Furfield Quarry Finds
Between 6th April and 22nd July this year, a team from the Museum of London Archaeology Service (MoLAS) excavated an important site at Furfield Quarry, Brishing Lane, Boughton Monchelsea. This work was in advance of a residential development on a part of the site known as the East Field, and was on behalf of George Wimpey, South London. Along the south-eastern edge of the site, and outside the area of redevelopment, exist the remains of substantial earthworks, provisionally dated to the late Iron Age. These have not previously been investigated and were recorded by MoLAS to allow the local authority to formulate a long-term management programme, ensuring their conservation. These earthworks are probably associated with the Boughton Camp, a late Iron Age oppidum, located c.1.5km to the west, and other earthworks c.800m to the south, and c.1.9km to the north-west of the current site.
The earliest features uncovered on the excavation site were a series of undated shallow curvilinear ditches, probably enclosures related to stock management. There were also traces of the eaves gully of a large roundhouse, c.12m in diameter. The most prominent feature was an Iron Age ditched enclosure that was possibly defensive in function. It was 123m long and over 46m wide, with ditches 3 to 3.5m wide and up to 1.5m deep. At some time this enclosure was divided with a line of closely-spaced postholes; a second parallel line of postholes 3.50m away may relate to buildings. The enclosure was later extended a further 14m towards the east, with a new ditch being dug.
In the early Romano-British period, a new shallow ditch surrounded the earlier Iron Age enclosure, however, whether this earlier one had been totally
infilled at this time is unknown. Postholes revealed two large aisled buildings; these buildings are thought to be barns, and one of them had been built over an infilled section of the Iron Age enclosure. Some distance away was a large, robbed, stone-built structure that may have been a corn drier or malting oven. Other features within the enclosure included a well, possible footings and other posthole buildings. There were also several interesting pits; one with a large dump of pottery, possibly from a nearby kiln, and several others which contained charcoal and whole pots. At present it is not known if these were funerary deposits or if there is some other explanation. All this Roman activity appears to be part of an agricultural/industrial settlement and is perhaps an element of the same local villa estate whose bathhouse was discovered in nearby Teynham in 1841.
Finally, in the post-medieval period, a well-built building with ragstone walls, possibly a barn, stood 18m long and 7.5m wide.
Ongoing work on the assessment will undoubtedly throw more light on the history of this important site.
Tony Mackinder
MoLAS
OPPOSITE ABOVE: Roman building, possibly a large corn drier, under excavation.
BELOW: The post-medieval building.