Wessex Archaeology was commissioned by Union Railways (South) Limited (URS) to carry out an archaeological evaluation of a site at park Wood Cottage. The evaluation area was situated to the east of Station Road and alongside the Ashford to Folkestone railway, near the village of Mersham (NGR grid point TR 06820 38475). The site is known as Park Wood Cottage(1).

Previous CTRL work in the area had revealed a complex arrangement of archaeological features, predominantly located to the west of Station Road, which had been dated as Late Bronze Age and Late Iron Age, both phases apparently focussing on subrectangular settlement enclosures(2).

The Park Wood evaluation revealed 17 archaeological features, including ditches and pits, distributed throughout the evaluation area. Dating and morphological evidence suggests that these features represent both Late Iron Age/Early Romano-British and medieval field (TR 03 NE 68) systems. The former probably extend from a known contemporaneous settlement centre located immediately to the west of Station Road, whilst the latter probably extend from a medieval settlement centre at or near the Park Wood Cottage farm buildings at the base of the slope to the east(1).

Additional bibliography. (3-5)

<1> Wessex Archaeology, Channel Tunnel Rail Link Archaeological Evaluation at Park Wood Cottage (Unpublished document). SKE6913.

<2> Wessex Archaeology, 1999, Channel Tunnel Rail Link Archaeological Excavation at Little Stock Farm (Unpublished document). SKE6909.

<3> Oxford Wessex Archaeology Joint Venture, 2006, The Later Prehistoric Pottery from Excavations Along Section 1 of the CTRL (Unpublished document). SKE16486.

<4> Oxford Wessex Archaeology Joint Venture, 2005, The Post-Roman Pottery from Excavations Along Section 1 of the CTRL (Unpublished document). SKE16487.

<5> Oxford Wessex Archaeology Joint Venture, 2006, Radiocarbon dates from Section 1 of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, Kent (Unpublished document). SKE16490.