High Weald Archeological Landscape Survey

High Weald Archaeological Landscape Survey: A progress report

This fieldwork project commenced last winter with the support of the KAS Fieldwork Committee. The area of interest is centred in the Weald around the parish of Benenden. The work has already extended to sites in Cranbrook and Tenterden. A small group of active fieldworkers have been engaged in undertaking field surveys which include looking again at known sites and identifying new ones. The work is taking place under the guidance of the writer of this report who had been surprised by the amount of evidence for human exploitation of the Low Weald revealed in his earlier fieldwork and is keen to see whether this trend is repeated in the High Weald. The landscape here would appear, in many ways, to be more suited to early occupation.

The metalling used was waste material from the iron industry, mainly slag, and concentrations of this can be successfully located by the use of a 'top of the range' metal detector which can be set to show up different types of metal. When combined with fieldwalking this has proved to be a most efficient use of the new technology which was unavailable to earlier fieldworkers such as Margary. In the parish of Benenden the Roman road from Benenden to Ashford has been sectioned in two places. The road was found to be intact and varied in width from 8ft to 16ft and consisted of a slag layer averaging 9 inches thick, (see FIG 1). In the section it is possible to see the individual dumps of iron slag created when the road was first constructed or as a result of later repairs. There were ruts left in the surface of this road as were also found in the road at Holtye in Sussex.

Part of the project has been to re-survey the routes of the two known Roman roads traversing the area. These were first traced in the 1930's and later published in detail by I D Margary in his classic work Roman Ways in the Weald Some of the routes will have to be somewhat amended as a direct result of our work. In many locations Air photographs from RCHM, now English Heritage, have shown that these roads are still visible in places despite the relatively extensive tree cover and the effects of agricultural activity. Some traces of early field systems are also to be seen on some of the photographs suggesting that the land has been cultivated since the Iron Age and Romano-British periods as has been found around Headcom and Ukombe.

The usual scatters of Neolithic and Bronze Age flints are found during most fieldwalking expeditions together with more recent material. Several previously un­ recorded earthworks have also been discovered, these include those relating to waterpowered sites located in the valleys or 'gills' and an earthbank, possibly a warren or boundary bank situated in Hemstead Forest.

When a section across the Roman Road between Benenden and Cranbrook was excavated an industrial area was located where iron working was taking place during the Roman period. Adjacent to the road was a compacted surface of iron working debris and the base of a smelting furnace, together with a small gully containing pottery and further iron slag. Another trench located three more smelting hearths and the post holes and oven of a domestic building of 2nd Century AD date. The Roman Road was not metalled but consisted of a compacted layer with some iron cinder. When the route of this road was surveyed with the metal detector it suggested that the slag metalling was not continuous but was probably only being utilised in areas where it was thought necessary, i.e. low lying sections or on steep gradients.

The work will continue through the coming Winter and a full report on our work will appear in Arch. Cant. in due course.

NEIL ALDRIDGE