Cropmark of ring ditch. (1)

A ring ditch is visible as a cropmark on RAF/58/688 Vp4 5096 23-MAY-1951. The feature likely represents the remains of a Bronze Age round barrow. (2)

This feature was also revealed during works associated with the installation of a pipeline in this location. The ditch was only partially revealed in the narrow easement as two curvilinear fairly substantial ditches. The ditch had a U-shaped profile with a concave to flat base and contained between two and four fills, involving varying degrees of chalk and silt weathered from surrounding surfaces. Animal bone, shell, and a single sherd of possible Peterborough Ware pottery were recovered from the ditch fills. The ring ditch cut an earlier Neolithic mortuary feature and is is possible that the earlier feature and this ring ditch are associated, suggesting the renewed use of the monument for mortuary activity some 2500 years later. Human remains of a bronze age date were found in the fills of the earlier feature and these likley relate to the ring ditch. The bones produced a radiocarbon date of 1260–900 cal BC. (information summarised from source) (2-3)

<1> AP (CUC ARR 41-2 13.6.67) (OS Card Reference). SKE33378.

<2> Historic England Archive, 1941-1960, Historic England Archive RAF vertical aerial photographs, RAF/58/688 Vp4 5096 23-MAY-1951 (Archive). SKE57101.

<3> Wessex Archaeology, 2006, Margate and Broadstairs Urban Wastewater Treatment Scheme (Unpublished document). SKE29263.

<4> Wessex Archaeology, 2008, Thanet's Longest Excavation: Archaeological Investigations Along the Route of the Weatherless - Margate - Broadstairs Wastewater Pipeline (Monograph). SKE53449.