In 1998 Pre-Construct Archaeology carried out an evaluation and then expanded two of these trenches to conduct an excavation. In the northern trench a number of intercutting pits containing Late Iron Age and early Roman material were found. The earliest pit was backfilled with large amounts of pottery, charcoal, pieces of burnt clay, daub and small fragment of burnt animal bone, all dating to the Late Iron Age or pre-Flavian Roman period. This pit was cut by another that was filled soon after AD 50. It too was cut by a pit filled in the mid to late 1st century AD.

Some of the burnt clay and daub has been interpreted as kiln furniture. A number of fragments of briquetage were also found. The burnt material contained plant remains of emmer and spelt wheat, barley and possibly oat. It is likely that pottery manufacture, salt production and domestic occupation occurred somewhere in the vicinity of these pits. (1-3)

<1> Pre-Construct Archaeology, 1998, Summary Report of Archaeological Evaluation, Molehill Road, Chestfield, Kent (Unpublished document). SKE17216.

<2> Pre-Construct Archaeology, 1998, Preliminary Report on an Archaeological Excavation at Molehill Road, Chestfield, Nr Whitstable, Kent (Unpublished document). SKE17219.

<3> Pre-Construct Archaeology, 1999, Excavations at Molehill Road, Chestfield, Kent (Unpublished document). SKE17221.