Shorne Woods, Cobham landscapes and community archaeology further afield… including a rather special birthday!

ArticlesIssue 113

1 Mar

By Andrew Mayfield

Welcome to your first KCC community archaeology roundup of 2020! Following on from the update in issue 112 we continue to work on the anti-aircraft battery near Cobham village. This involved clearing vegetation from the site so that the buildings could be planned in more detail by Victor Smith. The battery had its barracks nearby, and we are also working to uncover the building base of what appears to be the ablutions block. Two vibrantly coloured toilets suggest that the building was upgraded after the war when the site housed families as part of the local post-war squatting movement.

Over the road at Shorne Woods Country Park, a chance meeting with a historian writing a history of clay works in the area has drawn us back to survey some of the 20th- century sites. Using the LiDAR results (see Fig 1) we have been re-plotting the various industrial and military sites along the southern edge of the Park. The LiDAR image shows the remains of the claypit’s industrial complex, in use between the 1930s and 1960s and elements of the World War Two RAF camp. We hope to finally make the Medway Valley LiDAR data, which covers Shorne Woods, available through the soon-to-launch Darent Valley LiDAR portal this spring.

All this work has been eclipsed; however, by a very special birthday. Dennis, key park volunteer, archaeologist, gardener and café worker extraordinaire has turned 90! In the image associated with this article, you can see Dennis opening the volunteer tent at Randall Manor in 2012. Dennis is the glue holding volunteering together at the Park, and many of you will have been on one of his legendary tours of Randall Manor. Happy birthday Dennis!

The Fifth Continent project on Romney Marsh

For the remainder of 2020, I will be working for the National Lottery Heritage funded Fifth Continent scheme. We have lots of exciting projects planned, from fieldwork looking for the port of Old Romney, to church surveys, a dig at St Martin’s field in New Romney and work with landowners across the Marsh. The Fifth Continent Project is a landscape partnership, which aims to allow communities to acknowledge their surroundings and become involved while protecting and celebrating all that makes Romney Marsh’s unique landscape so important and evocative.

Greensand Commons Project

I am also delivering the heritage activities for the National Lottery Heritage Fund’s Greensand Commons project. We have run a series of LiDAR workshops, and these will be followed over the spring and early summer by field surveys and small-scale excavations. The Greensand Commons project is working on sites from Westerham to Seal, and there are three heritage components, the archaeology of the Commons, historic routeways and a project to identify the historic productive land use of the Commons.

To get involved with any of our projects, from Cobham and Shorne, to Romney Marsh or Sevenoaks Commons do contact me directly at andrew.mayfield@kent.gov.uk, telephone 07920 548906, have a look at our website www. shornewoodsarchaeology.co.uk, our Facebook page ArchaeologyinKent or on Twitter at @ArchaeologyKent.