Monument record TQ 94 NE 406 - Quarry pits, Charing Beech Hangers

A series of shallow undated quarry pits were identified at Charing Beech Hangers during a survey of the woodland carried out in 2004. "The most prominent of the small pits on the hilltop on the hilltop within Stubyer's Wood measure up to 10m in diameter and up to 3m deep, and have obvious spoil heaps to one side, the majority are considerably smaller and are visible only as shallow and presumably silted hollows… Slight irregularities in the open ground east of Stubyer's Wood suggest others exist here in the area where the woodland was cleared in the later twentieth century" (from the original report, 1). These features were seen to predate the existing woodland and were interpreted as either possible chalk pits, or evidence for small-scale quarrying for ironstone nodules during the Iron Age period. (1)

<1> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2004, Charing Beech Hangers, Westwell, Near Ashford, Kent, A Heritage Survey of the Woodland SSSI (Unpublished document). SKE57616.