Cobham Landscape Detectives
Welcome to the latest Cobham Landscape Detectives project update! Following on from the mammoth
West Park survey, featured in Issue 109, the summer fieldwork season aimed to answer two questions:
Firstly, could we identify the location of a number of the lost medieval manor sites within our project area? Secondly, could we push back the dating of Cobham village?
Investigations began in June, with a number of test pits dug at Jeskyns Court, west of Cobham village.
Research indicates that this could be the site of the lost medieval manor of Henhurst. A tour of the current house suggests that we could be looking at fourteenth-century timbers in the roof of the building. Is the medieval manor still standing? One of the test pits yielded medieval pottery, with the rest revealing post-medieval activity.
Further work over the summer at a second possible site for Henhurst Manor drew a blank for medieval activity, so Jeskyns Court remains our favoured candidate.
Moving into the village, we gained permission from the Forestry Commission to geophys and test pit a second possible Manor site, known as North Court. Despite some promising resistivity results and a single late medieval pottery sherd, we must wait till 2019 to groundtruth the results further.
At the east end of the village, the volunteers investigated the grounds of Cobhambury House. This location is a further possible Manor site, with medieval remains again proving elusive. As in all great archaeology tales, a significant flint and chalk foundation structure of some age did appear towards the end of the dig. This will require further investigation in 2019! Although the Manor sites remain somewhat elusive, we are refining our understanding of their relative locations.
In Cobham village, many residents allowed us to investigate their gardens further. On the south side of the village, we recorded fourteenth- century activity and a possible boundary ditch. On the north side, we recorded a pit, with further evidence for early fourteenth-century activity.
The village itself is stubbornly refusing to reveal any earlier medieval activity. The church dates to the 12th century, but we have yet to see this early date in the wider village archaeology. There is also no sign, as yet, of earlier Saxon, Roman or Prehistory activity ‘under’ the village. Great minds have dwelt on these conundrums! The current school of thought is that the village may have developed on the joins between Henhurst, North Court, Cobhambury, Cobham and a further manor at Vyaundes (south of the village), focused around an implanted Church, originally appendant to Shorne Church. As to the lack of pre-medieval activity, it is possible that the whole area was wooded, with earlier activity focused on the ridges to the east and west of the village.
Evidence for earlier activity proved the highlight of our summer season! Working at Owletts, a National Trust property west of the village, the team excavated a Gallo- Belgic site, recording ditches, pits and metalworking evidence. In the field next door, geophys suggested an extension to this settlement and a quantity of Roman building material indicated a building nearby.
In this summary of current progress, I have not had a chance to detail further work on our post- medieval Great House site at the east end of the village. Nor the input and continued support from the North Downs Young Archaeologists Club.
Credit, however, must be given to all the landscape detectives; whose continued enthusiasm and professionalism drives this project forwards.
For further information on the project, do contact Andrew Mayfield, andrew.mayfield@kent.gov.uk, see www.facebook.com/archaeologyinkent, or @ArchaeologyKent on Twitter and our website www.shornewoodsarchaeology.co.uk
Acknowledgements
Aerial view image courtesy of Dean Barkley
Top, left
Aerial view of excavations at Owletts
Top, right
Rim from Gallo-Belgic pot
