Lower Medway Archaeological Research Group Dig at Sharstead

Since May, a small section from the L.MA.R.G. have been hard at work excavating a site at Capstone Farm Country Park just outside Chatham. The site was reported as a possible part of Sharstead Manor, and it was hoped to discover medieval structures, even perhaps Roman origins, as indicated by the site name.

The farmhouse is sited on top of a hill and was demolished in 1950, useful material being removed and walls collapsed onto the foundations.

At present (31.10.89), the brick rubble and growing undergrowth have been removed, and the ground floor plan exposed. The house had been divided at some time into two dwellings providing four rooms on the ground plan, two for each half, with brick-floored kitchens and remains of hearths and water boilers. A very large cellar, which had been cut into the chalk of the downs and partially flint-walled, lay under one room and shows signs of several stages of rebuilding, including a possible entrance from the kitchen which had been bricked-up and filled with rubble.

The floor material under each room is being examined, and a few interesting objects from 1790 onwards have been identified. The whole site contains the remains of bullock yards, a barn, and other outbuildings, and although there is little sign of 'important finds', the L.MA.R.G. diggers are learning a great deal about building construction, as well as muscle building, obtained from shifting the piles of bricks. The site provides a valuable training site for new members of the Group, supervised by Alan Ward. Research into the history of the site has provided lists of owners/occupants back to 1831, and the site has been brought to life through a visit by one of the last occupants who described the farm when last seen in 1941.

There are no amenities on the site; no mains services, with water drawn from a spring-fed well and a rainwater cistern, the usual outdoor privy, and a very long walk or horse ride to any shopping facilities. Despite this primitive situation, the Census records show that there had been as many as fourteen people living on the site in 1841 (including nine children of the two families, plus a farm laborer lodger!). The whole social history of the site provides an interesting glimpse of rural life over the past two hundred years, and more is to be discovered.

Down the hill from this site lies the 'big' Sharstead Farm, which is the certain site of the ancient manor that has a recorded history from 1270. There is no chance of excavation at the moment for it is a working farm, but research records have been collected and with all other items of information - the site of the mill, where the watercourse ran, the ponds, ancient trackways, burial sites, and other evidence of long occupation are being collated into a dossier to flesh out the material evidence that is surfacing at the dig.

There is a great deal of work still to be done, and each week adds a little to our present knowledge of this ancient farm site.

Reported by Peter Dawson, L.M.A.R.G.