Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

A substantial bank is visible as a mixture of earthworks and cropmarks north of the River Stour on 1940s RAF vertical aerial photographs. It appears to have been fully plough-levelled by the 1960s as aerial photographs of this date show the whole feature as a cropmark. The bank springs out from the northern side of a field drain, defined to its south by the "Sea Wall" bank, and runs for a total of 680m following a sinuous course roughly parallel to the field drain and Sea Wall. The bank appears to predate the current field layout as it is cut several times by ditches belonging to this system. The bank may a former alignment of the Sea Wall and may be a reclamation or flood bank related to the reclamation of land from marsh in the Wantsum Channel during this period.

Monument Types

• BANK (EARTHWORK) (Medieval to Post Medieval - 1066 AD to 1900 AD)
• FLOOD DEFENCES? (Medieval to Post Medieval - 1066 AD to 1900 AD)

Full description

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A substantial bank is visible north of the River Stour on 1940s RAF vertical aerial photographs [1]. The eastern 175m of the bank is visible as an earthwork whilst the remainder runs through ploughed fields and is visible as a cropmark. It appears to have been fully plough-levelled by the 1960s as Ordnance Survey vertical aerial photographs of this date show the whole feature as a cropmark [2].

The bank appears to spring out from the northern side of a field drain, defined to its south by the "Sea Wall" bank, shown on historic Ordnance Survey mapping [3]. The bank runs for a total of 680m following a sinuous course roughly parallel to the field drain and Sea Wall. The relationship of the bank to the field drain is not clear as any possible junction between the features is obscured by material dumped at the field edge from recent clearance of field drains [1]. The bank appears to predate the current field layout [4] as it is cut three times by ditches belonging to this system [1].

It is possible that this bank represents a former alignment of the Sea Wall and may be a reclamation or flood bank. It is likely to be medieval in date and relate to the reclamation of land from marsh in the Wantsum Channel during this period.

A transcription of the features recorded from aerial photography exists within a GIS layer held by this HER [4].

<3> Ordnance Survey, 1858-73, Ordnance Survey 1:2500 1st Edition : 1872-1897 (Map). SWX11831.

<4> Wessex Archaeology, 2009-10, South-East Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey - Aerial Photographic Transcriptions (Digital archive). SWX15705.

<4> Wessex Archaeology, 2011, South East Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey - (SE RCZAS) Phase 1: National Mapping Programme Report (Unpublished document). SKE25955.

<4> 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