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’.

Site 19 was the northernmost of two relatively isolated enclosures in the southern part of the site, there is evidence that Site 19 was connected with Trackway 35 just to its north. As with the other enclosures, it was associated with sunken-featured structures, but there was virtually no dating evidence available, with only small quantities of very abraded fragments of likely medieval date recovered, but it is undoubtedly medieval on morphological grounds. It was defined by a ditch forming a sub-rectangular enclosure aligned north-east to south-west, 23m by 12m in extent internally and open on its north-east side. Part of the south-east quadrant of the enclosure lay outside the area of excavation. The enclosure contained a well and a large building SFB 62. SFB 62 (F consisted of a sub-rectangular cut 7.6m long, 4.65–4.8m wide, and 0.2m deep, aligned roughly north-east/south-west at the northern end of Enclosure 56, and set on the same longitudinal axis, i.e. central to the width of the enclosure. A very abraded feature that was abutted internally by a deposit of carbon residue, may represent a hearth or small oven. Although there were no traces of occupation layers, the single hearth or oven located at the northern end, but not against the corner as in the identified bakeries, suggests this was a domestic residence, perhaps only seasonally occupied by an agricultural worker or shepherd. Although there were no signs of any structural elements, the linear depression around part of the perimeter, which may have originally been more extensive, is suggestive of a bench or a clunch-built wall (as in SFB 53), although all the fabric of this structure had disappeared, only a clayish fill remaining. The lack of finds in both the structure and other features here does not support the idea of any intensive occupation. About 4m north of the enclosure was a sub-circular pit containing a fill of silt clay and a heavily truncated articulated sheep burial. Two short lengths of gulley, aligned east-west were also located, but having sterile fills, they could not be dated. Finally a large sub-rectangular cut about 4.4m across and 0.26m was situated about 6m north-east of the enclosure, cutting the south side of the prehistoric ditch.

This unusual settlement, if such it can be called, is unique at Thanet Earth in its simplicity and lack of dating evidence. The structural evidence suggests that the sunken-featured building was an intermittently occupied shelter or simple dwelling, perhaps of a shepherd. The animal burial, undoubtedly deriving from associated activity and the buildings relatively large size (36.5 square metres) meant that it could just as easily have accommodated a small herd. The virtually complete absence of artefactual material does not suggest protracted occupation, although any waste could have been casually discarded in the vicinity, but this is contradicted by the presence of the well, which would have required some considerable effort to excavate as this feature would have had to attain a depth of about 30m to reach water.

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