A group of three shallow circular earthworks are visible on 1940s RAF vertical aerial photographs [1]. The mounds all measure c. 6m in diameter and lie in a WSW-ENE aligned line separated by 30m to 40m intervals. The features are interpreted as hay stack stances, mounds for the drying and storage of hay in the damp environment of a riverside meadow. They appear to have been plough-levelled by the 1960s as Ordnance Survey vertical aerial photographs of this date show them as cropmarks [2]. Similar features have been recorded across the floor of the Stour Valley between Upstreet and the coast and this part of the valley has a particularly dense concentration (see Related Monuments). They appear to represent an integral part of the medieval or post-medieval farming landscape in this area.

It is possible that these may be the same features already recorded as TR 26 SE 29 (MKE15884), lying 200m to the SE, however there is not enough detail in their Source Records to be absolutely certain (see Related Monuments).

A transcription of the features recorded from aerial photography exists within a GIS layer held by this HER [3].

<3> Wessex Archaeology, 2009-10, South-East Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey - Aerial Photographic Transcriptions (Digital archive). SWX15705.

<3> Wessex Archaeology, 2011, South East Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey - (SE RCZAS) Phase 1: National Mapping Programme Report (Unpublished document). SKE25955.

<3> Cornwall Council Historic Environment Projects and Gloucestershire County Council, 2011, South East Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey National Mapping Programme Components 1&2: Results of NMP Mapping (Unpublished document). SKE25954.