Chilston Park, Lenham, Kent

The OAU was commissioned by Union Railways Ltd to conduct a field evaluation of 2.4 ha of land south of Lenham, as part of a wider programme of archaeological investigations along the route of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL). The site was located to the east of Boughton Road (NGR TQ 891 510), south-east of Oxley House and occupies high ground to the north of Lenham Heath Road. There are extensive views north and east towards the North Dows and Ashford. The field slopes down into dry valleys which are situated at the western and eastern limits of the site. Twelve evaluation trenches were excavated. Two ditches were located, one containing post-medieval pottery, which is probably an old field boundary, and the other was undated. The pottery recovered from the site was predominantly medieval in date and occurred in ploughsoils and colluvial deposits. It seems likely the colluvial deposits originated in the medieval period and continued throughout the post -medieval period. A large sherd of probable Iron Age pottery from one of the later colluvial deposits was unabraded and likely to have been sealed by the later accumulation of ploughsoil. No features of this date were located on the site. The isolated occurrence of this pottery at the eastern boundary of the site is noteworthy, but of limited significance.