High Halstow Duck Decoy

By Keith Robinson

The pond of the High Halstow duck decoy was recently listed as an ancient monument (2015) as noted in KAS Newsletter Issue 103. On 15th and 17th October 2019 KAS members John Clarkstone, Chris Wootton,

Richard Taylor and the author carried out geophysical resistivity and magnetometer surveys of an area adjacent to the pond (Fig 1).

The decoy functioned c.1680- 1737 as part of a 106-acre farmstead, consisting of eleven fields, known as Nordowne Farm. An indenture document (U480/ T123) in the collection of the Medway Archives at Strood, dated 1693, records that there were a ‘Tenement or Messuage, barnes, stable, sheephouse’ and a shepherd’s wick known as ‘Rowes Wyke’ on the holding.

Though not included in the listing of the pond these buildings are of sufficient interest to be recorded.

An estate map (S/NK P5) by George Russell in the collection of the KCC at Maidstone, dated 1697, shows an indistinct group of buildings situated in the northern corner of a field designated as A7 occupied by the pond.Drainage works carried out in the 1960s straightened the ditch between fields A7 and A2 resulting in the site of the buildings becoming part of A2. These works cut through the foundations of a later building, possibly c.1800 known as Little Decoy, which the writer along with Ian Jackson, investigated by hand auger and a test pit in

2004. A visual survey at that time showed red brick and stone in the bank of the boundary ditch and inactive rabbit burrows (Fig 2).

The latest surveys show ample evidence of perhaps four buildings. The resistivity survey (blue outline) showed two possible buildings and associated demolition scatter to the north of the field. Some small distance to the south a third building is indicated with associated demolition scatter. A fourth building, Little Decoy, is less evident (Figs 3 and 4).

Unfortunately, the magnetometer’s sensitivity to ferrous metal restricted its operation close to a wire fence to the north of the site, though close enough to confirm the resistivity findings. The magnetometer

(red) registered numerous ‘white’ readings indicating strong magnetic responses, particularly in the area of Little Decoy.

The 2004 test pit (1m x 0.5m) found many iron nails, riveted metal sheet and cast iron. The three northern buildings, of probable seventeenth-century construction, would have used wooden peg fixings rather than metal. The magnetometer readings also clearly indicate the north boundary of the garden of Little Decoy.

Top Fig 1 Middle Fig 2

Bottom, left

Fig 3: Resistivity survey 2019

Bottom, right

Fig 4: Magnetometry survey 2019