From the report:

"Three test pits, all about 2-2.5m long were excavated by machine in the very limited site area. A sequence of fluvial layers as gravels and alluvium, between 1.5m and 3m below modern ground were examined. These indicated that the site lay in the position of a relict and now completely buried river channel, cut by a tributary of the River Darent, itself situated 600m to the east. The Taplow-Mucking gravel formation of the Thames, which outcrops in the area, has had prodigious collection of Paleolithic worked flint from primary-context situations which are of international importance, but nothing of significant value was found at the present site. This may be because the river is possibly Holocene (more geologically recent) in origin.

The fluvial layers were sealed by a peaty deposit, formed sometime in the later prehistoric period, which indicated that at the time the tributary was silting up. During the Roman period a complex of masonry buildings was constructed on the southern bank of this river,less than 100m south of the site. These remainsprobably indicate part of a villa complex. The earlier levels were sealed by a topsoil, formed once the river had completely dried up, which represented the ground surface for most of the Roman period. The upper 1.1m of stratigraphy consisted of modern material and layering levels, dumped in the probably remnant valley of the river prior to the late nineteenth century development of the area.

(1)

<1> Canterbury Archaeological trust, 2007, An archaeological evaluation of land to the rear of 3 Hawley Road, Wilmington, Dartford (Unpublished document). SKE13382.