Monument record TR 36 NE 2661 - Late Bronze Age Activity including droveway and field system

During largescale excavations off Manston Road, Ramsgate, Evicence for Middle and Late Bronze Age activity was recorded. This comprised a possible droveway, along with the remnants of boundary or enclosure ditches. A set of parrallel ditches were identified on a slightly curving north-east to south-west alignment, within the central area of the site. The parallel ditches were set on average 1.5m apart and are suggestive of a possible trackway or droveway, although profiles varied in places. It seems possible that the parallel ditches were used for driving livestock and accessing fields.

Thie activity appears to have intensified in the later portion of the Bronze Age with an with the establishment of a field system and several possible enclosures, along with some pits. The field system, or ditch enclosures, comprised a series of boundary ditches on a roughly rectilinear and perpendicular arrangement, loosely set on a north-west to south-east and north-east to south-west alignment. Recovered finds included animal bone, daub, burnt and worked flints, as well as a large assemblage of pottery of middle to late Bronze Age/early Iron Age date. The animal bone assemblage suggested possible evidence of livestock husbandry. This may represent an increase in settlement activity is during the later Bronze Age. The character of the land use at this time appears to possibly be associated with livestock management.

There was a single large pit located within the north-western corner of Area 1 and was roughly ovoid in shape. This is the only feature dating the the Early Iron Age and it appears that the area fell out of use following the later Bronze Age activity until the late Iron Age. (1)

<1> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2024, Post-Excavation Assessment Report - Land at Manston Road, Ramsgate, Kent (Unpublished document). SKE58741.