Monument record TR 26 SW 264 - Late Iron Age and early Roman settlement, Hoplands Farm, Hersden

Features associated with a late Iron Age and early Roman settlement were identified during an evaluation at Hoplands Farm, Hersden in 2016 and 2017. The settlement was predominantly located to the west of the evaluation site, and comprised a large boundary ditch containing internal pits and shallow ditches. Some possible structures were identified by the presence of post-holes within the bounds of the ditch, and a Roman cremation burial was excavated to the west of the site. The settlement is thought to date from around 50 BC to 200 AD. Early Roman pottery has been recovered from the fills of some features at the site.

A number of undated features were also excavated during the evaluation. Some of these may relate to Iron Age and Roman occupation at the site, and others may be medieval in origin, as there appears to have been medieval activity (TR 26 SW 265) at the site in the form of ditches and pits. Some of the Roman and medieval features have been interpreted as the remains of a possible field system.

Iron Age enclosures (TR 26 SW 205) were identified in the same area as other features during an excavation in 2004. It is likely that these features formed part of the wider settlement. (1)


Features associated with an early to late Iron Age settlement were identified during a 2018 excavation at Hoplands Farm, near Canterbury. These included ring ditches some of which were associated with a series of at least four roundhouses, cremation burials, pits, post-holes, ditches, gullies, and some fragments of hearths or ovens.

The largest roundhouse (to the west of the site) was established during the early-mid Iron Age and was comprised of fourteen post-holes and a pit, alongside two curvilinear ditches representing eaves gullies which terminated in two pits. These features contained pottery within their fills dating from 600-300 BC, alongside a single intrusive medieval sherd. A single large pit also associated with this structure contained seven potsherds, with date ranges of 200 BC – 25 AD, which, in association with the recutting of several features, is interpreted by the authors of the report as representing a later phase of structural modification, suggesting that the roundhouse was in use into the middle Iron Age. A series of further post-holes and rubbish pits were identified in close proximity to the structure and are likely to have been functionally associated with it.

Following the abandonment of the roundhouse, a rectangular ditched enclosure was constructed over the site of it which may have contained another roundhouse (represented by a curvilinear (probable) ring ditch, post-holes, and pits). Features associated with the roundhouse produced pottery dating to 350 - 150 BC, suggesting a mid-Iron Age date for the roundhouse, and, if contemporary, the enclosure.
Post-holes in two parallel rows measuring around 6m in length with associated central posts formed a timber structure or hut to the south west of the second roundhouse. Pottery sherds identified within the fills of the post-holes indicated a broadly early-middle Iron Age date for the structure.

The rectangular enclosure was cut by a series of ditches forming part of a ditch system. There was difficulty phasing many of these features due to their unclear stratigraphic relationships, however, those which could be phased were thought to have been cut or recut during the Late Iron Age period. Some of the ditches were considered by the authors of the report (2) to have been established during earlier phases of Iron Age activity at the site and to have been reused during the later Iron Age period.

Other later features associated with Iron Age activity at the site dated between 150 BC to 50 AD and included two drove ways each delineated by two parallel ditches on either side, one of which led to a large subrectangular enclosure. Potsherds recovered from the fill of one of the ditches dated to around 25 BC – AD 75. These later features marked a change in activity at the site, from agrarian based field systems to animal husbandry. Animal remains associated with this phase of activity largely comprised sheep, with 42 sheep bones and teeth associated with features at the site. Other animal remains included smaller quantities of cattle and pig bones and teeth - 19 and 11 respectively.

Also associated with the final phase of Iron Age occupation at the site were a series of urned and un-urned cremation burials one of which contained pot sherds dating from 50 BC to 50 AD. Five un-urned cremation burials had been deliberately deposited in a north-south alignment in the space between two parallel ditches associated with the later phase of the ditched field system. Further ritual activity was representing by several pits containing what appeared to be votive offerings of pots and other pottery vessels.

Some of the ditches may represent an expansion to the existing settlement during the second and third periods of Iron Age occupation at the site. “During the third phase this expansion may have been a consequence of the ‘Belgic’ incursion, during which wheel-thrown, grog-tempered pottery was introduced, the sherds from such wares providing the dating evidence for this period of activity” (from the original report, 2).

Evidence for clay quarrying was also identified at the site in the form of a large extraction pit reused during the late Iron Age period as a rubbish pit.

The Iron Age and early Roman settlement was followed by mid-late Roman activity (TR 26 SW 270) in the form of ditches and pits likely peripheral to another settlement located beyond the limits of the excavation. (2)

<1> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2017, Hoplands Farm Hersden Kent CT3 4HY, Summary report (Unpublished document). SKE57738.

<2> Swale and Thames Archaeological Survey Company, 2019, An archaeological assessment report following an archaeological topsoil strip, map and sample excavation on the site of Hoplands Farm, Hersden, near Canterbury (Unpublished document). SKE57737.