EDO5358 - Land to the Rear of Lodden Bridge Farm, Gillingham; evaluation 1999

An archaeological field evaluation of land to the rear of Lodden Bridge Farm, Gillingham was carried out by AC Archaeology during early March 1999. The site lies on a south-east facing ridge, which then slopes to low-lying ground on the north side of the River Lodden. The site lies at around 80m OD, the underlying geology consisting of Kimmeridge clay. The evaluation comprised the machine-excavation of five trenches, amounting to an approximate 1.5% sample of the proposed development area. Most trenches contained largely negative results, with the exception of Trench 3, which contained a shallow linear feature, likely to represent the hedgerow of a former field-division when the land was divided into smaller field units. This corresponds with a boundary shown on 19th century maps of Gillingham. Two sherds of Medieval pottery were retrieved from this feature. This trench also contained a small area of charcoal and daub fragments lying immediately on top of natural subsoil; these appeared to be part of a dumped deposit rather than the fill of a cut feature. There were no artefacts of either modern or earlier date recovered from any of the other trenches.