Kent’s Gold Cup: Finds at Ringlemere Farm, Woodnesborough near Sandwich
Funded by English Heritage, the Canterbury Archaeological Trust completed excavations at Ringlemere Farm, Woodnesborough near Sandwich, in April, following the discovery of a splendid gold cup there last November. The early Bronze Age vessel was discovered by local metal-detectorist Cliff Bradshaw. Although damaged by the plough, he was the first to recognise that the cup is very similar to the famous Rillaton gold cup, excavated in Cornwall in 1837. Paul Ashbee provides some further preliminary thoughts on its affinities on pages 4 and 5.
The cup was discovered on the northern edge of a low, but quite distinct mound, lying in the middle of what was then a recently harvested potato field. Mr. Bradshaw suspected that this mound might be the remains of an otherwise unrecorded round barrow and examination by the writer suggested that this was probably the case. A subsequent geophysics survey by English Heritage succeeded in locating an enclosing ring-ditch and confirmed this as a very large round barrow site. Barrows that have not been completely ploughed flat are rare in the extensively farmed landscape of east Kent but at Ringlemere the base of the mound actually survived – the last remnants of a great barrow mound that must have originally risen to a height of perhaps twenty feet.
Following an extensive programme of field-walking excavation work at the site began in March 2002 with the specific aim of determining the precise context of the gold cup. Initially it seemed likely that the vessel came from a Bronze Age grave within the barrow but this proved not to be so. We now think that the cup had been placed in the earth core of the mound - but not at its centre and not with a burial. Perhaps it was deposited here as some sort of offering to the Gods during the actual construction of the mound. However, the core of the mound had later been extensively disturbed by burrowing animals and it is possible that the cup has been moved from its original position.
Survival of the base of the barrow mound served to ‘trap’ evidence of earlier activity below it. Extensive collections of prehistoric struck flints and pottery indicate previous occupation on the site during both the Mesolithic and later Neolithic periods. The close proximity of a small fresh-water stream below the site may well explain the apparent popularity of the area with early settlers.
Keith Parfitt
Acknowledgements
Thanks are due first and foremost to the owners - the Smith family - who readily allowed access to the site and took great interest in the progress of the work. Thanks are also due to English Heritage for funding the excavation and providing substantial scientific back-up. The Staff at K.C.C.’s Heritage Conservation Group monitored the project throughout and provided assistance in a variety of different ways. In addition to the full-time excavators from CAT, teams of volunteers from the Thanet Trust and Dover Archaeological Group were able to make a valuable contribution to the excavation work. Cliff Bradshaw worked extensively on the dig, undertaking both metal-detecting and excavation. Overall, the Ringlemere story serves as an altogether splendid example of what can be achieved by detectorists and archaeologists working sensibly together.
NB: The site lies on private farmland, which is now under crop. There is no easy public access to the site.