Middle Iron Age - Romano-British features including a pit, a droveway, a routeway, ditches, and pits were excavated in 2021 at Cockering Farm, Canterbury. The features thought to date from the Middle Iron Age-Roman periods included two gullies, a boundary ditch, a possible droveway, a routeway, and pits. Other features thought possibly to date from this period include a ditch and a possible linear feature.
Earlier activity at the site included Palaeolithic (TR 15 NW 2625), Mesolithic/Neolithic (TR 15 NW 2619, TR 15 NW 2620), and Bronze Age (TR 15 NW 2621).
The gullies and a possible pit dating to the Iron Age-Roman periods were excavated during an evaluation in 2021. The recorded measurements of the gullies range from 0.95-3.00 in width and 0.16-0.22m in depth. Finds associated with some of these features included Middle Iron Age pottery, flint, and charcoal.
Finds from the Late Iron Age and Romano-British period included "flint and grog tempered and grog-tempered wares" (from the original report, 1) dating from the Late Iron Age and Romano-British period. A single sherd of north Kent fine grey ware pottery dating to the 1st-2nd century. It is unclear from the report whether these finds are contemporary with the features in which they are situated. (1)

A strip, map and sample excavation in 2021 revealed evidence for the boundary ditch, droveway, pits, and routeway.
There were over 6 pits at the site dating to the Iron Age period; these measured 0.64-2.05x0.54-1.66x0.16-0.3om. The ditches at the site measured between 12.94-30.42m in length (although many continued beyond the limits of the excavation), 0.59-2.57m in width, and 0.07-1.10m in depth. These features contained within their fills charcoal, Iron Age pottery, prehistoric worked flint, burnt flint, hazelnut shell, metalworking residue, emmer/spelt and barley grain, and daub.

The potential droveway was represented by two parallel ditches forming a funnelled north-south route, 6.6m at its widest point, and 3.8m at its narrowest point. Radiocarbon dates from barley and emmer/spelt grain associated with the ditches suggested that the feature dated from around 363-175 cal BC.

The routeway was aligned SW-NE and was represented by two parallel ditches spaces 16.45-17.25m apart which bounded two remnant hollow ways with surviving metalled surfaces and wheel ruts. The routeway appears to have traversed one of the mitigation areas for 109.9m and it continued beyond the limits of the excavation, which has led to interpretations that it may have represented a former Roman road alignment linking Canterbury to Ashford and Benenden. Finds associated with the feature included charcoal and daub.

A large number of undated features including hearths, linear features, post-holes, stake-holes, pits, and ditches were also present at the site. (2)

<1> Archaeology South-East, 2021, Archaeological and Geoarchaeological Evaluation Report Cockering Farm, Thanington, Canterbury, Kent (Unpublished document). SKE55574.