Bronze age pit. Two worked flints of uncertain date recovered from pit. C17th-18th glazed red earthenware pottery, one of which had a 'metallic' purple brown lead glaze recovered in topsoil. (1)


Later phased summary and assessment document of abovementioned excavation (combined with that of MKE 40103) identified 6 phases of human habitation (7 phases including natural).

Phase 1 - the natural topography

Phase 2 - the mid-to-late Bronze Age with large ditch and sub-circular pit with pottery sherds.

Phase 3a - the Early Iron Age with a possible kiln. Initiallly this kiln(?) was thought to have been a corn-dryer. Carbonised wheat and barley with sherds of pottery. Fragments of daub date to this phase.

Phase 3b - Early Iron Age. Ditch was re-cut.

Phase 4 - Early-to-mid-Iron Age. Smaller ditch which contained Early Iron Age pottery. Similar ditch suggest that this might represent an enclosure, but features of comparable date found either side may contradict this interpretation. Sub-oval pits. Two-thirds of cermaic loom-weight recovered from fill of one pit. Also Iron Age sherds and posthole.

Phase 5 - Late Iron Age/Early Romano-British. Linear gully with two slots through it. Sherds of Iron Age/Roman pottery. Sub oval feature. Charred cereal grain and fragments of large animal bone. Group of possible post-holes to SE of gully.

Phase 6 - Post medieval. Roof tile.

Phase 7 - Modern. Four post-holes. Fill contained burnt waste (2).

<1> Archaeology South-East, 2004, An Archaeological Evaluation of Land at West Borough Primary School, Hambledon Court, Tonbridge Road, Maidstone, Kent (Unpublished document). SKE13475.

<2> Pre-Construct Archaeology, 2005, Phased summary and assessment document of an archaeological excavation of land at West Borough School, Maidstone, Kent. (Unpublished document). SKE13508.