A group of features are visible as a mix of cropmarks and earthworks on 1940s RAF vertical aerial photographs [1]. These include several small circular features and a short bank. The bank lies in the centre of the area and is 70m long and aligned NNW-SSE. Three small circular earthworks lie west of the bank, all measure c.9m in diameter, whilst four similar features, each measuring between c.6-8m in diameter, lie to its east. The circular features are interpreted as hay stack stances, mounds for the drying and storage of hay in the damp environment of a riverside meadow. 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. The function of the bank is unclear but it may be agricultural in origin and contemporary with the hay stack stances. All features appear to have been fully plough-levelled by the 1960s as Ordnance Survey vertical aerial photographs of this date show them as cropmarks [2].

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2011, South East Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey - (SE RCZAS) Phase 1: National Mapping Programme Report (Unpublished document).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South East Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey National Mapping Programme Components 1&2: Results of NMP Mapping (Unpublished document).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.