Cobham Landscape Detectives update
The landscape detectives have been hard at work over the first few months of 2018. With all of our Autumn fieldwork projects completed, it was nice to return to our core project afresh in January. The first job of the year was to complete the mammoth task of finds processing from last summer’s village dig. As February dawned we ventured outdoors and back into the landscape!
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Two parallel activities ran through February. The first, further investigation of the old reservoir and pump house in Cobham village. Resistivity suggested that there were other features in the reservoir field. A few trenches later and the consensus seemed to be that we had uncovered a series of surfaces to the south of the reservoir, all of a post-medieval date. Further survey work across the whole field is slated for later in the year.
Our primary activity for the Spring saw us embark on a magnetometry survey of West Park in Cobham, the largest field we have ever attempted to Geophys. Once part of the Cobham Hall estate, it measures over 1km north to south and 200m east to west, a monster field! Volunteers have diligently gridded off ahead of the survey team (comprised of the author, and the Newsletter Editor!). We have also been recording the veteran trees in the field as we traverse the landscape.
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What are the geophysics results telling us? We appear to have a significant circular feature at the north end of the plot, almost 60m across. Volunteer-led research using the Cobham Estate map archive (at Medway Archives), LiDAR data, and aerial photographs have drawn a blank, so is this potentially a feature of some age and at least medieval in date?
One of the lost avenues of Cobham Park has also been traced across the results, as a linear anomaly heading SE-NW. It is depicted on the 1718 estate map but had disappeared by the time of the 1758 survey. South of the former avenue, we have seen a lot of stippling in the results. At first, this was interpreted as recent disturbance, perhaps from when the field was ploughed post-war. However, when the results were overlaid onto the 1758 estate map, it appears that we have identified the remains of the former park pale fence, separating the parkland to the east from paddocks and meadows closer to the village. On the 1718 map, there is also a structure called the “Colt House” in this area, and we hope to identify its location using resistivity alongside the magnetometry.
Finally, we have discovered a series of strange anomalies that have maxed out the magnetometer. They appear too substantial to be isolated metal signals. One theory is that they could be associated with the area to the east, now known as Brick kiln ponds… have we uncovered evidence for the brick kilns that supplied Cobham Hall? More survey and research work are required!
A huge thank you to all the Cobham Landscape Detectives who continue to drive the project forward with their enthusiasm and hard work. We are also very grateful to Gravesham Borough Council for permission to survey in West Park and the residents of Cobham for permission to work in the village.
For more information on the Cobham Landscape Detectives project, do contact Andrew Mayfield at andrew.mayfield@kent.gov.uk. Visit www.facebook.com/archaeologyinkent or www.shornewoodsarchaeology.co.uk.
Telephone: 07920 548906.