(1)

Four trenches were excavated during this phase:

Trench 5
Evidence for phase 1 structures (Medieval monastic buildings) were exacavated and consisted of a culvert which measured between 0.36m and 0.5m wide, running North-West downwards to the South East of the trench. The culvert was cut by two features, the first was a linear comprising of small-medium undressed ragstone blocks and occassional pieces of chalk running North-South along the western edge of the trench. It is unknown as to whether this was structural or part of a path but likely dates to phase 2. The culvert was also truncated to the South East by a squared pit measuring 1.2m and excavated to a depth of 0.25m, potentially belongs to phase 2, pottery dating to the medieval period was excavated from this pit.

Trench 6
Evidence for three phases were excavated from within trench 6. A phase 1 wall which was orientated North-South was truncated by phase 2 feature. There was also evidence for phase 4 of the site which has been interpreted as a horse trainng ring.
Phase 1 walls were sat directly on clay, with no evidence of a foundation trench. Masonry was in good condition 0.4m below the ground surface and survived to a height of 0.5m, this wall comprised of ragstone with a yellow-brown mortar. The same type of mortar was also excavated from the culvert within trench 5. There was evidence observed for a potential window embrasure measuring 1.3m wide extending from the inner edge of the wall to the external facing stones. A jamb stone to the south remained in situ, this was made of chalk with a good horizonal surface but no evidence for a cill stone for rendering the jamb. This embrasure is currently interprested as a window due to its height within the structure being at a higher level and also due to the continuation of the masonry, although the evidence does not rule out the potential for this to have been a door threshold rather than window.
A second possible jamb was observed 0.6m south of the possible window embrasure, this was formed of three ragstone blocks forming a straight line. It is not definitive that this is a door jamb, but that is the current working theory.

The inner (eastern) face of the North-South wall was truncated by a pit which contained ragstone blocks, the purpose for this pit and its backfill is unknown at present but thought to date to phase 2.

Trench 7
Trench 7 contained two walls sitting at right angles to each other as well as several later features.
Unfortunately the later features had truncated the junction between the walls and therefore destoying the evidence for the relationship. The masonry consisted of a ragstone core and remnants of a western (outer face), and are thought to belong to phase 1 based on the alignment compared to the other phase 1 masonry excavated. The walls had a width of around 0.54m and it is believed that despite the missing relationship were likely contemporary with each other, belonging to the same structure.

Several features were observed and partially excavated to the north side of the wall. The earliest of these features was a fill contained within a cut feature, overlain by orange sandy mortar with frequent chalk nodules and oyster shell. Overlying this was a dense area of charcoal and burning and above this seemed to be a hearth measuring 0.84m in length (E-W) by 0.51m. It seems that the hearth was set within phase 1 but after it had gone out of formal use but potentially still had occasional use, indicating that phase 2 occurred not too far after 1 (potentially).
Another of these features was a large, irregular pit which contained the skeleton of a medium-large dog. Finds included 3 small sherds of pottery dating to 12th-13th century, although it has been suggested that these sherds were residual.

Trench 8
Trench 8 contained a masonry wall consisting of 1 or 2 courses of ragstone rubble and several large blocks, measuring a height of 0.3m. The top of the wall was only 100mm below the surface. Time ran out before being able to fully explore the rest of the masonry in this trench but pottery from a rubble layer dating later than the wall suggests the layer could be late medieval in date which suggests that the structures must be earlier with a proposed date of 11th or 12th century. From this trench there was a skillet and a ceramic horse figure dating to the 13th/14th century.

Excavations revealed that materials used are of high quality but simple, suggesting potential use by Cisternians, which would be keeping with Boxley Abbey within the same vicintiy.

<1> Keevill Heritage Ltd, 2024, Boxley Abbey, Boarley Lane, Sandling, Maidstone, Kent, ME14 3BT: Summary of Archaeological Evaluation Trenches 2023. (Unpublished document). SKE55961.