THE MEOW A Y' S MEGALITHIC LONG BARROWS
PAUL ASHBEE
Kent's megalithic long barrows flank the Medway, where it cuts
through the North Downs to form the Maidstone Gap (Fig. 1). On the
eastern side there is Kit's Coty House, the best known, the Lower
Kit's Coty House, the Coffin Stone and the Warren Farm chamber, as
well as uncertain sites. Coldrum, the Chestnuts and Addington lie to
the west of the river, some five miles distant. Their chambers, fai;:ades
and kerbs were built with sarsen stones, silicified sand from the
Eocene, a dense, hard, heavy durable rock, found close by (Bowen &
Smith 1977; Ash bee 1993a, 109). Some of the chambers were of considerable
size, even larger, more grandiose and impressive, than all
but a few of their counterparts in Berkshire and northern Wiltshire
(Piggott 1962; Barker 1984; Whittle 199 I). As a result of their accessibility,
they have been visited and commented upon by antiquarian
and archaeological writers since the sixteenth century (Ashbee
1993a). Of particular note are William Stukeley's drawings ( I 776,
Tabs. 31-4) made in the early eighteenth century. Because of their
ruined state, their nature has been recurrently misunderstood and
even misrepresented.
Despite comprehensive slighting of unexampled ferocity during the
thirteenth century (Alexander 1961, 7, Plan 2; Ash bee 1993a, 64 ),
their characteristics are still discernible. The largest, with a chamber
about 12ft in height, from which the Coffin Stone remains, was,
however, all but obliterated. At the eastern ends of stone-bounded
trapezoidal barrows, sometimes more than 200ft in length, there were
massive chambers, rectangular in plan, and about 9ft in height. These
were 14-20ft in length and sometimes more than 7ft in breadth. They
contained deposits of human bones finally sealed by occupation debris,
a formula encountered elsewhere in southern England (P iggott
1962, 2 l-30, fig. 9). The remnant of the contents of Coldrum' s
chamber (Keith 1913; 1925; Filkins 1924; Ashbee 1998, 34) indicate
that the erstwhile deposits of human bones may have been considerable,
and it is likely that their function was other than as mausolea
(Woodward 1993; Ashbee 1999, 278). They are a close-knit group,
319
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Fig. 1. Map showing the Medway's opposing groups of megalithic long barrows, sarsen stone spreads, and
the nature of the Maidstone Gap through the North Downs. Eminences of more than 600ft line the heights
of the steep, southern, foreslopes
THE MEOW A Y' S MEGALITHIC LONG BARROWS
conforming to Northern European mainland TRB conventions
(Ashbee 1999).
Close by the eastern long barrows was an ostensible long house
(Glass 1999, 192, fig. 2; Ashbee 1999, 270). Post-holes and beddingtrenches
indicate a timber structure some 65ft (20m) in length and
32ft (7m) in breadth, with a use-sequence from earlier into later
Neolithic times. In the absence of others, it could be thought that this,
if not an exemplar for the long barrows (Ashbee 1999, 277), was a
cult-house, comparable with those of Jutland (Midgley I 992, 441-3,
fig. 127). Such structures, with regional variations, are likely to have
been a regular TRB usage. Indeed, some of the ephemeral, roughly
rectangular, earlier Neolithic house remains encountered elsewhere
in England (Darvill 1996) may have had a similar non-domestic
function.
There are three sites east of the Medway which are palpably long
barrows, with traces of stone kerbs and ruined chambers. Kit's Coty
House is a chamber component at the end of a substantial ditched and
initially kerbed long barrow remnant, while the Lower Kit's Coty
House is an overthrown chamber at the eastern end of the traces of a
razed mound. Its present condition recalls the Chestnuts before
restoration (Alexander 1961) and they may have suffered at the same
hands. Only the outline of the Coffin Stone's near-effaced mound can
be seen. Recently a substantial sarsen stone has been placed upon it,
while, in times past, a number were pitched into the Tottington
spring-head (Coles Finch 1927, 266, opp). The great slab, patently
from the overthrown chamber, attests an affinity with Coldrum. At
Warren Farm (Ashbee 1993a, 84) a smaller, not dissimilar chamberend
was uncovered in 1823. No barrow can be seen and hillwash
mantles the area.
Other sites on the eastern side of the Medway must also be taken
into consideration. The Upper White Horse Stone (Ashbee 1993a,
87), which stands beside the Pilgrim's Way, may survive from a long
barrow. It is at no great distance from the site of the Warren Farm
hamber and, down the years, pieces of sarsen stone, some substantial,
have come to light in its vicinity. The Lower White Horse Stone
(Ashbee 1993a, 86), recorded as a single standing stone, may also
have been left from a dismantled chamber.
Two of the three long barrows west of the Medway are close to each
other, with Coldrum, the most intact, at a distance. However, it is
possible that it had a companion, now without trace of sarsen stones.
Addington's chamber was wrecked almost beyond recognition but
much of the massive stone-bounded mound survives. After careful
excavation (Alexander 1961) the surviving stones of the fa9ade and
321
PAULASHBEE
chamber of the Chestnuts were re-erected. The barrow's vestiges had
been truncated and its original length could not be determined.
Coldrum, which had been dug into, and its chamber secured, during
the nineteenth century (Ashbee 1993a, 96-100; 1998), was partially
excavated in 1910 (Bennett 1913; Keith 1913) and subsequently in
1922, 1923 and 1926 (Filkins 1924; 1928). A substantial deposit
remnant was dug from the chamber and the barrow's prostrate kerbstone
bared.
At Kit's Coty House the kerbstones had been dragged away or
buried in the ditches by the slighting party (McCrerie 1956, 251 ).
Those at Addington had been thrown down and, despite sporadic removals,
sufficient remain to indicate the erstwhile trapezoidal nature
of the barrow. At Coldrum the massive stones of the kerb largely remain,
although thrown down and partially buried. They may be only
a surviving phase of a larger, longer, structure. Stones dug up close
by the Lower Kit's Coty House and the Coffin Stone are clearly from
their kerbs and others remain to be found. The larger stones in the
Tottington spring-head are probably from the Coffin Stone's fac;ade.
Although only two positive trapezoidal kerbstone arrangements are
present, the general uniformity of barrows, size and orientation, and
of chambers and fa9ades, makes for an homogenous group.
Clear traces of ditches, now in danger of destruction by deep
ploughing, have for long been visible flanking the ever diminishing
long barrow remains at Kit's Coty House. Similarly, indications of
ditches, clearer in the nineteenth century (Petrie 1880, 16), were until
recently to be seen at a distance, pointing to a broad berm, on the
southern side of the Addington long barrow. Traces of ditches appropriate
to the Lower Kit's Coty House long barrow, deep beneath
plough soil and hillwash, were seen in a pipe-trench which, in 1994,
cut across it. Similar ditches may remain to be found flanking the
great razed barrow, from which the Coffin Stone remains, also deep
beneath plough soil, hillwash and barrow remnant. At the Chestnuts,
because of the broad berms, a feature of the series, the excavation
trenches may not have been pursued to a sufficient length to have located
the ditches. Coldrum's ditches, because of hillwash and agriculture,
are likely to remain at a considerable depth. That on the northern
side may have been impinged upon by the slighting incut and
subsequent chalk removal. Before the slighting and stone-robbing,
the series would have been not unlike Wayland's Smithy II (Whittle
1991, 65, fig. 2), trapezoidal, stone-retained, structures.
Human remains, those of some twenty-two people, have been dug
from Coldrum's chamber, besides pottery and a serrated flint-flake
(Bennett 1913; Keith 1913; Filkins 1924; 1928; Ashbee 1998, 34).
322
THE MEDWAY'S MEGALITHIC LONG BARROWS
The skulls and bones found from 1804 onwards (Evans 1950, 70) are
likely to have been from the chamber's partial clearance when the
monument was slighted, and it should not be overlooked that Kemble
and Larking removed pottery (Way 1856, 404 ). A quantity of pieces
of burned bone and potsherds, with various flint artifacts, came from
the Chestnuts chamber (Alexander 1961, 36). The burned bones may
result from its slighting rather than a Neolithic rite. Indeed, two
unburned teeth were found. Cremation is no more than occasional in
long barrows (Daniel 1950, 98-100; Kinnes 1992, 10 l) and would
thus have an especial significance. Charcoal and skulls have been
found close by the Coffin Stone (Dunkin 1871, 74) while potsherds
were encountered when the ruined chamber of the Addington long
barrow was dug into (Wright 1854, 180). It has been said that human
bones also came to light (Philp and Dutto 1985, 3). The account of the
disinterment of the Warren Farm chamber remains (Evans 1948)
allows the possibility of the bones and pottery having been beneath an
infill. At Kit's Coty House, James Douglas (1793, 181) set a man to
dig on the west side of the monument and recalled that' ... the spot had
been, by the appearance of the soil, previously explored'. Thomas
Wright (1854, 17 5) observed that 'fragments of rude pottery have I
believe been discovered under Kit's Coty House itself .. .' while small
worn sherds have been picked up from the surface of the all but razed
long barrow (Cook I 936).
Apart from the accounts of the excavations at Coldrum and the
Chestnuts, the evidence regarding the deposits in these chambers is
meagre. Nonetheless, consideration should be given to the likelihood
of their contents, human bones, disinterred or from an ossuary (Ashbee
1966, 37-42), having been, as at West Kennet and elsewhere, beneath
infills which contained occupation debris, much of which could
have been broken pottery (Piggott 1962, 68-71 ). Some chambers may
have had in them no more than soil and settlement debris, a widespread
phenomenon (Henshall 1972, 87-90; Ash bee I 976, 21 ). Thus
te use-life of the Medway's massive stone-built long barrows is
likely to have been considerable before they were finally sealed.
When first built the Medway long barrows had high rectangular
chambers. These, their entrances blocked by a focal portal stone and
:"ith a fa9ade, were at the eastern end of considerable, in surviving
lstances more than 200ft in length, long barrows. Flanked by quarry
ditches or scoops, they were contained by sarsen stone kerbs, the
surviving boulders being mostly of modest size. Kit's Coty House, at
the eastern end of its substantial long barrow, and the seemingly almost
intact remains of Coldrum, have detracted attention from other,
ruined and near-destroyed, sites, which were at their outset more
323
PAULASHBEE
grandiose and imposing. On the eastern bank of the Medway there is
the Lower Kit's Coty House where, when scrutinised from the east, it
can be seen that the chamber's side stones have fallen to the north.
Were they, as were those of the Chestnuts (Alexander 1961, 8), merely
pulled back into a vertical position, there would be a chamber
about 17ft long and 8ft wide (a recent estimate), with an astounding
internal height, at least at the entrance, of 9ft. At the Chestnuts this
procedure showed that the stones demarcated a chamber some 12ft
long, 7½ft wide, and !Oft in height. The Coffin Stone's chamber
would have been at least 12ft high and of commensurate length. The
chamber of which Kit's Coty House is a remnant would have been,
for the most part, more than 6ft high, while from the dimensions
given for the Warren Farm chamber remnant, an internal height of
about 5ft is possible.
On account of their largely ruined state (Daniel 1950, passim) it is
difficult to tabulate, even approximately, the chamber heights of our
long barrows. In southern England, only West Kennet, with a barrow
330ft long, and an elaborate transepted chamber, the passage of
which is 8ft high (Piggott 1962, I 7), is comparable. The internal
height of the chamber at Wayland's Smithy (Whittle 1991, 83) was no
more than 5ft. Further afield in Wales, Pentre Ifan (Grimes 1948) was
7ft 6in. high at its entrance while, in western Scotland, Carn Ban, on
Arran, has a long rectangular chamber with a roof 9ft above its floor
(Henshall 1963, 222). Such chamber heights are exceptional and thus
the Medway's megalithic long barrows were undisputedly a unique
group of the largest and most grandiose of their kind.
On the eastern side of the Medway the long barrows, Kit's Coty
House, the Coffin Stone, the Lower Kit's Coty House, Warren Farm,
and the indeterminate sites, are characterised by a short distance one
from another. In the absence of trees they would have been intervisible.
On the western side, the Addington long barrow and the Chestnuts
are a pair, while Coldrum, about a mile to the north, may also
have had a companion. As a group they are comparable, in a general
sense, with other groups of long barrows, earthen and stone-built
(Ash bee 1984, 8-32; Barker 1984 ). It is their concentration and
inter-proximity, within less than a square mile, which distinguishes
them and, with their exceptional chamber magnitude, makes them
unique.
Evans (1950) mustered the Medway's long barrows into two
groups, A the longer, and B, the shorter. The group B, the short series,
comprised Coldrum and its apparently constrained kerb and Stukeley's
reconstruction of the Lower Kit's Coty House (Stuke!ey 1776,
Pl. 32, lower), thought to be a garbled recollection of a kerbed,
324
THE MEDWAY'S MEGALITHIC LONG BARROWS
chambered, barrow (Evans 1950, 66, fig. 2). Because at the Chestnuts
the detectable remnant of the sandy barrow was only about 50ft in
length, it has been considered as substantiating the apparent barrow
magnitude dichotomy. Coldrum's kerb may be no more than a setting,
akin, for example, to the enclosure beneath the Nutbane earthen long
barrow (Morgan I 959, fig. 6, 32, Pl. 1), and thus only a phase of a
structure of greater length. This is a problem that can only be resolved
by careful excavation. Many long barrows and cairns are composite,
a factor rarely realised (Henshall I 972, 236; Masters I 98 I, 168-73;
Darvill 1987, 66). It has emerged that Stukeley' s published reconstruction
of the Lower Kit's Coty House (1776, Pls. 31; 32, lower)
were versions of the coves, which had a great fascination for him, and
of which he prepared a comparative diagram (Ashbee I 993b, 18, fig.
l). Indeed, as Stukeley shows in one of his drawings (1776, Pl. 34)
the Lower Kit's Coty House is a massive toppled chamber, while
traces of a considerable barrow may remain to the west of it. At the
Chestnuts it was found that ploughing had destroyed much of the
erstwhile razed mound. Only a memory, the name Stony or Long
Warren, which had preceded the Chestnuts appellation, taken from a
nearby wood, presumably indicates an erstwhile long mound. In these
circumstances the establishment of the lengths of the series is imperative.
A small group of earthen long barrows flanks the Stour, the principal
river of east Kent (Holgate 1981 b, 226, fig. 3 ). Julliberrie' s Grave,
the subject of careful, comprehensive, excavations (Jessup I 937;
1939; Ashbee 1996) has been known since the sixteenth century. Presciently,
Ronald Jessup (1970, 86) said that fieldwork might reveal
further long barrows. Since then long mounds have been found at
Boughton Aluph and Elmsted (Bradshaw I 970, 180). Sarsen stone
was available at no great distance (Ashbee 1993a, 180) but there are
no overt signs of its employment.
Sarsen Stone in Kent
The Kentish stone-built barrows are the only major use of sarsen
stone other than in the Avebury area (Bowen & Smith 1977, 190, fig.
2; Barker 1984). Huge slabs and boulders allowed the construction of
the lofty, grandiose chambers, the nature of which would have been
appreciated in Neolithic southern England .
. arsen stone is a dense, hard, heavy, durable rock of sand bound by
Sihca cement, in effect silicified sandstone. Stones can be tabular,
polygonal or even close-knit concentrations that may have been an
entity in the distant past. Considerable quantities can still be found in
northern Wiltshire, on the Marlborough Downs (Bowen & Smith
325
PAULASHBEE
1977), where a stone-splitting industry was established during the
eighteenth century (King 1968). Although small scatters of sarsen
stone are known in Dorset and Hampshire (Bowen & Smith 1977,
190, fig. 2), the spreads in Kent, mostly upon the North Downs, where
the Medway cuts through, are the largest beyond Wessex. As on the
Marlborough Downs, the sarsen stone trails in valley bottoms, or at
the foot of the North Downs, are ultimately due to solifluction, the
downhill movement of periglacial sludge. Nonetheless, certain concentrations
may reflect clearance from land close by, or even ingathering
for splitting.
In Kent, there are four principal spreads of sarsen stones of which
traces have survived. On the upper reaches of Blue Bell Hill, and the
North Downs' backslopes, the stones, which provided those for Kit's
Coty House and its fellows, may at one time have been in numbers
comparable with those on Overton Down, near Marlborough (Bowen
& Smith 1977, Pl. XXIII, b ). A considerable spread, some 300 stones,
lies adjacent to Great Tottington's springs and pools. In the general
Addington-Trottiscliffe area scattered stones are stiJl to be seen,
although the great boulders in the clayey fields south of Coldrum can
no longer be found. These had given rise to the notion of a connecting
link with the Addington monuments (Bennett 1907, 47). Sarsen
stones appear to have been particularly numerous in the vicinity of
Cobham. Indeed, numbers cleared from the fields have been thought
of as collapsed megalithic structures (Jessup 1930, 83 ). A row of
sarsen stones at Acton Farm, near Charing (Tester 1956), has been set
up as a field boundary, while boulders can still be seen on the Downs
in that area (Ash bee 1993a, I 09).
Apart from Wiltshire's long barrows and henges (Piggott 1962;
Bowen & Smith 1977, 190, fig. 2; Barker 1982), Kent's megalithic
long barrows are the only other major use of sarsen stone. Their size
would have been known and thus, when Stonehenge's grand design
came to be realised, and Wiltshire's resources failed (Cleal, et al.
1995, 205), some suitable sarsen stones may have been found in Kent.
Indeed, a study of the heavy mineralogy of some sarsen fragments
from Stonehenge found that they differed from samples collected on
the Marlborough Downs (Howard 1982, 119-23).
DETAILS OF THE MEDWAY'S LONG BARROWS
Only sites with patent mound and chamber remains are listed and the
references are to sources which provide substantive information.
326
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PLATE I
Kit's Coty House from the north-east. Photograph taken in I 946, showing the rectangular sidestones. The northern
sidestone leans inwards probably as a result of the erstwhile chamber's partial demolition
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PAUL ASHBEE
EASTERN GROUP
Kit's Coty House, Aylesford. NGR TQ 745609 (Plates I and II; Figs 2, 3)
The stone structure remains from a rectangular chamber likely to have been
about 15- l 8ft in length, 6ft 6in. in breadth and, perhaps, 7ft in height. Its
H-shaped plan points to it having been the erstwhile chamber's end. The side
slabs, especially that on the northern side, are no longer vertical and are
likely to have been displaced when the other parts of the chamber were
overthrown. When slighted, stones from the chamber, fayade and kerb were
buried in the ditches or scattered. The General's Tomb, a great stone close by
the barrow, sketched by Stukeley, may have come from the demolished
chamber. Stones lie in the copse below the hillslope, having been moved to
facilitate agriculture.
Still prominent in the middle of the twentieth century, the long barrow has
been progressively reduced since 1946. Ploughing is currently biting into the
upstanding natural chalk formerly covered by the barrow. Indeed, its
remaining bulk, loam core and ancient soil, has moved downhill where it is
now visible as a dark spread, flanking the exposed chalk of the onetime site.
The flanking quarry ditches and trapezoidal barrow, defined by the naked
chalk beneath the now vanished ancient soil, were visible on aerial
photographs until 1976, and it may have been more than 270ft in length. A
measure of the mound's plough-reduction is that the soil surface, around the
stones, within the mutilated iron railings, is almost 2ft higher than its
cultivated surround.
(Stukeley 1776, Pls 3 l, 33, 34; Dunkin l 871, 70; Petrie 1880, 14; Clinch
1908, 318; Crawford 1924, 3, 5; Jessup 1930, 67, fig. 11, Pl. III; Cook 1936;
Evans 1948, 140, fn. 2; Daniel 1950, 81, fig. 22, 2; McCrerie 1956, 251;
Jessup 1970, 98, fig. 30, Pl. 22; Holgate 1981 a, 12, figs S, 6, Pls 7-10; 1981 b,
232, fig. 2; Philp & Dutto, 1985, 8, fig. 7; Ashbee 1993a, 69-79)
lower Kit's Coty House, Aylesford. NGR TQ 744604 (Plate III; Figs 4, 5)
Sometimes known as the Countless Stones, this is a fallen rectangular
chamber which was about 17ft in length, 8ft in breadth and probably 9ft in
height. Stukeley depicted its character and indicated a remnant of the Jong
barrow. His reconstructions, however, reflect his preoccupation with coves.
Early plans also show the nature of this overthrown chamber. Excavation, the
detection of the stoneholes and the re-erection of the principal stones, would,
as at the Chestnuts, restore its original form. A recent pipe-trench, parallel _
to
the road, indicated a long barrow about 70ft in breadth at its proximal end; its
length would have been commensurate. The ditches are likely to be beneath
deep hill wash and thus would only appear to aerial photography in conditions
of extreme drought. It is likely to have been one of the more massive of the
series.
328
THE MEOW A Y'S MEGALITHIC LONG BARROWS
PLATE II
The Kit's Coty House long barrow from the air. Its trapezoidal form is
srly denuded by ploughing, although the flanking ditches are still
v1s1ble. Photograph taken in J 976 by the Royal Commission on the
Historical Monuments of England. (Crown Copyright, NMR)
329
Fig. 2 William Stukeley's prospect of Kit's Coty House and its long barrow, 1722
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PLATE III
The Lower Kit's Coty House from the south. Photograph by N. C. Cook, August 1929. After the barrow's removal the
chamber"s sidestones were collapsed inwards and the portal stone outwards. Comparison should be made with William
Stukeley·s Prospect. Fig. 4
THE MEDWAY'S MEGALITHIC LONG BARROWS
Fig. 4 Lower Kit's Coty House, the slighted chamber as seen by William
Stukeley in 1722
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Fig. S Lower Kit's Coty House, the slighted chamber at the proximal
end of its near-obliterated long barrow
333
PAULASHBEE
(Stukeley 1776, Pl. 34; Rudge I 824; Dunkin 1871, 74; Clinch 1908, 319;
Bennett l 907, 48; Crawford 1924, 6; Daniel 1950, 234; Philp & Dutta 1985,
6, fig. 6; Ashbee 1993a, 79-82; 1993b)
The Coffin Stone Aylesford. NGR TQ 740606 (Fig. 6)
This great slab, 14ft 6in. in length, 8ft 6in. in breadth at one end and 5ft 6in.
at the other, is 2ft in thickness. It lies within an ancient lynchet, now a
reduced hedge-bank, about 4ft in height. A smaller, massive, plough-battered
sarsen stone slab, presumably unearthed close-by, has been placed upon it.
During the earlier nineteenth century, bones, skulls, and charcoal, were
found in the near vicinity, as were various sarsen stones. A kink in the line of
the lynchet may reflect digging to topple faade and chamber. The charcoal
could have remained from heating certain stones to facilitate breaking. The
substantial sarsen blocks in and around the Tottington spring-head, 300 yards
distant, may be from the long barrow. Others, as at Kit's Coty House, may lie
buried in the ditches.
The Coffin Stone is the surviving side-slab of an immense chamber,
perhaps as much as 9ft in width, at least 25ft in length, and 12ft in height, at
the eastern end of a large, proportionate, long barrow. Still traceable, despite
destruction and spreading, it was more than 300ft long, of appropriate width
and, like its fellows, would have had a kerb.
(Stukeley 1776, Pls 31, 33; Dunkin 1871, 74; Clinch 1908, 319; Crawford
1924, 6; Jessup I 930, 83; Evans 1949, 135; Daniel 1950, 234; Jessup 1970,
JOO; Holgate 1981a, 13; 1981b, 233; Philp & Dutto 1985, 6, fig. 8; Ashbee
1993a, 82-3)
Warren Farm, Aylesford. NGR TQ 754606 (Fig. 7)
The end of a slab-built chamber, which was some l2-!4ft in length, more
than 5ft in breadth and, perhaps, about 6ft high. A medial stone, dividing the
interior, was recorded. The orientation was east-west and it presumably had
been at the proximal end of a long barrow, thrown down at the same time as
its fellows. Bones, considered to have been at least those of two adults
('many small pieces of the skull, ribs, thigh, leg and arm bones ... '), and a
piece of pottery were found in it. This is likely to have been the residue of a
larger deposit, removed when the chamber was partially destroyed. The long
barrow had then been razed and spread and stones, some of which have
recently come to light, buried in the ditches. The vertical stones were
removed and the site became mantled in hill wash and ploughsoil. An extreme
drought might render the ditches visible to aerial photography.
(Crawford 1924, 6; Jessup 1930, 81; Evans 1948; Jessup 1970, 101; Holgate
1981a, 13; 1981b, 233; Philp & Dutto 1985, 11; Ashbee 1993a, 84, Pl. IV)
334
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Fig. 7 A tentative portrayal of the original chamber at the proximal end of the erstwhile Warren
Farm long barrow, based upon the dimensions of the remnant. Its estimated size and general
character are depicted
THE MEDWAY'S MEGALITHIC LONG BARROWS
WESTERN GROUP
Addington Long Barrow, Addington. NGR TQ 653591 (Fig. 8)
A slighted, spread out, chamber remains at the eastern end of a thrown-down
trapezoidal mound which had been contained by a sarsen stone kerb. Its
stones are now prone and many have been removed or buried. One of these,
at the proximal end, is clearly a portal stone. The mound, divided by a road,
is about 230ft in length and 3ft high. Its flanking ditches of which traces were
visible a century ago, are concealed by the margins of the reduced, spread,
mound.
(Dunkin 1871, 76-7, Pl. X, 4; Lewis 1875-6, 512; Petrie 1870, 16, opp.;
Clinch 1908, 3 I 9; Crawford 1924, 5 Pl. I, I; Jessup I 930, 71, fig. 12, Pl. IV,
lower; 1970, I 03, Pl. 29, fig. 32; Daniel I 950, 74, 81, fig. 22; Evans l 950.
74; Holgate 1981 a, I 0, I, 2; 1981 b, 231; Philp & Dutto 1985, 3, fig. 7, upper;
Ashbee 1993a, 89-93)
The Chestnuts, Addington. NGR TQ 652592 (Plate IV; Fig. 9)
Formerly on open grassland, this site was, in 1957, no more than a concentration
of great sarsen stones, which horticulture had left stranded upon
an island of turf. Excavations, which involved the re-erection of fallen stones
into their discerned sockets, allowed the restoration of a considerable
chamber remnant and part of the faade, at the eastern end of a sandy long
brrow residuum. The excavation trenches, designed to detect flanking
ditches. may not have been pursued far enough as the barrow remnant
suggests an erstwhile structure larger than Addington.
Fragments of burned bone, and two unburned teeth, were found in and
ro?nd the chamber, besides pottery. There had been Romano-British activity
1n the lee of the long barrow's northern flank. Medieval pits, designed to
fell the stones, as part of a slighting process, were found.
(Dunkin 1871, Pl. X, 3; Bennett 1907, 48; Clinch 1908, 320; Crawford 1924.
6; Jessup 1930, 72, Pl. IV, centre; 1970, 104, figs 33, 34, Pls 3, 4; Daniel
I 950, 233; Alexander 1961 (excavation report); Holgate, I 981 a, I 0, fig. 5,
Pls 3, 4; 198 I b, 23 I, fig. 2; Philp & Dutto I 985, 4-5; Ashbee 1993a, 93-5)
Coldrum, Trottiscliffe. NGR TQ 654606 (Fig. 10)
The chamber and prostrate kerb, perhaps the remainder of a larger
ul!i-period monument, stand upon the scarp-edge of a massive lynchet, at
Its Junction with a lesser. Two kerb-stones bear patent axe-sharpening
patches. Excavation revealed that the chamber housed the remnant of a
sustantial deposit of human bones, representing some twenty-two people,
which is likely to have been sealed with occupation debris. A greater part of
337
ADDINGTON LONG
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Fig. 8 The Addington Jong barrow. its original form and flanking ditches
THE. CHESTNU TS.
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Fig. 9 The Chestnut. its restored chamber and long barrow remnant. with likely ditches (after John Alexander)
PLATEJV
View from the south-west of the collapsed Chestnuts chamber before restoration, showing the northward toppled
sidestones. Photograph by H. Elgar, c. 1925
THE MEDWAY'S MEGALITHIC LONG BARROWS
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Fig. 10 Coldrum, its slighted kerb, chamber remnant, barrow and likely
ditches
the . chamber still stands although the kerb-stones were thrown down and
buried. The ditches may be deep beneath the tail of the spread barrow,
aug1!1ented by ploughsoil and hillwash. Medieval slighting also entailed a
parllal demolition of the chamber as well as the digging away of the lynchet
to bring down the fa9ade and chamber entrance. Several large sarsen stones,
at the scarp-foot, have had pieces detached from them. Today's Coldrum is
the product of excavation and restoration.
(Bennett 1913; Keith 1913; 1925; Filkins 1924; 1928; Crawford 1924, 5;
Jessup 1930, 73; 1970, I 08, figs 35, 36, Pls 35, 36; Holgate 1981 a, 11, fig. 5,
Pls 5, 6; 198 I b, 231, fig. 2; Masters 1983, 106, fig. 5; Philp & Dutto 1985, 1;
Ashbee 1993a, 96-100; 1998)
341
PAULASHBEE
INDETERMINATE SITES - EASTERN GROUP
Upper White Horse Stone, Aylesford. NGR TQ 753603
An irregular block of sarsen stone, about 8ft in length, 5ft in height, and 2 ft
in thickness, with fragments of others in the vicinity. It may remain from a
long barrow chamber. No trace of a long mound was detectable in 1946, or
subsequently.
(Jessup 1930, 81; 1970, 101; Daniel 1950, 234; Holgate 1981a, 13; 1981b,
233; Philp & Dutta 1985, 11; Ashbee 1993a, 87-8)
Lower White Horse Stone, Aylesford. NCR TQ 752602, approx.
A single standing stone which was destroyed in about 1823. It may have
remained from a long barrow, the stones of which have been mostly buried or
broken up.
(Daniel 1950, 235; Ashbee 1993a, 86-7)
INDETERMINATE SITES - WESTERN GROUP
Co/drum North, Trottiscliffe. NCR TQ 653610, approx.
A huge spread long mound of chalk, more than 300ft in length and 90ft in
breadth, of east-west orientation, has an eastern end upon a lynchet scarpedge.
There are no signs of associated sarsen stones.
Co/drum South, Trottiscliffe. NGR TQ 655605, approx.
Five prostrate sarsen stones are recorded as in a line, running north and south,
in a field south of Coldrum Lodge Farm, now demolished. Three of these
were found in 1946.
(Grinsell 1936, 177; 1953, 194)
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THE MEDWAY'S MEGALITHIC LONG BARROWS
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PAULASHBEE
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THE MEDWAY'S MEGALITHIC LONG BARROWS
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345
