A series of Medieval ditches were discovered on land off Ashford Road, New Romney. They were disocvered across several evaluation trenches and appear to interocinnect to form a set of long, thin enclosures, possibly for agricultural means though given its proximity to the marsh and their potential high waters it is unclear what their primary function may have been.

The earlist of the ditches (and possibly separate from the others) was also the earliest feature present on site. It was disovered In trench 1 on a roughly east-west alignment. The ditch contained multiple fills and is best dated between c. 1175 and 1225/50 based on the pottery recovered. The ditch contained shell fragments, CBM, and pottery in its basal fill and likely represents an early boundary, possibly related to flood management given its location on the marsh. Its size and depth is of some significance and the quantity of material, especially unabraded pottery suggests that human activity occurred in the immediate vicinity of the site. Another large ditch was loctaed in trench 7, this was likley related to a system of connected linear ditches identified in the geophysics which was also observed in trenches 9, 10, 14 and 18 and it is likley a continuation of the large ditch uncovered in trench 9. Two large ditches in Trench 14, a wide but shallow ditch in Trench 10 and a ditch terminus in Trench 18 that were likely all part of the same enclosure or field system in the north of site, The collective date range for these features, based on the pottery recovered from their excavation dates to c. 1225-1350 and given their large size, abundance of material and similar age range it is likely that these also relate to ditch in Trench 1 and form a set of enclosure or water management ditches. The volume of material recovered from them also suggests that activity was occurring within the immediate vicinity of these earthworks and that they may all be related to the potential building located nearby. (1) (information summarised froum source)

<1> RPS, 2020, Archaeological Evaluation Report, Land at Ashford Road, New romney, Kent (Unpublished document). SKE55254.