Monument record TR 25 NW 443 - An incomplete single ring ditch visible as a cropmark

An incomplete single ring ditch visible as a cropmark centred at TR 2184 5866 with as approximate diameter of 24.2m. The southern part of the ditch circuit is less distinct due to the darker cropmark traces of deeper soil or alluvium.

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 ring ditch is visible as cropmarks on air photographs taken July 16th 2001. Circa 25 metres in diameter, it lies close to the northern bank of the Little Stour, at the northeastern end of a broadly ne-sw line of similar monuments, the group running roughly parallel to the present course of the river at or below the 10 metre contour. The southeasternmost extent of the ditch, the part closest to the river, is not visible as cropmarks, being obscured by alluvium. The next monument in the group, the double ring ditch TR 25 NW 139, lies 32 metres to the southwest. (2)

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 English Heritage, 2009, Wickhambreaux, Kent: Ring Ditch Survey (Unpublished document).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

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