The ‘Missing Prehistory’ of West Malling and Leybourne

The beginning of May saw the start of construction of the West Malling and Leybourne Bypass. Before this, excavations for Kent County Council produced some exciting results.

The new road crosses the ancient manors of Malling and Leybourne, placenames that first appeared in mid-10th century charters, as well as Leybourne Castle, traces of post-medieval fish ponds, mills and water systems still survive locally. These sites were known but earlier periods and perhaps something belonging to the Mesolithic.

An assessment and then an evaluation of the route by Canterbury Archaeological Trust and Archaeology South East began to reveal the first evidence for the prehistoric, Romano-British and Anglo-Saxon periods. Drawing on the results of the evaluation, seven excavations were undertaken by Wessex Archaeology in Malling and Hythe. These began to extend the known history and especially the prehistory of the area.

The earliest finds were flint tools dating to the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age. These included an almost complete fragment of a beaker and show that this landscape had been lived in for thousands of years. These finds, and Neolithic and Bronze Age field systems found further down the route, are very significant. They add to our knowledge of prehistoric Kent. Later periods are also represented, including early medieval and post-medieval field systems.

BELOW: Flint tools of Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age date from the West Malling and Leybourne Bypass route.

The excavation revealed more about the later history of the area. Evidence from the post-medieval period included part of a watermill near the stream at the bottom of the valley. The watermill is marked on maps from the 18th century but this excavation found evidence of an earlier date. A section of road was also found. This may have been part of the 17th century system that linked Malling with Leybourne. The excavation was limited in scale but it has shown that there is great potential for further investigations along the route.

RIGHT: Bronze Age spearhead from Area J, iron Age sickle, knife and loom weights and the metal finds basket from J2

OPPOSITE: Excavating one of three late Bronze Age enclosure ditches in Area J with the M20 in the background