An archaeological evaluation consisting of 21 trenches was carried out in 2013 in advance of the proposed construction of a football pitch and facilities. It found evidence of possible late iron age / early Roman buildings, trackways and a field system. These were located across the site but more particularly in the western half.

The most substantial feature was a large metalled trackway running roughly north-west to south-east, noted in trenches 5 and 12. It was up to 20m wide and finds suggested a late iron age date. Its alignment paralleled a modern track which suggests that it remained a landscape feature to the present day. Features either side of the trackway may represent structures (stakeholes and metalled surfaces). A possible quarry was also found. Finds from these features included late iron age / early Roman pottery, animal bone and shell, charcoal, burnt flint and grains.

To the east of the trackway a second feature also ran north-west to south-east though not exactly on the same alignment. This was interpeted as part of an early Roman field system on the basis of pottery finds.

A number of post-medieval postholes and other features were also observed.(1)

<1> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2013, Archaeological evaluation of land at Ridlands Farm, Stuppington Lane, Canterbury, Kent (Unpublished document). SKE53628.