In 2000 RPS conducted an evaluation and a subsequent excavation at Swalecliffe Waste Water Treatment Works. Seventeen Late Bronze Age wells with wooden structural elements preserved in situ were found. The wells were dug, recut and replaced over perhaps a 500 year period. Surviving structural elements included wicker hurdles, wattle lining, wooden steps for access to the hollows and other timbers such as oak stakes. This worked wood provided evidence of Bronze Age wood management, with coppicing being practiced but also use being made of larger more distant wildwood trees. Dendrochronological analysis found evidence of felling between 1164 BC and 1085 BC but the latest wells appear to date to the 8th/7th centuries BC. Remains of a possible perimeter fence were found, perhaps intended to keep animals and children out of the wells. A pottery vessel was found upturned on the base of one of the well pits. There were traces of a possible reed basket or sling on the exterior. It is likely that the pot was used for drawing water. The skeleton of a toad was found beneath the pot but it cannot be determined if this was a placed deposit or not. Three other vessels were found suggesting some element of ritual deposition, though in each case the vessel had been used prior to deposition. A wooden yoke was found and had most likely been used to carry water from the wells. Following disuse of the wells, domestic refuse accumulated in some, including Late Bronze Age pottery and cattle and sheep/goat bones. A possible briquetage pedestal and a possible quern fragment were also found. Environmental samples provided pollen evidence of a largely deforested landscape, though with woodland in the area, with areas of scrub or waste and also agricultural activity in the immediate vicinity. (1-3)

<1> RPS, 2001, Swalecliffe WWTW Enhancements Archaeological Monitoring and Excavation Final Report: Volume 2 - The Later Bronze Age Waterhole Site (Unpublished document). SKE17408.

<2> Robert Masefield, Nicholas Branch, Peter Couldrey, Damian Goodburn and Ian Tyers, 2003, A Later Bronze Age Well Complex at Swalecliffe, Kent (Article in serial). SKE17407.

<3> English Heritage, 2001, Tree-Ring Analysis of Archaeological Timbers from Swalecliffe, Kent (Unpublished document). SKE17409.