Monument record TR 25 NW 442 - An incomplete single ring ditch visible as a cropmark

An incomplete single ring ditch visible as a cropmark centred at TR 2175 5862 with an approximate diameter of 14.5m. The northern half is obscured by the modern field boundary, the southern edge by the darker cropmark traces of deeper soil or alluvium. On the eastern side of this ring ditch is a linear ditch which on some images gives the impression of part of a second circuit to this ring ditch. However on clearer aerial photographs the ditch appears straight and extends beyond the ring ditch into the darker cropmark.

This ring ditch is part of a collection of five probable Bronze Age barrows forming a linear cemetery running NE-SW alongside the Little Stour. It is possible that the barrow cemetery extends further to the north-east beneath Wickhambreaux village and south-west into adjacent fields. However the area to the south-west is cultivated with orchards and so traces of buried features are unidentifiable from aerial photography as with the village. As this site has been ploughed for a number of centuries all features appear to have been levelled. It is likely that very little of the barrow structures survive, though on the southern edge of the alignment deeper soil which appears to obscure parts of some of the ring ditches may have helped to preserve more of the buried remains. (1)

A probable ring ditch is partially visible as cropmarks on air photographs taken July 16th 2001. Located at the edge of a field, the southeastern half of a presumed circular ditch is visible and probably represents a ring ditch up to 15 metres in diameter. A modern track and field boundary running towards it from the nw appears to be aligned directly on it, suggesting that it may have been an upstanding barrow when the field boundaries were laid out. The ring ditch is one of a linear group aligned broadly ne-sw in fields immediately to the north of the Little Stour, running roughly parallel to the present course of the river along or below the 10m contour. Double ring ditch TR 25 SW 139 lies 16 metres to the east, while ring ditch TR 25 SW 161 lies 15 metres to the west. (2)

<1> English Heritage, 2009, Wickhambreaux, Kent: Ring Ditch Survey (Unpublished document). SKE16345.

<2> 2001, Oblique aerial photograph (Photograph (Print)). SKE58743.