<3> Wessex from the Air 1928 256 plan (O G S Crawford & A Keiller) (OS Card Reference). SKE51310.

<4> Arch of Kent 1930 259 (R F Jessup) (OS Card Reference). SKE36909.

<5> L S 25" (C Heath Reviser 14 4 58) (OS Card Reference). SKE45989.

<6> Rep Ewks Committee 1927 25 (OS Card Reference). SKE49159.

<7> F1 CFW 03-MAR-64 (OS Card Reference). SKE42403.

<8> F2 MJF 16-AUG-86 (OS Card Reference). SKE43345.

<9> Field report for monument TQ 75 SE 20 - March, 1964 (Bibliographic reference). SKE3971.

<10> Field report for monument TQ 75 SE 20 - August, 1986 (Bibliographic reference). SKE3972.

Sources and further reading