The medieval features on Thanet Earth dated to between the mid-eleventh century to the early part of the fourteenth (possibly extending to AD 1350). The activity is primarily agricultural in nature with significant elements of domestic occupation. A site wide system of enclosures appears to be intimately related to various trackways across the site. The activity around these enclosures has been grouped into a number of Medieval ‘sites’.

There were three medieval enclosures west of Trackway 29, here avoiding the colluvium filled lower part of the valley, on Plateau 4. Another was situated on the eastern side to the north which was only very minimally exposed, represented by a single east-west aligned ditch. These enclosures were less heavily occupied than some on the site, although sunken-featured structures were found in all of them, and an unusual post-hole building of uncertain function (Structure 53), possibly a barn, was set in the northern part of Enclosure 45. Some of the sunken structures appear to be domestic-type dwellings, perhaps only intermittently occupied. One was situated on the eastern side of Enclosure 47 where it may have been related to a well immediately to its north. Two others (SFB 44 and 45) were probably outside any enclosed area but adjacent to the major east-west Trackway 35. This complex would appear therefore to be predominantly agricultural originally. Some of these buildings were probably used entirely as barns, stables, store rooms, temporary shelters for herdsman and shepherds, and other agricultural purposes, those that provided evidence for habitation, or are of a size which suggests that, if not used exclusively for sheltering animals, they may have been occupied for short periods, or for part of the year. This is reflected in the much smaller corpus of pottery recovered than from some of the others uncovered during investigations at Thanet earth, which also suggest that there was less settlement activity, apart perhaps from one or two sunken structures to the south. The field system terminated at the south on the line of the parish boundary, represented here by a buried Iron Age ditch, a slighted bank to the south, and an overlying post-medieval lynchet. During the medieval period this line was almost certainly a trackway, which passed to the east between two medieval enclosures along Seamark Road. The route probably formed a crossroads with Seamark Road and extended further east, as suggested by other rectangular enclosures along the line, known from cropmarks. Some of the enclosures may have originated during Phase 1, but there is evidence that they were slightly later (variations in the width of the west ditch of the trackway look like recutting) and all appear to be of Phase 2, although Enclosure 46 was a slightly later formation. All three enclosures seem to have been in use at the same time however. (1) (information summarised from source)

A ditch forming part of the eastern side of the enclosure was visible as a cropmark in Next Perspectives APGB Imagery 14-AUG-2003. Approximately 21.7m of the north-south oriented feature, and a pit inside the enclosure, were mapped as part of the Historic England Isle of Thanet project in 2024. (2)

<1> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2023, Beneath the Seamark: 6000 Years of an Islands History (Monograph). SKE55405.

<2> Next Perspectives, 2003-2021, Next Perspectives APGB orthophotography, Next Perspectives APGB Imagery 14-AUG-2003 (Archive). SKE57110.