Site identified during transcription of features recorded on air photographs.

A subcircular cropmark feature was identified in aerial photographs taken by the Royal Commission on the Historic Monuments of England. A site near this location was evaluated in 1995 revealing sections of the ditch and finds which included worked and waste flints (including a tanged and barbed arrowhead), sherds of decorated and plain beaker pottery and animal bones. The pottery has been tentatively identified as either late Neolithic or middle Bronze Age in date. (location accurate to the nearest 20m based on available information) (1)

Evaluation trenching Laundry Rd. Minster, 1995. Sections of ditch possibly relating to the enclosure seen as a cropmark on aerial photographs were discovered in four locations during an archaeological evaluation of the site carried out in 1995. The four ditch sections do not agreed with the hand plotted location of the enclosure, but if the plotted position is moved about 30m to the north and west, there is a very good agreement with the excavated sections. The occurrence of the beaker sherds and arrowhead in the ditch fills, the residual beaker sherds in another feature, and the site flint scatter, can be contrasted with a marked lack of evidence for later Prehistoric occupation. This suggests that the site is of a kind rarely encountered in Britain, a domestic settlement of the Late Neolithic/early Bronze Age. C. 2000 BC.

Also found close to the site were, to the north, a pit containing early to mid iron age pottery and, to the south, at least one early medieval burial. (2)

Crop-marks showing a ring ditch possibly associated with TR 36 NW 87 (SAM 262). (3)

A desk-based assessment carried out in 2021 reassessed the findings of the former evaluation. The study suggested that one of the ditch segments to the west of the site might have been associated with a continuation of a feature from the Iron Age enclosure to the north of the site (TR 36 NW 1167). This segment did not fit with the proposed alignment of the enclosure based on cropmark evidence, suggesting that it may have formed part of another feature.
Several variations of the location of the enclosure have been recorded in the GIS, as the original interpretation did not entirely match with the excavated ditch segments. (4)

A sub-circular enclosure of later Prehistoric date was visible as a cropmark in NMR 4137/43 18-JUL-1988. A large pit inside the enclosure was also visible. The enclosure measures about 40.2m by 34.6m on plan. These features were mapped as part of the Historic England Isle of Thanet project in 2024. (5)

<1> David McLeod/1986-7/RCHME Air Photo Unit Survey of Kent (OS Card Reference). SKE39678.

<2> Trust for Thanet Archaeology, 1995, Archaeological Evaluation at Laundry Road, Minster, Isle of Thanet (Unpublished document). SKE11883.

<3> Trust for Thanet Archaeology, 1991, Proposed Improvements to The A253 Between Monkton & Ramsgate: The Archaeological Implications (Unpublished document). SKE11867.

<4> Thanet Archaeological Services, 2021, Land adjacent to Laundry Road Minster, Kent, Archaeological Appraisal and Assessment of Potential (Unpublished document). SKE57864.

<5> Historic England Archive, 1920-2024, Historic England Archive Specialist oblique aerial photographs, NMR 4137/43 18-JUL-1988. (Archive). SKE57106.