Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

An enclosure and a short section of a bank are visible as earthworks on 1940s aerial photographs.

The enclosure appears to be integrated with the post-medieval field system shown in this area on historic Ordnance Survey mapping and is likely to be contemporary. Its function is unclear but it is likely to be an agricultural feature. The bank is on a differing alignment and may predate this field layout. It may be a water management feature related to the reclamation of land from the Wantsum Channel during the medieval and earlier post-medieval periods.

Monument Types

• BANK (EARTHWORK) (Medieval to Post Medieval - 1066 AD to 1900 AD)
• ENCLOSURE (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)

Full description

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An enclosure and a short section of a bank are visible as earthworks on 1940s RAF vertical aerial photographs [1].

The enclosure is square in plan and defined by 4m wide bank which encloses an area c.10m across. It lies at the corner of a field and has no obvious entrance, the bank lies to its immediate south. The bank starts abruptly at a field drain and cannot be traced to its west. It follows an approximately W-E alignment for the first 17m, then turns and runs north-eastwards for 15m, then turns again and runs south-eastwards for 85m before tapering out and becoming imperceptible. Both features appear to have been plough-levelled by the 1960s as Ordnance Survey vertical aerial photographs of this date show them as cropmarks [2].

The enclosure appears to be integrated with the post-medieval field system shown in this area on historic Ordnance Survey mapping [3] and is likely to be contemporary. Its function is unclear but it is likely to be an agricultural feature. The bank is on a differing alignment and may predate this field layout. It may be a water management feature related to the reclamation of land from the Wantsum Channel during the medieval and earlier post-medieval periods.

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