Monument record TQ 67 SE 1325 - Lower pond (possible fishpond), Randall Manor

Pond , visible on 1st and 2nd edition OS map. Recorded during 2024 Kent Downs National Landscape Historic Ponds project.
Preservation:Pond on historic maps but not visible on current OS (ghost pond)
Pond shape:Rectangular
Site type: Other, please comment below
Description: A square shaped pond in Randall Wood, seen on 1st and 2nd edition OS, but not on modern OS, but clear on LiDAR. HER says: 'An occasional stream forming the NE boundary of the Randall Manor site has been blocked by earth dams at three points. In front of t
Recorded date: 17/07/2024 (1)

A hand auger survey was carried out at the site in 2024 by Archaeology South East to identify the deposit sequence and characterise the palaeoenvironment at the site. Two augers were drilled, one in the base of the pond and one in the bank. The auger drilled into the bank identified a sequence of clayey silts up to 1.25m below ground level. These were capped by a modern woodland surface. The auger drilled into the base identified a slightly organic alluvium of sandy clay containing rare flint up to 1.65m in depth. This was overlain by layers of clayey silt and silty peat, and capped by a modern wetland surface.

Evidence from the survey led to the interpretation (2) that the pond was potentially established as a natural feature which formed during the last glacial period. The bank of the Upper Pond (TQ 67 SE 1324) likely formed from a relict permafrost ground-ice mound and the Lower Pond is hypothesised to possibly have the same origin, although formed from a mound much smaller in scale. Both banks were likely already present in the landscape before people began to artificially modify it, as Mesolithic alluvium was identified in the pond bases during auger sampling. The feature may have been artificially altered during the medieval period to create a formal pond or fish pond. (2)

<1> Kent Downs AONB Unit, 2025, Historic Ponds Project dataset (Digital archive). SKE58454.

<2> Archaeology South-East, 2025, A Geoarchaeological and Palaeoenvironmental Study on the Randall Manor Ponds, Shorne Woods Country Park: Final Report (Unpublished document). SKE58744.