Strawberry Wood Culvert Project

Can you help shed some light on this fine stone structure over a chalybeate stream in Strawberry Wood, south of Benenden? The site is on private land but is crossed by what is now the High Weald Landscape Trail and walkers along the route may have noticed an impressive culvert bridging the stream.

Now sadly being destroyed by spates of heavy floodwaters, efforts are underway by local volunteers to record and preserve this striking feature before it is lost. It has been suggested that it may be an example of what was once a more common structure in The Weald and local people are keen to learn more about it.

The culvert is around 5.2m long, 0.8m high and 1.9m wide and carries the remains of a metalled track. The sides are built in a close-fitting drystone wall technique and the builders were careful to shape the stones, giving them flat sides to keep the inner sides even. The walls are topped by a row of 6 to 9 very large sandstone lintels, 0.2m thick, which are themselves covered by a clay and rubble capping.

The size and structure of the culvert, coupled with the presence of the metalled road, suggests it was built to support heavy cart-loads, making an association with the Wealden iron industry tempting. Cindery slag has been found on the surface nearby and a pond bay is known a little further downstream. No date has yet been ascribed to the culvert although early maps suggest the road that crosses it had likely fallen out of use by the late eighteenth century and that it was not re-established.

Depressions in the surrounding woodland may attest to ironstone quarrying and a nearby outcrop of Ashdown Beds sandstone could be the source of the building material for the culvert.

Over the last few years, floodwaters have begun to severely damage the culvert, washing debris into it and dislodging many of the stones. A significant part of the overlying clay has been scoured out and despite mitigation efforts, there are worries that it may not survive another winter.

Recording of the surviving culvert, including archaeological intervention, is proposed but the volunteers are appealing for help and advice from any KAS members who may have information regarding such structures. Conservation measures involving sympathetic repair work are then intended. Any reader who has seen a similar culvert elsewhere or who has experience in engineering, building with stone, archaeological survey or conservation work would be very welcome to join the project, to help out in a programme of work proposed for the summer.

Ultimately, it is hoped to preserve the culvert and present it as a feature for walkers and local people to enjoy. The site is located at NGR TQ 81302 31866 and information or expressions of interest should be directed in the first instance to Ernie Pollard, who can be emailed at ernie@pollardweb.com.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT:
Back end of the culvert - a chink of daylight reveals the entrance. The post is a recent repair.
Remains of the track that the culvert carries, scored away by floods.
Back end showing some of the loosened stones.