Highsted Park (South), Sittingbourne, Kent Archaeological Evaluation

Wessex Archaeology was commissioned by Quinn Estates Ltd to conduct an archaeological evaluation comprising 142 trial trenches measuring between 30-50 m in length and targeted on geophysical anomalies in areas with high archaeological potential within a 577-hectare parcel of land to the south and east of Sittingbourne, Kent, centred on NGR 591420 161400. A planning application (21/503914/EIOUT) was submitted to Swale Borough Council for the phased construction of up to 7,150 residential dwellings across the Highsted Park site. The proposed development includes commercial, business and service/employment floorspace, a household waste recycling centre. A mixed-use local centre and neighbourhood facilities are proposed, as well as educational facilities including primary and secondary schools. The scheme also includes provision for open space, green infrastructure, woodland, and community and sports facilities. Significant infrastructure works are planned, including the construction of a new motorway junction to the M2, a Highsted Park Sustainable Movement Corridor, new vehicular access points, and associated groundworks, engineering, utilities and demolition works. The planning application has been referred to the Independent Review of Planning Appeal Inquiries. The limited evaluation was divided into seven areas with between four and 47 trenches in each area. The evaluation was undertaken 17 February 2025-28 March 2025. Overall, the very limited and targeted evaluation successfully recorded archaeological remains comprising ditches, pits, furnaces, roads, postholes, and a robbed wall foundation; areas with no archaeology, so-called sterile zones, were also recorded. The archaeological features predominantly date from the Late Iron Age and early Romano-British periods. The correlation between the geophysical survey and the archaeological features varied across the site, although some discrete features did correlate with substantial dipolar anomalies. The correlation between the LiDAR results and archaeological features was more tentative. Although a very macroscopic evaluation, this investigation has demonstrated areas of probable settlement, areas of probable industrial activity, and areas of agricultural activity. The evaluation successfully recorded evidence for multiple phases of Watling Street in Area 6, stratified dark soil deposits indicative of complex activity, and substantial ditches likely forming a defended enclosure in Area 4. Evidence of more industrial activity, in the form of possible furnaces, was recorded in Areas 1 and 3. The finds recovered from the evaluation predominantly date from the Late Iron Age to the early Romano-British period, with a smaller quantity of post-medieval artefacts reflecting later quarrying and land use. The earliest artefactual evidence comes from Neolithic and Bronze Age worked flint, the earliest pottery dating is more tentative, with some sherds broadly dating from the Late Bronze Age to Middle Iron Age. The majority of the pottery along with the glass and stone artefacts date from the Late Iron Age to the early Romano-British period, with none from any later period. Ceramic building material dates from the early Romano-British and post-medieval periods. Less intrinsically dated finds include a disarticulated human arm bone, animal bone, slag, fired clay, iron objects and bunt flint. Charred plant remains, including seeds from barley, wheat (with spelt and emmer varieties present), and oak derived charcoal were recovered from the environmental samples