Evaluation undertaken by Archaeology South-East in 2009 at the Brisley Farm school site, Ashford.

Most of the pits, post-holes, and ditches on the site constitute a medieval agricultual landscape, with a few post-medieval ditches suggesting an extended use of the agricultural landscape. (1)


Subsequent excavation found three phases of activity between the mid 12th to 14th century. As with other phases of Brisley Farm, there appears to be a break in activity between the Roman and Medieval periods. In the mid 12th century a series of ditches in the south of the site form a rectilinear enclosure, and appear to respect an earlier Roman ditch (though this ditch would have silted up by then it may have influenced the landscape by creating an area of damper land, for example). Alterations to the field system occur sometime in the following century. From the mid 13th to 14th century activity is focused in the north of the site, and consists of a series of ditches and a small enclosure of unknown function with a small post-hole roughly in the centre. It may have been an animal pen with a tethering post in the centre. The area is probably too large for a building judging on what has been found in the previous surrounding excavations. The ditches probably represent a field system. (2)

<1> Archaeology South-East, 2009, An Archaeological Evaluation at the Brisley Farm School Site, Ashford, Kent (Unpublished document). SKE16581.

<2> Archaeology South-East, 2010, Archaeological Investigations of Land at Brisley Farm School Site, Ashford (Unpublished document). SKE16602.