Start of Lees Court Estate Project 2019 season
We now have a fixed diary of events for the 2019 season on the Lees Court Estate.
Excavating a Late Bronze Age Settlement, Lees Court Estate. Credit: Anthony Mak, using the KAS drone.
Monday 19th August 2019
We will be preparing the site, positioning toilets, offices, equipment stores etc., on Woods Court Field.
Tuesday 20th August - Site Open
During the spring a Magnetometry survey was conduct over Badlesmere Bottom Field. This has thrown up a lot of very interesting features. We will be ground truthing the mag survey results – hopefully we might get better information on the elusive Badlesmere Castle.
Recently we have conducted a 2 week tidy up excavation over a ring ditch in Stringman’s Field. Our original thoughts were that this was a Bronze Age feature however the pottery and flint finds are pushing the feature into the Neolithic. Further work will be conducted on this site.
Tuesday 27th August
We will be preparing Wood’s Court Field for excavation. Last year we excavated a 20m x 30m trench of the site of Bronze Age Hoards 2 and 3. We were unable to fully complete this trench so we will be revisiting the unexcavated quadrant, this is interesting as there would appear to be a large “water feature” within this quadrant which would have been in the centre of the settlement.
A 10m x 10m trench will be prepared for excavation over the site of Hoard 1. It is believed that the Hoard Site 1, 2 and 3 are all linked, to verify this a 1.5m x 167m trench will be cut between the two sites looking for any enclosing features. This work will be done by a JCB.
Sunday 1st September 2019
Woods Court Field excavation begins. Our colleagues from SHAL (shalstudygroup.org.uk) have kindly agreed to conduct some experimental archaeology and build a Bronze Age Furnace. This is likely to take place over either the weekend of 7th – 8th September or 14th – 15th September.
Saturday 28th September 2019
Will be the last formal day of excavation. We will lay on suitable refreshments as a way of wrapping the 2019 Season.
Insurances
The Society has liability insurance to the value of £15m. Please note this does not cover personal effects, cars etc.
Site documentation
The Site documentation pack which includes, detailed health and safe and risk management details together with site rules can be found at kentarchaeology.org.uk/site-documentation/lees-court-estate-project on our website. If you are coming on site could you please read the whole document, then complete and sign the front page. When you first come on site could you please hand in the completed front page, the remaining pages are for you to retain for information purposes.
Forms will be available in the site office if you prefer.
Getting there
We would suggest using an application called What 3 Words, it is a free app to download or use in a web browser. If you are using the app on a smart phone then please type in the following lizards.enrolling.rally and that will take you to the site. In a web browser please use what3words.com/lizards.enrolling.rally.
Further information
The Society website is slowly being populated with information, this project has its own area kentarchaeology.org.uk/lees-court-project which we are constantly updating.
Society membership
If you or someone you know comes on site and joins the Society, then they will get a free trowel. Annual Membership £25, WHS 4” Archaeological Trowel £11.70!
Advance notice for 2020
In the Spring of 2020, we will be running and experimental archaeological project and that will be to build a Bronze Age Round House.