Late Iron Age and early Roman features comprising a series of ditches and a possible ditch or pit were identified at Lower Herne Village, Strode Farm during an evaluation in 2021.

The late Iron Age and early Roman period were represented by pottery dating to 50 BC to 70 AD which was recovered from the fills of features including ditches and a possible pit. The ditches measured up to around 1m in width and 0.18-0.34m in depth. The possible pit measured 2m in width and was unexcavated.

Ten ditches and several pits contained pottery dating to the 1st century AD. These ditches measured 1-2.24m in width and 0.18-0.46m in depth. The pits measured just over 1m in width and c.0.15m in depth. One of these features had a recorded length of 1.17m and is thought to potentially have functioned as a fire pit due to the identification of burnt material within its fill. These features both underwent environmental sampling, one pit containing emmer, spelt, and wheat, and charcoal from deciduous woodland trees, the other (the fire pit), containing a fragment of Roman tile, oak charcoal, and fired clay.

A sherd of a rim dish dating to 120-250 AD was recovered from a possible hollow way or trackway (15m in width, 0.39m in depth) at the site. It is unclear whether this feature is also Roman in date.

Artefacts recovered from the fills of features at the site included ceramic building material including tegula and a fragment of flue tile were also recovered, alongside a ceramic spindle whorl, and very few animal remains largely comprising cattle teeth, and around 300 sherds of Late Iron Age and early Roman pottery, with the largest quantity recovered from the fill of a ring ditch (TR 16 NE 1420) at the site. The date of the ring ditch is uncertain, and was thought to probably be Bronze Age with residual Roman pottery deposited within its fill.

The dating of some of these features is tentative as many were unexcavated, but were associated with Roman artefacts. (1)

<1> Swale and Thames Archaeological Survey Company, 2013, Archaeological Monitoring at 5-9 London Road, Faversham, Kent (Unpublished document). SKE57637.