Excavations at Mill Hill, Deal

"This ridge at the cross roads with its Bronze-early Iron Age-trenches, Belgic occupation sites and cemetery with pedestal vases, its evidence of Roman occupation, and its Jutish burials should have been reserved as an archaeological park but the area, long only occupied by a mill and the miller's house, now sees scores of houses in permanent possession" (W.P.D. Stebbing, Arch. Cant. LX, 1947)

EXCAVATIONS AT MILL HILL, DEAL by W.P.D. Stebbing

W.P.D. Stebbing (1873 – 1961) wrote about the estate built in the 1930s on the eastern slope of Mill Hill, Deal, where he undertook a series of excavations. He published his findings in Arch. Cant. between 1929 and 1947, but these were short notices and not illustrated. A number of photographs and negatives from the 1934 excavation have been found among his papers in PMP Box 13. Many of these photographs were taken by John Archibald and some by Mr. Pearce. Despite some technical shortcomings these photos add an extra dimension to the already published account and give a valuable visual impression of the site and the excavation methods employed.

The story starts in the dry summer of 1928 when crop marks were noticeable in the oats on the slope between Deal Waterworks and Deal Cemetery. Mr. Cecil Knox, later Vice Chairman of Deal and District Local History and Research Society, investigated the site and found a section of a circular V-shaped ditch in a small excavation. The ditch was found to be 6-7 feet deep and estimated to be 16 feet wide with a diameter of 83 feet. Small finds consisting of animal bones, including skulls of large dogs, and fragments of pottery were found. Stebbing initially dated the material to the early Iron Age, but years later revised this to Late Bronze Age-early Iron Age. The star find was fragments of a large storage jar with a finger-imprinted rim. Cecil Knox built a restoration of this jar and a photo of this is among the papers. Correspondence with Christopher Hawkes of the British Museum regarding an analysis of the finds from the site is also among the papers. Christopher Hawkes was of the opinion that the finds were predominantly Late Bronze Age.

Aerial photographs of the area were taken with the assistance of Mr. O.G. S. Crawford, F.S.A. and the images revealed two further circular ditches of roughly the same size close by. Stebbing and Knox had hoped to continue excavating the following year, but it was not until the spring of 1934 that work resumed on the site. Stebbing learnt that The First National Housing Trust were to build on the site as part of a housing scheme for miners. They gave permission to excavate the parts of the site not immediately affected by construction work. Excavation work commenced on the 10th of March 1934 and continued until July 13th where more of the ditch, first opened by Cecil Knox, was exposed. Stebbing employed an un-named local man, who had previously done excavation work at Richborough Castle, and it may be this man who appears in many of the photographs.

1934 photos. In an article in The Times, August 7th 1934, Stebbing says that there was insufficient time and money to expose the entire ditch or much of the interior of the feature. The photographs show the excavation work taking place while the houses are, quite literally, being built around the excavators.

Stebbing does not appear to have excavated the two circular features found by aerial photography in 1928, although it is difficult to be certain of this as he does not give exact map references in his papers and refers to the site simply as "The Trench at the top of Mill Hill." He did apparently excavate sections, which he believed to be part of the original ditch, over the years, for instance in 1938 during the construction of an air raid precaution trench in St. Richard’s Road.

In April 1947 a ‘Belgic’ rubbish pit was discovered on the northern side of Mill Hill, by the junction with St. Richard’s Road during construction work. Stebbing wrote this up and finished with the comment quoted at the beginning of this article. He was proved right in his assessment of the richness of the archaeology in the area. However, the housing needs of the living have helped uncover other archaeological treasures in the area. It was very close to Stebbing’s old sites that Keith Parfitt and the Dover Archaeological Group discovered a fascinating site, including many Iron Age burials, prior to the development of houses in the years 1984-1989.