North Foreland, Broadstairs

North Foreland Hill is situated on the North Eastern tip of the Isle of Thanet, with clear views northward across the mouth of the Thames Estuary and eastward towards the English Channel.

The archaeological potential of the site is documented in Archaeologia Cantiana with references in 1877 to huge flint foundations that are probably Roman and in 1957 to a crop mark of a Bronze Age Barrow. Rescue excavations carried out in 1979 and 1993 during the construction of houses on North Foreland Avenue indicated that at least one barrow and Iron Age settlement features survive beneath the North Foreland Estate.

By the mid 1980s the extent of settlement at North Foreland was recognised. Routine aerial photography by Thanet Archaeological Society exposed crop marks of Bronze Age Barrows and a settlement enclosed by ditches, possibly an Iron Age Hill fort. Small scale excavation by Thanet Archaeological Society in 1995 proved a Mid - Late Iron Age date for the enclosing ditches.

In 1999 an excavation in advance of a housing development at the former St Stephen's College Site was carried out by the Trust for Thanet Archaeology and Canterbury Archaeological Trust. The excavations uncovered the remains of a Late Neolithic - Early Bronze Age burial landscape and the interior of the Iron Age enclosed settlement or Hill fort. The Late Neolithic - Early Bronze Age features included a causewayed barrow containing two central burials, and the crouched burial of a child cut into the base of the barrow ditch. The child's grave had been capped with a large fragment of whale rib. Two other barrows were excavated, one of which contained further human burials. This barrow had a large grave cut at the centre with a smaller secondary burial and is associated with a small cemetery of five flat graves containing crouched burials.

The interior of the enclosed settlement provided evidence of Early to Late Iron Age activity including part of a small Middle - Late Iron Age rectangular enclosure with at least six four-post structures. To the east of the enclosure was a concentration of large pits probably used to store grain but later backfilled with midden material, while to the north west a small pit was excavated containing a hoard of 64 Late Iron Age coins.

The Trust for Thanet Archaeology continued on page 2

Above: Crop marks facing east across North Foreland and left: Iron Age burial found in rubbish pit.