In 1998 Museum of London Archaeology Service carried out an excavation as part of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link project. Early to Middle Iron Age occupation was focused on a knoll to the west of Downs Road, near Hazells Farm. Features located included pits, many with pottery, loomweights and one with a complete La Tène I brooch, probably an imported piece. An area of furnaces was found, with intercutting pits with intense scorching of the sides and bases and working hollows or stoking areas. These may have been bowl furnaces but no metal working debris was located. A group of animal pens were located to the west of these, each made up of stake holes where hurdles were used to create bays.

A large bell-shaped pit contained a large volume of animal bones. This was a mix of wild and domestic species including red deer, wild boar, cattle, sheep/goat, equid, pig, pine martin, cat, wood mice, field voles, shrews and a pygmy shrew. The bones showed signs of butchery and disarticulation, suggesting they were the result of a large feasting event or events. The small mammal bones perhaps indicate that the pit was left open for some time. 'A red deer bone from the pit was radiocarbon dated to 370–190 cal BC'. (1-3)

<1> Museum of London Archaeology Service, 1998, Project Area 330 Northumberland Bottom ARC WNB 98 Archaeological Excavation Interim Report (Unpublished document). SKE12767.

<2> Museum of London Archaeology Service, Oct 2001, Area 330 (Zone 3) Northumberland Bottom (ARC WNB 98) Archaeological Post Excavation Report (Unpublished document). SWX12866.

<3> Oxford Wessex Archaeology Joint Venture, 2006, The Prehistoric, Roman and Medieval Landscape at Northumberland Bottom, Southfleet, Kent (Unpublished document). SKE17842.