Area A was a portion of the Grain-Shorne pipeline immediately north of the village of Lower Stoke excavated in 2008.

Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age activity on the site was represented by pits and a quarry. The quarry was 17.5m in diameter. The pits were shallow (less than 0.2m deep) and had flat bottoms. The larger produced un-diagnostic worked flint while the other contained Late Bronze Age sherds. Residual material of this date was also recovered from Middle to Late Iron Age features, along with a Neolithic fabricator.

The Middle to Late Iron Age activity consisted of ditches aligned north to south and east to west, often inter-cutting. There were 16 of these in total. Two made up a possible trackway. "A number of small pits of uncertain function were scattered across the area, with no particular pattern or concentration". Several of these features had Late Iron Age pottery sherds within them but dating was also reliant upon stratigraphic relationships. Environmental samples taken from these ditches were dominated by arable weeds. The ditches are thought to relate to a field system.

Roman period activity consisted of 10 ditches, as with the earlier ditches, thought to be part of a field system; three shallow pits (no larger than 1.4m across or deeper than 0.47m); and a large quarry pit, 18m long, at least 8m wide and 1.45m deep. As with the earlier field ditches environmental remains were dominated by charred arable weeds.

There were also a number of undated pits and ditches. (1)

The field system of the Middle Iron Age/Late Iron Age continued in use into the early Roman period. In the latter 1st century or early 2nd century, most of the ditches were redug though on the same alignment. Roman settlement may have been located in the immediate area, given the quantity of pottery found. (2)

<1> Archaeology South-East, 2009, Archaeological investigations at Grain - Shorne pipeline, Isle of Grain, Kent: Phase 7 Post-excavation assessment and project design for publication [DRAFT] (Unpublished document). SKE15791.

<2> Archaeology South-East, 2012, Archaeological Investigations along the Isle of Grain – Shorne Pipeline Route, Hoo Peninsula, Kent: Publication Report (Unpublished document). SKE18113.