Westborough School, Hambledon Court, Maidstone
TQ 7390 5515; (S. Holden); evaluation and excavation; 12 July - 15 October 2004; CgMs Consulting on behalf of Crest Nicholson; KWHC04
Natural deposits of mixed Ragstone and brickearth were recorded between 69.70m and 66.56m OD.
The evaluation consisted of eight trenches arranged across the site whilst the excavation was undertaken in two areas in the northern side of the site and in one area adjacent to the southern boundary.
Running on a northwest-southeast orientation from the northern limit of excavation and to the western side of the site, a substantial ditch measuring was recorded. The fills of this cut contained pottery dating to the Bronze Age as well as an, as yet, unique assemblage of finely polished flints. Having been backfilled, a possible kiln, or corn-drying oven had been cut into the upper levels during the early-Iron Age. This was truncated by re-cutting of the ditch, also during the early-Iron Age. The ditch had fallen into disuse and was superseded by the cutting of a narrower ditch that respected the same alignment but which returned to the southwest and was traced to the southern limit of the site. This contained pottery dated to the mid-Iron Age and is likely to be an enclosure ditch.
Isolated features such as pits and postholes were cut on either side of both ditches and contained cultural material spanning the Bronze and Iron Ages. On the eastern side of the site, a colluvial deposit was identified and sampled, producing pottery sherds dating from the Bronze Age through to the Romano-British period, with fragments of medieval and post-medieval roof tile in the upper levels.
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