During excavations undertaken ahead of works associated with the Channel Tunnel Rail Link at Springhead, near Gravesend, a probable Anglo Saxon crop dryer was uncovered. It was located on the slope above the springs and appears to post-date the two Anglo-Saxon cemeteries in the same area, and is one of only two features to be ascribed a late Anglo-Saxon date, the other was situated 140m to the south east. It comprised a shallow, sub-oval, flat-bottomed pit measuring approximately 4.2 m by 3.4 m and 0.5 m deep. It was filled mainly with a homogeneous dark soil which contained some fragments of fired clay, but there was no evidence of in situ burning or scorching of the pit sides and base, and the fired clay had no wattle impressions which might indicate that it was once part of a dome or cover. (1-2)

Dating evidence is provided by a silver denier of Charles the Bald and by a small assemblage of pottery, some of which had been burnt. An early medieval date is considered possible for this pottery, but it seems improbable that the coin was residual and it is likely, therefore, that feature should be assigned to the second half of the 9th century. (3)

<1> Oxford Wessex Archaeology Joint Venture, 2010, Settling the Ebbsfleet Valley. CTRL Excavations at Springhead and Northfleet, Kent. The Late Iron Age, Roman, Saxon, and Medieval Landscape (Monograph). SKE31245.

<2> Wessex Archaeology, 2003, Channel Tunnel Rail Link Archaeological works at Springhead Roman Town (ARC SPH00): interim fieldwork report (Unpublished document). SKE31600.

<3> Oxford Wessex Archaeology Joint Venture, 2011, Settling the Ebbsfleet Valley. CTRL Excavations at Springhead and Northfleet, Kent. Volume 4: Saxon and Later Finds and Environmental Reports (Monograph). SKE32437.