The earliest records
Churchwood Drive is one of the newer parts of Chestfield. It was built in 2000, a new estate of medium and larger family homes on the eastern edge of the village.
Preliminary site clearance revealed some ancient pottery, so archaeologists from the County Council were called in. They considered it a useful find and Tim Allen of the Canterbury Archaeological Trust undertook the excavations and analysis of the finds. What he discovered fitted with other work done in northern Kent, although the Chestfield site showed that patterns of life already identified nearer London stretched further along the coast than previously assumed.
All this is recorded in the richly illustrated Archaeology of Kent edited by John Williams. Williams' contributors also tell us a lot more about even earlier times. The two things children pick up in school about the pre-history of Britain are that there was an Ice Age that covered all our island except the south coast, and there was a land bridge between Britain and continental Europe. The map above, copied from the Williams book, shows archaeologists have learned that the migration into Britain as the ice receded was across the norther part of this land bridge, and then through Kent. It is likely that many of the people moving in would have stuck close to the coast - they already were skilled fishermen, and there are flint deposits along the norther shore that would have been useful in making tools. The chances of settling for a time by freshwater streams would have been easy to imagine, so speculation encourages us to believe that even at this remote time Chestfield or places near it were among the earliest human settlements in Britain after the last Ice Age. This is born out by evidence from both the Chestwood Drive excavation and another one on the western side of the village in Primrose Drive.
Whatever the truth we can move forward about 7000 years to the the middle of the Bronze Age, perhaps a little more than 3000 years ago, and pick up the story revealed by Mr Allen. Pottery is a mainstay of archaeological investigations. It is frequently broken and discarded but the broken pieces are extremely durable. Pottery design changes in a number of ways through time. The walls of jars become thinner as pottery making skills improve, flint grit embellishments are present at one time, then fade away, decorative patterns change. All this shows there was a site for some time in the Churchwood Drive area, possibly from 1200 to 800 BC.
Discarded materials accumulate through time - not only can one see when a site was in use but get some idea of the scale of the occupation and link it to other evidence like the digging of ditches to see how widespread the community of the time extended its activities. We have contacted Canterbury Archaeological Trust and hope to get more information on this.
Preliminary site clearance revealed some ancient pottery, so archaeologists from the County Council were called in. They considered it a useful find and Tim Allen of the Canterbury Archaeological Trust undertook the excavations and analysis of the finds. What he discovered fitted with other work done in northern Kent, although the Chestfield site showed that patterns of life already identified nearer London stretched further along the coast than previously assumed.
All this is recorded in the richly illustrated Archaeology of Kent edited by John Williams. Williams' contributors also tell us a lot more about even earlier times. The two things children pick up in school about the pre-history of Britain are that there was an Ice Age that covered all our island except the south coast, and there was a land bridge between Britain and continental Europe. The map above, copied from the Williams book, shows archaeologists have learned that the migration into Britain as the ice receded was across the norther part of this land bridge, and then through Kent. It is likely that many of the people moving in would have stuck close to the coast - they already were skilled fishermen, and there are flint deposits along the norther shore that would have been useful in making tools. The chances of settling for a time by freshwater streams would have been easy to imagine, so speculation encourages us to believe that even at this remote time Chestfield or places near it were among the earliest human settlements in Britain after the last Ice Age. This is born out by evidence from both the Chestwood Drive excavation and another one on the western side of the village in Primrose Drive.
Whatever the truth we can move forward about 7000 years to the the middle of the Bronze Age, perhaps a little more than 3000 years ago, and pick up the story revealed by Mr Allen. Pottery is a mainstay of archaeological investigations. It is frequently broken and discarded but the broken pieces are extremely durable. Pottery design changes in a number of ways through time. The walls of jars become thinner as pottery making skills improve, flint grit embellishments are present at one time, then fade away, decorative patterns change. All this shows there was a site for some time in the Churchwood Drive area, possibly from 1200 to 800 BC.
Discarded materials accumulate through time - not only can one see when a site was in use but get some idea of the scale of the occupation and link it to other evidence like the digging of ditches to see how widespread the community of the time extended its activities. We have contacted Canterbury Archaeological Trust and hope to get more information on this.
How skilled were people in these times?
It is easy to think of people living 3000 years ago as something like cavemen. This is very misleading. The large boat pictured opposite was discovered in excavations on the A20 road, and dates from 3600 years back.
The Churchood Drive excavations followed another in Primrose Way, and show a sustained if probably small community that created a number of settlements exactly where we now live in Chestfield. These must have been too close not to have dealings with each other, and lasted so long the inhabitants would have developed a sense of place and shared interests. We do not know how much they connected with others. Possibly they used local tracks for close contact but sailed along the coast to reach more distant destinations.
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