Monument record TR 36 NE 485 - Anglo-Saxon settlement/activity located on site of Tesco, Manston Road, Ramsgate, Kent

During archaeological work in advance of the construction of a new tesco, five sunken-featured buildings of early medieval (Anglo-Saxon)date were discovered dating to the later 6th and 7th centuries A.D. All sunken featured buildings contained finds which were recovered. The finds assemblages from individual SFBs almost certainly reflect their use as convenient receptacles for the disposal of domestic rubbish after they had been abandoned; in none of them was there any evidence that the finds represented in situ floor assemblages. Postholes were also located within the buildings. Unlike the other sunken feature buildings, Sunken featured building 88 contained nine layers and lenses of occupational debris compared to one homogenous layer which the other sunken featured buildings contained. Internal structural cuts including a beam slot were also discovered within sunken featured building 88. Three of the Sunken-featured buildings (SFB's), 43, 74, and 88 lay in a group close to the eastern edge and were aligned approximately north-west to south-east. A fourth, 73, lay 20m north of this group and the fifth, 239, 45m north-west. Subrectangular in plan, they measured between 3.40m to 3.70m long, 2.20m to 2.90m wide and 0.32m to 0.60m deep. All but 43 had two parallel post holes identified. Some SFBs contained finds that were not present in other SFBs such as ceramic object being restricted to SFBs 43 and 74 while SFB 73contained most ironworking slag.

Other features included a gully, 49, that was traced for c.50m, though its relationship to other features of this period could not be ascertained. It produced only a single sherd of pottery.

Pit 83 was an irregularly-shaped shallow hollow which lay approx. 50m west of the main group of SFBs.

Feature 20, interpreted as a possible ring-ditch, lay immediately west of the main group of SFBs, in an uncertain relationship to these and gully 49 to the south-west. The north-east part of ring-ditch 20 was removed during machining, and the northwest part cut by a modern service trench, but the remainder showed it to have been approximately 10 m in diameter. It was cut into brickearth, and did not penetrate the underlying cryoturbated chalk, making it difficult to discern, and it was only defined with reasonable clarity following careful cleaning and a subsequent period of weathering. Ring-ditch 20 was somewhat irregular in plan, with a maximum width of 2.30 m and a depth of 0.35 m. It had a wide, shallow, flat-bottomed profile, and two fills were discerned in section, possibly representing a recut approximately 1.0 m wide rather than separate phases of infilling. The fills were both silty loams, with the outer being yellowish-brown and the inner pale brown. No pottery was recovered, but a few fragments of animal bone were present, and an iron knife which has been dated to the late 7th century was recovered from the west side. Despite careful cleaning of the
area enclosed by the ring-ditch, no internal features were identified. (1)

<1> Wessex Archaeology, 2009, A Late Bronze Age, Anglo-Saxon, And Medieval Settlement Site At Manston Road, Ramsgate in "Kentish Sites And Sites Of Kent A Miscellany of Of Four Archaeological Excavations." (Article in monograph). SKE16055.