In 2004 an evaluation took place in advance of the construction of a new car-park at Manston Airport. Trial trenching, strip, map and sampling, and full excavation was carried out and revealed a late iron age / early Roman settlement.

The plan of archaeological remains compiled following the removal of topsoil and the reduction of colluvium pointed to the presence of an approximately north-south/east-west orientated arrangement of ditches in the west-central, western and south-western parts of the site, where the colluvial cover was either thin or non-existent. The ditches were dated by their ceramic contents to the Late Iron Age/early Romano-British period (c. 100/50 BC - c. AD 100/150). As five ditches extended into areas where the colluvial cover was thicker, it was assumed that in those areas the colluvium covered them, and probably also covered other features. This proved to be correct when several features were exposed during monitored Brickearth reduction in the central part of the site. This is considered to be an important observation in regard to this and other Thanet sites with Brickearth sub-soils, as it points to the potential survival of Late Iron Age/early Romano-British remains and/or earlier remains at varying depths within the colluvium.

The earliest features exposed on the site were two shallow, gully-like linear features which were approximately 0.26m and 100mm deep respectively. These were cut by the ditches of an enclosure which was exposed in the south central area and which measured some 38m north-south and in excess of 30m east-west The enclosure consisted of four ditches which linked up to surround a roughly rectangular area (technically a trapezium). The depths of the enclosure ditches varied from 0.16m to 0.35m, 0.19m to 0.4m, 0.18m to 0.23m and 0.17m to 0.28m. An entrance to the enclosure was almost certainly represented by a 3.38m gap, indicating that the enclosure was entered from the east.

The remains of a sunken-floored circular hut were contemporary with this enclosure. The hut measured on average 5.55m in diameter (it was in fact oval in plan) and consisted of a steep-sided cut extending down through Brickearth and Upper Chalk to a flat floor lying 0.52m below the exposed surface of the Brickearth. The hut contained nine post holes set into its sloping circular edge and one set into the floor 0.9m from the southern edge. These almost certainly represented the positions of the hut's principal post supports. Four stake holes probably represent settings for the thinner timbers that presumably formed part of the original wall structure, and four stake holes situated in a roughly rectangular arrangement in the centre of the hut may have formed part of a raised hearth or similar. The fills of the hut appeared to represent various episodes of rubbish disposal, with large amounts of potsherds and much carbonised material, though no daub, suggesting the structure may have been of timber or hide.

A further phase of ditch cutting appears to have followed the construction of this circular hut and enclosure. Four ditches form part of another roughly rectilinear ditched enclosure the newly-enclosed, trapezium-shaped area was almost exactly the same as that enclosed by the earlier ditches, with the later ditches cut parallel and on the outside of their earlier counterparts. The expansion of the enclosure may be contemporary with the construction of a rectangular sunken floored hut which took the form of a rectangular pit of 0.64m depth and measuring 13.10m east-west and 4.3m north-south. The edges of the pit were virtually vertical and a very roughly semi-circular area sloping down to the chalk floor from the east marked the hut's entrance. Two post pits within this area marked the positions of entrance supports and three external post pits probably indicated that a substantial screen-like structure had been erected to protect the entrance from the east wind. A possible partition was represented by Post/Stake holes with a hearth were situated in the northern part of what may have been an eastern compartment, adjoining the entrance. Another and larger hearth was centrally positioned in what may have been the inner compartment within the original building, which was subsequently extended by 3.35m westwards, the extension being on a slightly different alignment. The fill of the hut produced just a few worn potsherds of mid-late first-learly second-century potsherds, and its predominately colluvial nature suggests that it accumulated as a result of natural processes or ploughing following the hut's abandonment as a dwelling. Rectangular huts, whether sunken-floored or not, are a rarity in Late Iron Age Britain, although commonplace on the Continent throughout the Iron Age. The presence of such a structure on the site therefore seems to point to the application of an ancient indigenous building technique adapted to circular huts (such as the one exposed on the present site) to a new building style imported from the Continental, where it had been long established. The rectangular structure may therefore represent significant evidence for immigration into south-east Britain from the Continent (the so-called 'Belgic' invasion) prior to the Roman invasion. Alternatively, the hut may have been built under the influence of a new Romanising building style, which had long favoured predominantly rectilinear buildings, albeit built with bricks, tile and mortar.

A group of storage pits appear to be associated with this building they shared the same alignment as the hut and were in close proximity to it, and were therefore probably dug to serve the needs of those who lived in. Four pits were interpreted as grain storage pits because of their regular rectangular shape, the considerable depths to which they had been dug and their convenient proximity to the rectangular hut. It was also clear that they had been re-used for the disposal of domestic rubbish (the life of such pits for storage is brief because of fungal and other contamination).

A group of four urned cremation burials were located close to the eastern side of the enclosure ditches. These had been heavily truncated and were exposed immediately beneath plough soil only as fragmentary basal sherds containing small quantities of calcined human bone. The poor preservation of the burials meant that the um fragments are probably undiagnostic in terms of date, but the burial group can be assumed to be associated with the rectangular hut, which lay seven metres to the north-east, and which may be datable using the pottery in the nearby storage pits.

A large quarry pit and pottery kiln also appear to be contemporary with the rectangular hut. The quarry was 5.5m in diameter and 0.45m depth, it was exposed in the north-west part of the site and was considered to mark the site of multiphase Brickearth quarrying on the basis of the complexity and irregularity of its shape. This judgement was supported by the fact that the feature as a whole was cut neatly within a discrete deposit of Brickearth. Two small pits discovered at the site may also be brickearth quarries. Situated in north-west part of the large quarry pit was the intact base and slumped superstructure of a pottery kiln, complete with 'stoke hole', the latter signifying the vent through which the hot air entered the kiln from a smaller chamber which, when stoked up and fired, acted as the furnace (the name 'keyhole kiln' is derived from this arrangement of a smaller circular chamber adjoining a larger one). The kilns in-situ and nearly in-situ walls were made of clay of some 80mm thickness and the inside of which repeated firing had semi-vitrified and reddened. On the base of the kiln were fragments presumably from some of the last pots to be made in it. They were of a local fine ware type known as Thanet Sandy Ware, produced in imitation of the high-quality Romanised wares which had become common on, and imported from, the near Continent around the late first century BC and the early to mid first century AD. It is of interest that very little or none of this pottery was recovered from the rest of the site and was therefore probably manufactured to sell. Although this industry was small and localised, it is of archaeological importance as one of the first of such industries to adopt and adapt to the new ceramic industries that came as part of burgeoning Roman power. (information summarised from source) (1, 2)

<1> Swale and Thames Archaeological Survey Company, 2004, Interim report on the results of archaeological investigations on the site of the new car park at Kent International Airport, Manston, Thanet, Kent (Unpublished document). SKE30484.

<2> Swale and Thames Archaeological Survey Company, 2004, Archaeological evaluation of land east of the Kent International Airport, Manston, Isle of Thanet, Kent (Unpublished document). SKE30485.