Cobham Landscape Detectives are go!

By Andrew Mayfield

Following a successful application to the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Cobham Landscape Detectives Project is adding to our understanding of Cobham parish and its environs.

A three-year project in scope, volunteers led by Kent County Council’s community archaeologist will explore the archaeology, history and natural environment of this hidden gem in the Kentish landscape. The project has extensive support from local stakeholders including key land managers and owners. Building on ten years of community archaeological activities at Shorne Woods Country Park, this new study will place past findings into a wider context. The project aims to examine the landscape of Cobham parish for clues to its past and tell the changing story of the area from Prehistory to the Present.

Volunteers will groundtruth results of the Medway Valley of Visions LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) survey, record veteran and ancient trees, undertake geophysical surveys, research local archives, gather oral history testimonies, dig test pits and undertake carefully focused excavation tasks. All of this work will be documented through social media, the project website and in a series of reports.

At the time of writing, we are six months into year one of the project. So far we have conducted extensive LiDAR groundtruthing surveys of the National Trust land in Cobham Woods. Beneath the tree canopy is a remarkable fossilised field system, perhaps dating back to the medieval period, when the Manor of Cobham held much of the land across the east end of what is now Cobham parish. As the Parkland and Deer Park at Cobham Hall were expanded, so much of this former farmland was incorporated into the new boundaries of the Park. The surviving veteran and ancient trees provide further clues to the age of some of the boundary banks and lynchets identified. One incredible oak tree, standing on a relic bank could be over 500 years old.

We held our first Cobham Landscapes Detectives dig in the late summer of 2016. Our survey work in Cobham Woods identified the site of one of the former Cobham estate houses, known as Mausoleum or Park cottage. The ruins had featured in the extensive Cobham and Ashenbank Management Scheme reports, but they had not been investigated. Our two-week excavation revealed the footings of both the Georgian building dating to the late 1780’s and the outbuilding added over one hundred years later. The buildings were knocked down in the 1950’s when the last incumbent Lord Darnley moved out of Cobham Hall and sold off much of the estate. The dig was a great success, with help and support from many local archaeology volunteers and enthusiasts and visitors.

Just before the dig started we also conducted a magnetometry survey around the Darnley Mausoleum, to see if we could identify any evidence for an earlier building. Unfortunately, the damage wrought to the site over the past fifty years had left the ground littered with rubbish that disrupted the results. After the dig we also fieldwalked a number of the local fields, recovering a range of evidence, including worked flint, pottery, brick and tile. Roger Cockett is producing a number of research papers to set the historical scene in each area covered by the project and dispose of a few myths.

The remainder of year one will be spent conducting further LiDAR groundtruthing exercises, tree surveys, geophysical surveys and archival research. We will also be planning our project for year two, a test pit survey across Cobham village. If the weather allows, over the winter we will dig a trench across an old hollow way in Cobham Woods, marked on maps as far back as 1641 and thought to be medieval in date.

The project owes its successes to date to the hard work and enthusiasm of the many volunteers who have taken part. Many of them have worked on projects at Shorne Woods Country Park over the past ten years but we are also encouraging and recruiting new volunteers. To find out more about the project, do have a look at our website www.shornewoodsarchaeology.co.uk/cobham-landscape-detectives

Images

ABOVE: North Downs Young Archaeologists Club excavating the Georgian building

RIGHT: Magnetometry survey around the Darnley Mausoleum

BELOW: Part of a cricket mug found on the Darnley Estate

Visit our facebook page ArchaeologyinKent for all things community archaeology and volunteer related, follow @ArchaeologyKent on Twitter. You can also contact Andrew Mayfield, Kent County Council’s Community Archaeologist direct on andrew.mayfield@kent.gov.uk or 07920 548906.