Boxley Warren - heritage survey results
In the Autumn 2011 Newsletter ‘Celebrating Boxley Warren’ outlined this Heritage Lottery Funded project, which includes an enhanced heritage landscape survey of the site. Commissioned by Boxley Parish Council and the Mid-Kent Downs Countryside Partnership (in conjunction with the Heritage Section of Kent County Council) and undertaken by Nicola Bannister, landscape archaeologist, here is an overview of the survey’s results. The aim is that further study will be undertaken by the local community.
The features range from the prehistoric period to the modern; from crop marks to extant earthworks. They are evidence of how this part of the Medway Valley and the North Downs was exploited from earliest times. The LiDAR survey of the Lower Medway Valley (see p2 and 3 of the Autumn Newsletter) just clips the western end of Boxley Warren, but it does show the flint and chalk pits within West Field Wood as well as traces of lynchets following the contours of the escarpment.
On the edge of the wood and close to the ancient track, the ‘Pilgrim’s Way’, is the White Horse Stone, an up-ended sarsen stone, thought to be the remains of a Neolithic long barrow. Boxley Warren is a landscape through which people have travelled for thousands of years. The ‘Pilgrim’s Way’ follows a track along the foot of the Downs escarpment and is probably an ancient route along the edge of the settled and cultivated lands in the vale. The farms and small settlements here had links to grazing wood pastures on the top of the Downs and evidence of these links are seen in the sunken hollow ways which wind their way from the vale to the top of the escarpment. Boxley Warren has several of these way-lined routes; one runs up the slope from the ‘Pilgrim’s Way’ skirting the rifle targets.
Both Boxley and Boarley Warren have been used for military training from the late 19th century. The remains of the rifle targets lie partly within scrub. They comprise two large mounds with a levelled platform in between. The Rifle Range was built in 1885 on land belonging to Boarley Farm, for use with small-arms fire by regiments from the barracks in Maidstone. It was in use for the First World War but fell into disuse between 1933 and 1938, being reinstated during the Second World War. Nearby in the pasture field close to Westfield Wood are cropmarks of former foxhole dug outs used in the Second World War for field training. The Warren may have also been the site of one of the top secret hideouts which were to be used by resistance fighters in the event of a German invasion.
The woods and scrub along the top edge of the Warren hide quarries, pits and deneholes. One of the quarries close to the Lidsing Road had a lime kiln and small cottage and was probably in use in the 18th century according to historic map evidence. The sites of two or more dene-holes (or chalk wells) were located along the northern boundary of the Warren on the edge of the arable fields. Interestingly, these dene-holes were cut across remains of banks and lynchets running along the top of the wood, thus pre-dating the holes.
The survey has only highlighted the heritage resource preserved at Boxley Warren. As part of ‘Celebrating Boxley Warren’ there will be opportunities for local people to undertake more detailed field surveys, excavations, archive and oral history research. Contact Mike Phillips, Mid Kent Downs Projects Officer for further information on 01303 815170, go to www.midkentdowns.org.uk or find us on Facebook – search for ‘Friends of Boxley Warren’.
