Peters Village: A Slice Through Time
By Chris Clarke (CgMs Consulting)
Extensive archaeological investigations undertaken last year have shed new light on the archaeological landscape of the Medway valley, with evidence from multiple excavation sites revealing how communities from the prehistoric onwards have been exploiting the land adjacent to the river.
The investigations were undertaken by the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) and commissioned by CgMs Consulting, on behalf of Trenport Investments Ltd, prior to the construction of the new large scale Peters Village development and bridge crossing located between Burham and Wouldham on the east bank of the River Medway. Associated works also took place on the west bank of the river near Holborough. The archaeological works were undertaken prior to the construction of extensive residential development at the former chalk quarry, Peters Pit, and supporting infrastructure relating to the new road and bridge across the Medway. The excavations in advance of the new road provided a 2.5km slice through the local landscape, while those excavations ahead of the residential development provided a more concentrated localised picture of the development of the landscape over the past 6000 years.
Prehistoric Settlement
The earliest evidence that the MOLA team encountered, and potentially the most significant, related to Neolithic settlement in the valley. While excavating in proximity to Court Road the remains of a simple structure were encountered, which consisted in plan of a roughly rectilinear arrangement of stakeholes measuring approximately 8m by 4m, within which was the remains of a trampled surface. Several fragments of pottery recovered from the features were identified as Decorated Bowl/Mildenhall style vessels dated to 3800-3200 calBC.
Previous geophysical surveys in the area by Birmingham University identified a roughly contemporary Causewayed Enclosure on higher ground, approximately 100m to the north of where the structure was recorded. There is a strong possibility that these two features are related.
Other features recognised as dating to the Neolithic were limited, restricted to a partial Early to Middle Neolithic ring ditch and isolated pit found in separate locations in the northern area of the site.
A review of the excavation areas indicated that there was a noticeable lack of features associated with the Early to Middle Bronze Age. Further excavations along Court Road, to the south of where the Neolithic structure was identified, revealed one half of a ring ditch, measuring roughly 20m in diameter. The location of the ring ditch positioned on
a spur of high ground overlooking the Medway Valley is typical of Bronze Age burial monuments, indicating the ring ditch would once have delineated the limit of a barrow of this period. Unfortunately 100% excavation of a stretch of ring ditch only produced small scraps of pottery broadly dated to the prehistoric period, and no associated burial was found to fully substantiate this interpretation.
A scatter of Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age finds and discrete features were found at regular intervals throughout the site, primarily consisting of isolated pits and occasional boundary ditches containing small assemblages of pottery and flint. The exception to this was a small group of pits recorded just outside the village of Burham, possibly relating to a domestic inhumation of an adult of indeterminate sex. Radiocarbon analysis dated the inhumation to 1010 – 830 cal BC. As much as no defined evidence for contemporary settlement was identified, the regularity of the features dating to this period imply reasonably extensive occupation of the landscape by local populations during this period.
Evidence for this extensive use of the landscape soon dies away over the next few hundred years as the only feature recorded associated with the Middle to Late Iron Age period was a second crouched inhumation. This burial was located in the northern part of the site near Wouldham, and has been assessed as being a probable male adult, radiocarbon dated to 360-90 cal BC.
Roman Transition
Occupation within the immediate landscape during the Late Iron Age/Early Roman period was substantially more visible and extensive. In the northern area of the site near Wouldham, features associated with this time of transition includes evidence of a field system adjacent to the floodplain. The field system ditches were primarily aligned east to west, with a later phase of ditches subsequently cutting these ditches at right angles. A short distance to the west of the field system were a pair of parallel ditches forming a 7m-wide north-south aligned trackway. Similar trackway features of the same width and age were found in two different excavation areas further to the south, suggesting the presence of a longer-standing trackway in this area.
parallel to the Medway during this period.
In the southern area of the site, next to Bell Lane, there was also a high concentration of features dated to this period, consistent with peripheral settlement features within a small dry valley. Defining the extent of these features was a wide boundary ditch and a multi-phase trackway located 40m apart and orientated on the same northeast-southwest alignment. In the area between these two features there were numerous discrete pits, postholes and a concentration of stakeholes. The original metalled trackway was approximately 5m wide with a small ditch cut each side for the purpose of drainage. The trackway must have temporarily fallen out of use as the drainage ditches became infilled and a large pit had been cut through the metalled surface. The pit was subsequently backfilled and the trackway metalling reinstated and widened to a maximum width of approximately 7.5m, with a possible fence line defining its western edge.
More intriguingly, a series of roughly 40 large square postholes was recorded running perpendicular between the boundary ditch and trackway. When excavated, the postholes were found to have been packed out using locally produced 1st century AD Roman roof tile, strongly indicating the presence of a Roman building in close proximity to the site. The current interpretation for the posthole alignment is that it may have formed a palisade constructed from a series of substantial timber posts. This interpretation automatically leads to the suggestion that such a feature was defensive in nature, implying that the local population felt under threat. Further research will be undertaken to find parallels for such a feature and see if this early theory is correct.
When this evidence is placed into context with the immediate landscape a possible reason for such a concentration of features becomes potentially obvious. There are vague antiquarian records of the discovery of a Roman building in the field adjacent to this recent discovery. The location of this building is marked on the early Ordnance Survey maps and is located about 50m from the excavation area. If present, this would certainly imply that the MOLA excavation team has found part of the building’s immediate land holdings and one of the main trackways leading up to the building. In the wider landscape, the widely known high status Eccles Roman Villa
lies roughly 1km to the south of this location, suggesting that this isolated building and its immediate holdings may form part of the villa’s wider estate.
Another intriguing feature, dated to the early post-conquest period by a single Claudian coin, was one part of what appeared to be an extensive regular double ditched enclosure located near St. Mary’s Church in the central area of the site, on higher ground formed by a gravel island adjacent to the river. The shape of such an enclosure is very characteristic of temporary Roman military defences. Are we looking at an early post-conquest Roman marching camp? If so, such a feature may add important information to the nature and passage of the Roman invasion of Britain. Once further planned analysis of the excavation evidence takes place we will be able to learn more.
Later Roman activity on site was very sparse, much like the Anglo-Saxon period. The only noteworthy Anglo-Saxon feature discovered was a heavily disturbed burial, with the bones of the occupant all but removed by later truncation. Despite this disturbance, an assemblage of grave goods still survived, consisting of a knife, stone pendant and belt buckle.
Wouldham Hall
Evidence for medieval and post-medieval activity on site was primarily restricted to the area immediately surrounding the former Wouldham Hall at the southern end of Hall Road. A medieval enclosure ditch containing fragments of 12th to 13th century pottery appear to define the earliest phase of activity associated with the hall, adjacent to which were located a number of contemporary domestic rubbish pits. Among the usual domestic detritus, such as pottery and animal bone, was a find of significant interest, consisting of a horse harness pendant bearing the arms of the Beauchamp family, who were the powerful Earls of Warwick between the 13th and 15th century. Did this family hold influence over the lands surrounding the Wouldham Marshes? Or was the pendant accidentally lost during a visit by one of the household?
By the Tudor period the grounds of the hall had developed further, now defined by a more extensive enclosed ditch. Unfortunately, features contemporary with this later activity were more rare.
With the onset of the 18th century there appeared to a mix of activity occurring within the grounds of the hall. One area had been clearly landscaped, perhaps to form a formal garden, and a boundary wall had been constructed at the back of the garden. Towards the southern edge of the area, large refuse pits contained a high density of domestic rubbish dating from the 18th to early 19th centuries, including pottery, glass and clay tobacco pipes.
dominated by a large artificial pond which had been shaped using a hidden retaining wall to make sure that when viewed from the hall, only a naturalistic view of the pond could be seen. Circular foundations recorded next to the pond may suggest it was overlooked by a contemporary summer house. A separate area had been set aside for more mundane utilitarian purposes, dominated by a sequence of square postholes related to the construction of a series of ancillary buildings.
By the late 19th century the Medway Valley became one of the largest centres in the country for the production of cement. This was primarily due to the extensive availability of chalk for processing into lime, a key ingredient of cement, and accessibility to the booming construction industry of Victorian London via rail and water. By the 1890s the land surrounding Wouldham Hall had been sold off and the Peters Wouldham Hall Cement Works constructed. The cement works adjacent to the river were an extensive operation, changing the face of the local landscape permanently as the large chalks were dug out of the hillsides to extract the chalk, while ground level adjacent to the river was substantially raised to facilitate construction of the extensive production complex. Despite the sheer scale of the works, surprisingly little has survived the closure of the plant in the early 20th century and subsequent phases of demolition, clearance and encroachment of the local vegetation. What was left was recorded by MOLA building specialists prior to the commencement of the works.
The archaeological investigations at Peters Village have not only provided a valuable slice through time, but have also provided a detailed slice through the local landscape. Initial assessment of the results have provided a clue as to how human activity has ebbed and flowed along the banks of the River Medway over the past 6000 years, with evidence that local populations were keen to exploit this environment at intervals during the late prehistoric and Roman period. Such activity appears to go in cycles, with no one population consistently utilising the area for an extended period. By the medieval period utilisation of the landscape appears to become much more focused, creating the pattern of land use and settlement we are familiar with today. Further research and analysis of the excavation results is due to happen in the near future, but once these results are compiled they are likely to provide a significant step forward in our understanding of how the Medway Valley has been exploited over time.