Stone House Hospital Dartford

On the 2nd to 6th August 2010, Oxford Archaeology (OA) undertook a Watching Brief
at Stone House Hospital, Dartford (NGR 556100, 174100) prior to the development
of new housing. The Watching Brief consisted of monitoring a series of geotechnical
boreholes and test pits to provide additional information regarding the
archaeological potential across the Site.
Detailed examination of the interventions revealed areas of substantial modern
made ground and truncation of the original Holocene soil profile associated with the
construction of the hospital buildings which significantly reduces the potential for
archaeological features to be preserved. However, possible intact subsoil deposits
identified away from the main buildings suggest discrete areas may exist where
truncation may have been less severe. No archaeological features or artefacts were
identified during the Watching Brief which suggests the area was not a focus of
intensive activity in the past.
Substantial thicknesses of Pleistocene gravel deposits associated with the Boyne
Hill Formation underlie much of the site. Similar sequences in the region are known
to contain important Palaeolithic remains dating to the Hoxnian interglacial. Variation
within the sediment structure at Stobehouse Hospital suggests some of the finer
grained grained deposits may have been deposited in low energy environments and
as such have greater potential for preserving insitu artefacts.