The Modern Antiquarian. Stone Circles, Ancient Sites, Neolithic Monuments, Ancient Monuments, Prehistoric Sites, Megalithic MysteriesThe Modern Antiquarian

   

Kent

Sites in this group:

35 posts
Addington Long Barrow Long Barrow
8 posts
Ashenbank Wood Bowl Barrow Round Barrow(s)
8 posts
Barrow Hill, Higham Marshes Sacred Hill
1 post
Bay Hill Round Barrow(s)
20 posts
Bigbury Camp Hillfort
11 posts
Bodsham Long Barrow Long Barrow
1 post
Broad Downs (near The Firs) Round Barrow(s)
12 posts
Castle Hill, Tonbridge Hillfort
30 posts
The Chestnuts Long Barrow
5 posts
Clowes Wood Round Barrow(s)
8 posts
The Coffin Stone Natural Rock Feature
154 posts
Coldrum Long Barrow
52 posts
The Countless Stones Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech
14 posts
Eggringe Wood Round Barrow(s)
18 posts
1 site
High Rocks Cave / Rock Shelter
1 post
Holborough Knob Round Barrow(s)
10 posts
Iffin Wood Round Barrow(s)
10 posts
Jackets Field Long Barrow
9 posts
Julliberrie's Grave Long Barrow
8 posts
King's Wood Round Barrow(s)
110 posts
Kit's Coty Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech
4 posts
Maplescombe Church Stone Christianised Site
2 posts
North Foreland Round Barrow(s) (Destroyed)
23 posts
Oldbury Hillfort Hillfort
22 posts
Oldbury Rock Shelters Cave / Rock Shelter
7 posts
Quarry Wood Camp Ancient Village / Settlement / Misc. Earthwork
7 posts
Ringlemere Farm Round Barrow(s)
14 posts
Shoulder of Mutton Wood Round Barrow(s)
4 posts
Smythe's Megalith Long Barrow
14 posts
Squerryes Park Hillfort
1 post
Stumblebury Round Barrow(s)
3 posts
West Wood Barrow / Cairn Cemetery
26 posts
White Horse Stone Standing Stone / Menhir
11 posts
Wildernesse Barrow Round Barrow(s)
Sites of disputed antiquity:
1 post
Dane John Mound Round Barrow(s)
4 posts
Standing Sarsen Stone at Eynsford Standing Stone / Menhir
1 post
St Augustine's Abbey Standing Stones
9 posts
Walderslade Woods Cup and Ring Marks / Rock Art

News

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Archaeologists compare Neolithic Kent site to Stonehenge, find Bronze Age funerary monument


A Neolithic ditch which became a huge funerary monument when it was enlarged with an outer ring during the Bronze Age has been found on housing development grounds in Kent.

Archaeologists suspect a “sacred way” could have led to a henge 6,000 years ago at Iwade Meadows, to the west of the Kent industrial town of Sittingbourne... continues...
moss Posted by moss
13th August 2014ce

Henge found on North Downs from satellite images


A BBC video on the discovery of this (slightly empty) henge.....


Circular earthworks dating back to the stone age have been discovered on the North Downs in Kent.

The henge was found after satellite images were studied by archaeologists... continues...
moss Posted by moss
24th August 2012ce

Bronze Age Boat Replica Fails To Float

The band was ready, the champagne was on hand then........

More info :

http://www.kentonline.co.uk/east_kent_mercury/news/2012/may/12/bronze_age_boat_replica_fails.aspx
drewbhoy Posted by drewbhoy
21st May 2012ce

Bronze Age bracelets found in Kent


Two Bronze Age gold bracelets almost 3,000 years old have been discovered during excavations along the route of the East Kent Access Road. When they were found one bracelet was placed inside the other.

The bracelets were found in an area of the Ebbsfleet peninsula from which four other Late Bronze Age hoards are already known... continues...
thesweetcheat Posted by thesweetcheat
21st September 2010ce

Artefacts hint at earliest Neanderthals in Britain

"Archaeologists have found what they say is the earliest evidence of Neanderthals living in Britain.

Two pieces of flint unearthed at motorway works in Dartford, Kent, have now been dated to 110,000 years ago. "

Full story from the BBC -

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/science_and_environment/10206677.stm
Chris Collyer Posted by Chris Collyer
2nd June 2010ce
Edited 2nd June 2010ce

Lottery Grant to raise Medway's profile


I have spent the last few months battering away at the local Heritage departments in an attempt to improve the knowledge and awareness of the locals and to do something about the pretty sad state of the monuments around the Medway... continues...
slumpystones Posted by slumpystones
31st May 2007ce
Edited 22nd October 2010ce

Road Dig Reveals Iron Age Remains


From an article published on the BBC News web site on 4th May 2005:
Archaeologists have discovered iron age remains under the route of a new bypass around the village of Leybourne... continues...
Kammer Posted by Kammer
9th May 2005ce
Edited 17th February 2006ce

Bronze Age finds to go on display


Excerpts from an article published on the BBC News web site on 3rd February 2005:
Skeletons from the Bronze Age that were found in an archaeological dig in Kent and said to be among the best preserved from that time, are to go on show... continues...
Kammer Posted by Kammer
3rd February 2005ce
Edited 17th February 2006ce

Bronze Age Skeletons Found in Dig


From an article published on the BBC News web site on 28th January 2005:
Archaeologists have unearthed a unique site in Kent which they claim contains the best preserved examples of Bronze Age skeletons... continues...
Kammer Posted by Kammer
1st February 2005ce
Edited 17th February 2006ce

Recreated Bronze Age boat to cross Channel


Archaeologists are planning to build a copy of an ancient boat found in Dover and sail it from Britain to France. The original was found by chance in 1992 in a water filled shaft during roadworks in the town. It was one of the best preserved examples of a coastal vessel from the Bronze age ever found... continues...
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
1st December 2004ce
Edited 17th February 2006ce

Kentish Metal Detectorists Unearth Treasure

In two separate incidents metal detectorists working in Kent have unearthed fascinating hoards of prehistoric coins, axe heads and jewellery.

A number of weeks ago two metal detectorists found an Iron Age hoard on farmland near Maidstone and last Sunday another detectorist dug up a Bronze Age hoard near Wye.
Whole story here
Jane Posted by Jane
15th December 2003ce
Edited 8th February 2006ce

A white horse, 100 metres high, is to be carved into the chalk downs at Folkestone


Turf war over Byers' white horse

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/localgovernment/story/0,9061,675788,00... continues...
Posted by phil
6th April 2002ce
Edited 15th February 2006ce

Images (click to view fullsize)

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Photographs:<b>Kent</b>Posted by thesweetcheat <b>Kent</b>Posted by slumpystones <b>Kent</b>Posted by slumpystones <b>Kent</b>Posted by juamei Maps / Plans / Diagrams:<b>Kent</b>Posted by slumpystones <b>Kent</b>Posted by slumpystones <b>Kent</b>Posted by slumpystones

Miscellaneous

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In response to Rhiannon's Battle Street conundrum, I drove past there today and made a short detour. Just before the end of the lane, on the right, is a modernish housing development...called Sarsen Close, would you believe...in the drive of one house were 3 stones, and more in the gardens of the other houses in the close. One must have been 12' x 6' x 1' thick, laying flat and used as a planter of all things, a real shame because it was a stunning piece of stone...I didn't go into the field or down the path. not knowing really what to look for.

Also 1/4 mile away I found another stone, an absolute beauty, either heavily carved or bless with the most natural art ever.

Now I have some photos, but if I start posting pictures of sarsens everywhere it will mean chaos!
slumpystones Posted by slumpystones
24th March 2007ce
Edited 24th March 2007ce

When first built, the Medway's long barrows had high rectangular chambers. These, their entrances finally blocked by a focal portal stone, and with a facade, were at the eastern end of considerable, in surviving instances more than 60m in length, long barrows. Flanked by quarry ditches or scoops, they were retained by sarsen stone kerbs, the surviving boulders being mostly of modest size.

On the eastern side of the Medway there is the Lower Kit's Coty House, where, when scrutinized from the east, it can be seen that the chamber's side stones have fallen to the north. Were they, as were those of Chestnuts, merely pulled back into a vertical position, there would be a chamber almost 7m long and 3.5m wide, with an astonishing internal height, at least at the entrance, of almost 2.8m. At Chestnuts this procedure showed that its stones demarcated a chamber 4m long, 2m wide and 3m high. The Coffin Stone's chamber could have been at least 3.5m high.

Such chamber heights are exceptional, and thus the Medway's megalithic long barrows were undiputedly a unique group of the largest and most grandiose of their kind.

Paul Ashbee - Kent in Prehistoric Times.
slumpystones Posted by slumpystones
20th March 2007ce
Edited 22nd October 2010ce

Something else to throw into the Medway mix. I'd not heard of these pits before, perhaps they're not prehistoric at all, but their proximity to Kit's Coty and the rest is interesting, and they are to do with flint..
At several places in this part of Kent, especially on and near the high ridge which runs to the westward, there have been observed deep pits, evidently of a very remote antiquity. They consist of a large circular shaft, descending like a well, and opening at the bottom into one or more chambers..

On Friday, the 23rd of August, 1844, having obtained permission to excavate in the estate belonging to Preston Hall, which extends over the top of this hill, I took some labourers with me.. to examine the ground behind Kits Coty House.. I proceeded further on the top of the hill into what I knew to be the Preston Hall property, and on the ground just within the limits of Aylesford common I found single stones, closely resembling those of which the cromlechs below are built, but lying flat on the ground.

My first impression was that they were the capstones of cromlechs, or sepulchral chambers, buried under theground, and, having singled out one of them, I set the men to dig under the side of it. When they got under the edge they found thye were digging among a mass of flints, which had evidently been placed there by design; I then caused the men to continue the excavation to a greater distance round, and, to my surprise, I found that this immense stone was laid over the mouth of a large circular pit which had first been filled up to the top with flints. To proceed any further without a greater number of men than I had with me would have been useless.

But, just as I was leaving it, some of the cottagers on the top of the hill - squatters - informed me that these pits were frequently found on that hill, and that they generally had one or two of the large stones at the mouth. When, a few years before, a new road was made over the brow of the hill, and flints were sought for that purpose, the labourers discovered these pits and partly emptied some of them, which they found much more profitable than seeking the flints on the surface of the chalk. One was shown to me which had been emptied to a depth of about ten feet, and had been discontinued on account of the labour of throwing the flints up.
p565 in The Gentleman's Magazine for 1852, in an article on 'The Valley of Maidstone - Kits Coty House and the Cromlechs around' by Thomas Wright.
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
21st January 2007ce
Edited 22nd October 2010ce

Right out of the Medway valley area we have hints of another megalithic structure, near the village of Cobham, some five miles west of Rochester. Here in an orchard off Battle Street remains today one sarsen, but we know that a group of great stones once existed here because Payne gives extracts from the diary of the farmer who carted them away in 1770-3, while others were removed in 1842 to make a rockery at Cobham Hall. Lucas reported in 1854 on the probability of a megalith once existing here, and states that a native told him that Battle Street led to 'The Warrior's Grave'.

...The supposed Cobham megalith was also associated with a battle. Lucas visited this district in 1854, twelve years after the last of the stones had been removed, and eighty years after its destruction, but he reports that it was known locally as 'The Warrior's Grave', and this name was coupled with that of the lane which led towards the monument, which was called Battle Street. This name still endures and is certainly of some antiquity, for we have a record of it as such in 1471. There is no historical record of a battle being fought thereabouts.

George Payne, Collectanea Cantiana 1893, p153.
W C Lucas, Journ. Arch. Asscn., 1854, vol ix, p427.
This comes from p38 and p42 of 'Notes on the Folklore and Legends Associated with the Kentish Megaliths, by John H. Evans, in Folklore, Vol. 57, No. 1. (Mar., 1946).

Cobham is at TQ6768, and 'Battle Street' is marked on the 1:25,000 OS map. Does the stone exist or not? The author's obviously confused! Perhaps someone local knows.
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
25th September 2006ce
Edited 25th September 2006ce

Links

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ADS


You can now download Peter Clark's EH Archaeological Monograph about the Dover Bronze Age Boat (2004) from the ADS website.
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
12th December 2014ce

Exploring Kent's Past


Searchable Historic Environment Record for Kent. If you look at the sites on a map you can also choose historic maps for the area.
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
3rd June 2011ce

Dover Museum


'The Dover Bronze Age Boat', said to be the world's oldest known sea-going boat.

Explanations, photos and diagrams of how the boat was constructed, how it was excavated, and how it was conserved. Basic but nice. Perhaps a trip to the museum to see the boat in person is in order..
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
19th September 2006ce
Edited 3rd June 2011ce

Latest posts for Kent

Showing 1-10 of 663 posts. Most recent first | Next 10

Barrow Hill, Higham Marshes (Sacred Hill) — Miscellaneous

Well, I was a bit at a loss as to what 'designation' to apply to this one - isn't it curious how we humans always have the need to define things? - seeing as that shameful qualifier 'Destroyed' seems most inappropriate here.

To attempt to clarify/explain: it would seem - or at least appear highly likely to me - that once upon a time, the natural feature that is Barrow Hill was crowned by an earthen barrow covering a cist. Kent's HER informs us that: "As the result of denudation of a burial mound of marsh turf, the outline of a collapsed oblong cist of Kentish ragstone was visible on Higham Marshes. It was excavated in 1880 by Mr E.L.Arnold and found to contain a crouched skeleton (very crushed) accompanied by 79 beads which lay as if they had originally been around the neck. the beads were Porosphaera globularis (a fossil sponge common in the Upper Chalk and taking a globular form), ranging from 7 to 26 mm. in diameter and naturally perforated. The mound stood on a gravelly hillock which probably stood out of the water when all the surrounding district was swamp".

Now, although there appears to be no conclusive proof that Barrow Hill was the location of said cist, the fact that: 1) Barrow Hill is the only such feature (as described) in the locality; 2) The locals saw fit to name the place 'Barrow Hill'... suggests it is a pretty good bet.

So, should one focus upon the destroyed round barrow that once was... or the natural feature that simply HAD to be the site for it back then? Sacred Hill seems fair enough, don't you think?

The HER record is here:
https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=416875&resourceID=19191
GLADMAN Posted by GLADMAN
30th May 2023ce

Barrow Hill, Higham Marshes (Sacred Hill) — Images (click to view fullsize)

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30th May 2023ce

Stumblebury (Round Barrow(s)) — Miscellaneous

Historic England reckons Stumblebury is a:

"... bowl barrow situated on the crest of a ridge facing south-west in an area of undulating chalk downland. The barrow has a mound 20m in diameter and 1m high surrounded by a ditch from which material was quarried during the construction of the monument. Having become partially infilled over the years, the ditch is now only visible as a slight depression to the south-west of the mound; the remainder survives as a buried feature c.3m wide. The barrow was recorded as 'Stumleburgh' in a land grant of 1289"

However... upon visiting said hilltop 28/5/23, I reluctantly came away without any definite identification, such is the disturbed, overgrown nature of the (apparently 'private'...yawn) woodland to the south of The North Downs Way. Hence no image. Incidentally, I have to say the almost psychotic surfeit of Private/Keep Out etc etc signs in the locale of Otford does the locals no credit whatsoever.... couldn't wait to get away.
GLADMAN Posted by GLADMAN
28th May 2023ce

Broad Downs (near The Firs) (Round Barrow(s)) — Miscellaneous

With time very much at a premium - following an extended hang at the fine oval 'long' barrow within nearby Shrub's Wood - this remained an 'over the hedge' view... once the extent of the fine views to be had here became apparent. Very much worth a return at some point to do the site justice.

Historic England reckons:

"The monument, a bowl barrow located on the crest of the Downs with extensive views to the south and west, includes an earthen mound encircled by a now-infilled quarry ditch. The profile or the mound suggests that it has been spread slightly by agricultural activity, but the barrow mound nevertheless survives to a height of 1.6m above the surrounding land and measures 21m in diameter. The surrounding ditch has been infilled by the soil eroded and spread from the mound so that it is no longer visible. The diameter of the mound and ditch together is 26m."
GLADMAN Posted by GLADMAN
27th May 2023ce
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