Sandwich/land north of the River Stour, Kent

Clients: Cheney Thorpe & Morrison/Ramac Holdings Ltd

Author: Jane Corcoran

Site supervisor: Jane Corcoran

Deposit modelling is increasingly being undertaken by MoLAS geoarchaeologists in the earliest stages of archaeological projects, in order to determine the topography and characteristics of the buried stratigraphy on a site and to assess its potential for the recovery of archaeological and archaeo-environmental evidence. Such work can be a cost-effective and more reliable method of targeting areas for further evaluation than assessment based solely on the two-dimensional distribution of known archaeological evidence from the vicinity of the site. This is especially the case where little previous archaeological work has been undertaken in an area, and in river valleys and coastal areas where the archaeology is likely to be buried by thick alluvial, estuarine and marine deposits. From the developers' point of view, deposit modelling can help to prevent unforeseen deposits being uncovered later in the project that may cause expensive and time-consuming delays in the construction programme. It also provides the archaeological curators and practitioners with a landscape context in which the distribution of archaeological remains can be better understood.

At the request of Kent County Council and the developers, Cheney Thorpe and Morrison/Ramac Holdings Ltd, a geoarchaeological assessment was undertaken in north-east Kent on land north of the River Stour and close to Sandwich. A considerable amount of archaeology is known from this area, which was used by prehistoric, Roman and Saxon people as a gateway to Britain, lying as it does less than 30 miles from mainland Europe. The project was intended to assess what is known of the changing environment and landscape of the Wantsum Channel and former Sandwich Haven and its significance for archaeology, and to identify areas where future geoarchaeological work is needed both on the site itself and in the area of the Wantsum Channel.

The deposit model was based on records of geotechnical boreholes and reports of archaeological interventions held by Kent County Council and published sources. In terms of the wider landscape, the assessment synthesised all the available information concerning the buried stratigraphy across the mouth of the Wantsum Channel, which had formed a sea channel between the Isle of Thanet and mainland Kent until the early medieval period. Although the area was dry land for much of the Mesolithic, a rising sea level pushed the coastline inland, flooding the river valley that existed between the Isle of Thanet and mainland Kent, to form a sea passage and driving onshore a shingle bank (on which the medieval port of Stonar was later built). The active coastline probably lay close to Richborough in the Roman period, when a large bay existed between Sandwich and the Isle of Thanet. However, the development of a sand and shingle spit northwards from Deal reduced the size of the bay and the ability of tidal processes to remove silt washed into it from rivers draining the surrounding land. By the medieval period the coastal bay had been reduced to an elaborately meandering tidal river, prone to rapid silting, which skirted the long peninsula formed by the Stonar shingle bank.

The reconstruction of the evolving landscape at the eastern end of the Wantsum Channel provided the wider context in which to assess the significance of the buried stratigraphy on the site itself (comprising much of the Sandwich Industrial Estate), which lies within the former Sandwich Haven, between the medieval ports of Stonar and Sandwich.

This site report is extracted from MoLAS 2004: annual review