Excavations carried out in advance of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link from 2000-2002 (ARC SPH00) discovered a possible late iron age processional way. This may have been part of a late iron age ritual landscape. It comprised two parallel ditches c. 15 m apart that ran north-south along the eastern side of the River Ebbsfleet for c. 450m. They led from a small bay in the riverbank, upstream towards a rise on the slope where the nearby springs come into view. Towards this southern end the ditches widen to 20m and then 35m at the end. The ditches run close to, but not on, the crest of the slope which the excavators believed indicated a ritual rather than practical function (eg a droveway).

The ditches ranged from 1.3 to 3.0 m in width and 0.4 to 1.0 m deep.
The feature appears to be late iron age although there is some suggestion that it may have stayed open into the early Roman period.(1-2)

<1> Oxford Wessex Archaeology Joint Venture, 2010, Settling the Ebbsfleet Valley. CTRL Excavations at Springhead and Northfleet, Kent. The Late Iron Age, Roman, Saxon, and Medieval Landscape (Monograph). SKE31245.

<2> Wessex Archaeology, 2003, Channel Tunnel Rail Link Archaeological works at Springhead Roman Town (ARC SPH00): interim fieldwork report (Unpublished document). SKE31600.