New Water Pipeline Unearths Ancient Artefacts
Posted: Friday 12th December 2008
South East Water has been unravelling layers of ancient history from thousands of years ago as it lays a new water pipeline to help secure future water supplies in Ashford.
The water firm has been preparing to lay a 6.5km long, 400mm diameter (16 inch) pipeline between Howfield and Chilham in Kent, and has exposed important parts of a now lost medieval landscape along the way.
Construction work has now been temporarily halted in the area to allow a team of archaeologists to investigate and record and preserve the ancient finds. So far the team has discovered the remains of items dating from Medieval periods, to Iron Age, Roman and as early as Bronze Age periods.
Artefacts unearthed include numerous Medieval and Roman coins, a small but relatively high-status Medieval structure, mid-late Iron Age pots, a gilded belt strap end, Roman ditches and steel knives.
There is also evidence that suggests there could potentially be a rare invasion-period Roman military marching camp near the pipeline works, which has been uncovered and is currently being excavated for further investigation.
Paul Clifford, Engineering Manager at South East Water, said: “These exciting finds have emerged during the initial pipeline excavation work, and after we carried out extensive archaeology surveys of the entire route before construction.
“On large schemes like this we take the extra precaution of having archaeologists working alongside our contractors to ensure that if we do find anything of historical significance, then we can halt work for further investigations. That ensures we can continue to protect and record our ancient heritage.”
Archaeologist Tim Allen, from Kent Archaeological Projects, said: “Nearly all of the archaeological areas contain numerous straight and curved boundary ditches, the excavated examples of which date from the late Iron Age to the medieval and early post-medieval periods.
“We are grateful to South East Water for their seriousness and responsible attitude towards our archaeological heritage and their efforts to advance our knowledge of the history of the area.”
South East Water is laying the main from the company’s Howfield Pumping Station just off the A28 in Chartham. It will then be connected into other parts of the water supply network near Chilham Pumping Station, to create a strategic link between the two water sources.
From there, and once completed in Spring 2009 together with a new booster pump at Howfield Pumping Station, it will help deliver up to an extra eight million litres of water into the Ashford area.
While the majority of the pipeline crosses farmland there will be some works in the highway, including crossing the A28 at Milton Manor, while South East Water will use a technique called micro-tunnelling to lay the new pipeline under the railway adjacent to the A28.
The strategic pipeline is a part of South East Water’s planned £310 million investment programme up to 2010 to help further protect long term water supplies, and is supported by both the company’s regulators, Ofwat and the Environment Agency.
