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Monument details

HER Number:MWX43119
Type of record:Monument
Name:Boundary earthworks, (visible shallow ditches) Wickhambreaux Valley

Summary

Shallow ditches are visible on 1940s aerial photographs. They appear to be lost sub-divisions of the extant mapped field system.


Grid Reference:TR 23536 62043
Map Sheet:TR26SW
Parish:WICKHAMBREAUX, CANTERBURY, KENT

Monument Types

  • DITCH (Medieval to Post Medieval - 1066 AD to 1900 AD)
  • FIELD SYSTEM (Medieval to Post Medieval - 1066 AD to 1900 AD)

Full description

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Two shallow interlinked ditches are visible on 1940s RAF vertical aerial photographs [1]. They are roughly perpendicular to the field boundaries extant on historic Ordnance Survey mapping and they appear to mark lost sub-divisions of that system. Examination of modern aerial photographs suggests that they may still exist as earthworks [2].

Field systems in this area are derived from fields developed following land reclamation from the Wantsum Channel and surrounding marshes between the 11th and 18th centuries. Although the precise date is unclear, the regularity of field shapes and linear nature of boundaries suggest that the system may derive from the latter end of this period.

A transcription of the features recorded from aerial photography exists within a GIS layer held by this HER [3].


<2> Google Earth (Graphic material). SWX15704.

<3> Wessex Archaeology, 2009-10, South-East Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey - Aerial Photographic Transcriptions (Digital archive). SWX15705.

<3> Wessex Archaeology, 2011, South East Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey - (SE RCZAS) Phase 1: National Mapping Programme Report (Unpublished document). SKE25955.

<3> Cornwall Council Historic Environment Projects and Gloucestershire County Council, 2011, South East Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey National Mapping Programme Components 1&2: Results of NMP Mapping (Unpublished document). SKE25954.

Sources and further reading

Cross-ref. Source description
<2>Graphic material: Google Earth.
<3>Unpublished document: Cornwall Council Historic Environment Projects and Gloucestershire County Council. 2011. South East Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey National Mapping Programme Components 1&2: Results of NMP Mapping.
<3>Unpublished document: Wessex Archaeology. 2011. South East Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey - (SE RCZAS) Phase 1: National Mapping Programme Report.
<3>Digital archive: Wessex Archaeology. 2009-10. South-East Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey - Aerial Photographic Transcriptions.