Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Crop-mark within the Folkestone Racecourse at Westenhanger were revealed by photographs taken by the Royal Air Force in 1946. The site, which extends either side of a fence is less clear on the north side where the ground has been levelled, with the area to the south being deep ploughed between 1949 and 1952. This means that superficial characteristics of the site have been obliterated. The crop-marks appear to represent a series of possible "boat-shaped" buildings of a type characteristic of the Dark Ages. If this is correct, there would have been six or seven halls lying along side each other. This may relate to an early tradition, recorded by Grose, that Westenhanger Manor originated as an Anglo-Saxon palace of the Kentish kings. The estate seems to have been in royal hands as late as 1035, but as yet there is no evidence to indicate the date or the character of the features shown in the crop-mark. A resistivity survey in 1969 revealed no significant finds, and two trial trenches on either side of the fence only indicated disturbed soil conditions. A layer of brown loam beneath the turf had animal bones, fragments of brick and tile of various dates, a sherd of Samian ware and some waste and worked flakes of Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic flints, indicating a long history of human activity.

Monument Types

• ROYAL PALACE? (SITE, Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 410 AD? to 1065 AD)

Associated Finds

• FLAKE (Palaeolithic - 500000 BC to 10001 BC)
• FLAKE (Mesolithic - 10000 BC to 4001 BC)
• SHERD (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)

Full description

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Crop-mark within the Folkestone Racecourse at Westenhanger were revealed by photographs taken by the Royal Air Force in 1946. The site, which extends either side of a fence is less clear on the north side where the ground has been levelled, with the area to the south being deep ploughed between 1949 and 1952. This means that superficial characteristics of the site have been obliterated. The crop-marks appear to represent a series of possible "boat-shaped" buildings of a type characteristic of the Dark Ages. If this is correct, there would have been six or seven halls lying along side each other. This may relate to an early tradition, recorded by Grose (2), that Westenhanger Manor originated as an Anglo-Saxon palace of the Kentish kings. The estate seems to have been in royal hands as late as 1035 (3), but as yet there is no evidence to indicate the date or the character of the features shown in the crop-mark. A resistivity survey in 1969 revealed no significant finds, and two trial trenches on either side of the fence only indicated disturbed soil conditions. A layer of brown loam beneath the turf had animal bones, fragments of brick and tile of various dates, a sherd of Samian ware and some waste and worked flakes of Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic flints, indicating a long history of human activity. (1-3)

Additional Info(4-6).

It has been argued that the features seen in the aerial photograph are in fact heaps of manure awaiting spreading or ploughing in. (7)

<1> Arch Cant 88 1973 203-7 photo, plans (MJ Swanton) (OS Card Reference). SKE35933.

<2> The Ants of Eng and Wales 3 1773-1787 84 (F Grose) (OS Card Reference). SKE49953.

<3> Arch Cant 47 1935 144-152 (G Ward) (OS Card Reference). SKE35213.

<4> Chris Blandford Associates, 1992, A259 Dymchurch to M20 (Junction 11) Stage 1 Heritage (Unpublished document). SKE6769.

<5> Chris Blandford Associates, 1994, A259 Dymchurch to M20 (J11) Draft Brief for Archaeological Field Evaluation (Unpublished document). SKE6884.

<6> Archaeology South-East, 1998, Desk-Based Assessment and Walk-over of a site at Folkestone Racescourse, Westhanger (Unpublished document). SKE7403.

<7> Alan Ward, 2012, An archaeological watching brief at 'Jesters', Stone Street, Westenhanger, Kent (Unpublished document). SKE17585.

Sources and further reading