Here, as elsewhere, the megaliths have been disturbed at various times by the activities of searchers for buried treasure. The Lower Kits Coty is said to have been broken up for this reason, and the interior of the Coldrum chamber was disturbed for the same purpose. Even today country people find it difficult to believe that archaeologists excavate for anything else but gold and the treasures of ancient peoples.
Oh the silly country people. As if archaeologists ever excavate/d for reasons other than Serious Scientific Research.
From p40 of Notes on the Folklore and Legends Associated with the Kentish Megaliths
John H. Evans
Folklore, Vol. 57, No. 1. (Mar., 1946), pp. 36-43.
Paul Ashbee would disagree!
He says that Lower Kits Coty and Chestnuts were undermined and destroyed in the 13thC as a result of religious fervour, using identical methods, probably by the same workteam. Coldrum was partially destroyed at the same time and was then used as a chalk quarry [easy to see when you look at it] which stripped a whole lot off the front of the barrow. The floor level in the chamber in the 19thC was 4' higher than today, the top 2' crumbling away down the slope of the quarry, meaning it had never been disturbed. However, some bright spark decided the rumour about a tunnel between the barrow and the church was worth a dig, creating the current hole in the middle, which will apparently be fixed next year once and for all. No more fires!
Coldrum Revisited and Reviewed, P Ashbee, Arch Cantiana vol 118, 1998.