A Prehistoric Landscape Emerges at Blacksole Farm
Throughout the last 12 months, SWAT Archaeology has been carrying out an ongoing programme of archaeological works in advance of development associated with the new Altira Business Park at Blacksole Farm, Beltinge, near Herne Bay. Excitement amongst the archaeological team builds on a daily basis as an ever-more complex prehistoric landscape continues to emerge, the size and scale of the site providing a fascinating window into the ancient occupation of the Bogshole Levels.
Originally commencing back in April 2007, an Archaeological Evaluation indicated the presence of extensive, multi-phase remains associated with Prehistoric and Roman-period occupation/settlement activity, in addition to Prehistoric industrial activity and probable pottery production. The results of the evaluation appeared to confirm that the Levels were relatively well populated during the Late Bronze/Early Iron Age but, in common with a minority of other sites in the area, the site also produced evidence of earlier occupation. Subsequent excavation within the western extent of the site has confirmed the presence of multi-phased occupation dating from the Neolithic and Bronze Age through the post-Medieval period when the farm was established. Early results suggested a nucleated prehistoric settlement, with associated domestic, agricultural and possible industrial land use, set out within a managed agricultural landscape. Excavations at Blacksole Farm have thus afforded an exciting and rare opportunity to study the landscape on both a macro - and micro-scale level.
To date, three roundhouses have been uncovered (two of which date to the Middle Bronze Age, the third associated with the Iron Age), providing the focal point for a multi-phase settlement comprising pits and ditches. The landscape was divided up for arable, pastoral and domestic purposes. Further rectangular enclosures, along with driveways, field boundaries and smaller internal divisions, reveal a network of herding features essential to the successful management and control of livestock. Interrupted parallel ditches or droveways set out at right-angles, are coupled with enclosure ditches and features that can be attributed to elements of animal husbandry. Such features would typically comprise collections of corrals or pens, funnels and herding ‘race’, used for droving, batching and sorting of livestock. Evidence for drafting gates, such as the ‘three way drafting gate system’ as suggested by Francis Pryor (1998) also appeared to be represented on site.
More excitement is building as a possible longhouse emerges, comprising a series of substantial postholes that contain Neolithic waste flakes distributed in a circular pattern (around a post?) as well as a much earlier tranchet axe of Mesolithic date, possibly kept and ceremoniously discarded?
While it is currently believed that the primary focus of the site would have been associated with agrarian field management and control of domesticated livestock (within a co-axial system of land division), features with a semblance to funerary or monumental structures (all of which are indicative of the Middle Bronze Age) are surprisingly absent. That said, excavations continue at a steady rate and we are without doubt that we have only just started to scratch the surface. Evaluation trenches to the east of the existing site have revealed the presence of enclosures, driveways, pits and postholes representative of extensive contemporary settlement, providing us with the continuation of a landscape that (spatially at least) never seems to end.
BELOW: The archaeological team within roundhouse II.
References
Pryor, F.M.M., (1998) Farmers in Prehistoric Britain, Stroud: Tempus Books
Acknowledgements
SWAT Archaeology would like to thank Kitewood Estates for commissioning the project. Thanks are also extended to Richard Cross, Archaeological Officer, Canterbury City Council for his advice and assistance. Finally, thanks are due to the hard-working site team who assisted the author, namely: Julie Martin, James Madden, Dan Quintain, Natasha Ransom, Eliott Wragg, Roddy Mattison, Emma Boast and Paul Hart. Site surveys and illustrations are carried out and produced by James Madden and Jonny Madden of ‘Digitise This’.
David Birtchfield (Field Archaeologist) & Paul Wilkinson (Director SWAT Archaeology)