Interrupted ditch system west of Hall Farm

Summary

Neolithic interrupted ditch system surviving as crop marks.

Reasons for Designation

The Neolithic interrupted ditch system at Kedington is scheduled for the following principal reasons:

* Rarity: the enclosure dates from a period in which relatively few monuments of any type have been recognised.
* Survival: despite the gravel extraction at the western promontory of the site, the major part of the interrupted ditch and the enclosure itself have not been affected, and the crop marks are clearly discernible on aerial photographs.
* Potential: the Neolithic remains will retain considerable archaeological potential to further inform our understanding of the monument and the people who created and used it, as well as the landscape in which it was established.

History

‘Interrupted-ditch enclosures’, also known as ‘causewayed camps’ or ‘causewayed enclosures’, are of great importance in European and British prehistory. They represent the earliest known examples of the enclosure of open space, dating to the early Neolithic (4000 BC – 3300 BC). Recent re-dating work suggests that the earliest enclosures were constructed around 3650 BC, contemporary with the introduction of agriculture and the domestication of animals, the manufacture of pottery, the quarrying of stone for the production of axes, and the construction of longhouses and ceremonial or ritual monuments including cursus monuments and long barrows. Although some were used for several centuries many of them were rather short-lived. The favoured interpretation of these sites is that they functioned as central places to which dispersed groups would come episodically to reaffirm their sense of community through a range of activities including feasting, trade and rituals associated with death.

Causewayed enclosures have been identified as crop and soil marks, although a few also survive as earthworks, often beneath later hillforts. These are earthwork sites where circuits of interrupted banks and ditches enclose a hilltop or cut off a promontory. There may be up to three concentric circuits which when ploughed out survive as crop marks. Segments of ditches and banks are usually about 20m long, though smaller and longer examples are known; it is often suggested that small social groups (possibly families) constructed individual segments at these communal monuments. The areas enclosed range from less than 1 hectare to over 8 hectares.

Over 70 certain or probable examples are known in England, mostly south of the Trent-Severn line, though examples are known from Staffordshire and Cumbria. Extensively excavated enclosures include those at Windmill Hill (Wiltshire); Hambledon Hill (Dorset); and Crickley Hill (Gloucestershire). Excavations within the interiors and in the ditches at these and other sites have produced a wide range of finds indicative of domestic activity or large-scale feasting, including food debris and pottery (the only enclosure where waterlogged organic remains have been preserved is Etton, in Cambridgeshire). However, the frequent presence of human remains and other apparently placed deposits, often in what appear to be significant depositional contexts such as ditch terminals, suggests that this activity also had a ritual element.

The earliest available aerial photographs of the site of the interrupted ditch system in Kedington are vertical photographs taken by the RAF in 1946, with subsequent coverage in 1949, 1950 and 1970. On each occasion the site was under arable crops and no archaeological features were visible. The interrupted ditch system was first recognised in 1976 when it was photographed by the Cambridge University Department of Aerial Photography. These oblique photographs revealed crop marks of a single arc of six or seven segments of ditch cut by a perpendicular linear ditch. The enclosure, though apparently incomplete, probably only formed a half circuit at the most, probably stopping at the river bank. The site was subsequently surveyed through intensive field walking by the Haverhill and District Archaeological Group which recovered large quantites of worked flint of Mesolithic and Neolithic age, and sherds of Medieval pottery. The report acknowledged that the spread of Neolithic flakes could be owing to the cultivation of the land for arable production.

The western area of the field in which the monument is situated was used for commercial gravel extraction from some point in the C19 (between 1841 and 1885, according to cartographic evidence) until 1958 when the new landowner brought the gravel pit and surrounding field into agricultural use. In the mid-1960s, approximately nine inches of topsoil was applied to the site to level the area for arable production. It continues to be cultivated for arable use.

Details

PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS: Neolithic interrupted ditch system surviving as crop marks.

DESCRIPTION: the site of the monument is a large, approximately triangular field bounded to the south and north-west by the River Stour, situated approximately 1km to the north-west of the village of Kedington. The causewayed enclosure lies about 61m OD in the south-west corner of this field. Although plough-levelled and therefore not visible from ground level, aerial photography reveals the arc of a ditch, interrupted by a series of causeways, which appear to define a small promontory formed by a sharp bend in the river. The ditch runs across the rise of ground above the flood plain of the river.

The enclosure appears to consist of a single arc of 12 segmented ditches visible for approximately 118m. If complete, the enclosure would have a diameter of 150m. The segments range in length from 4m to 11m, and are between 2m and 4m wide.

The edges of the promontory occupied by the enclosure have been subjected to gravel extraction, traces of which can be seen on aerial photographs as dark amorphous cropmarks. As the cropmarks of the causewayed enclosure disappear into this area, it is not possible to tell whether the enclosure extended all the way to the river bank (assuming that the present-day river bank is in the same position as it would have been in the Neolithic period).

The line of the causewayed enclosure is cut by a linear ditch aligned ENE-WSW visible for approximately 275m, disappearing to the west into the area of gravel extraction. This ditch is the remains of a narrow-gauge track laid for carrying quarried sand and gravel to Hall Farm situated to the east.

EXTENT OF SCHEDULING: the monument includes the surviving buried remains of the Neolithic interrupted ditch system and enclosure. To the north, west and south, the monument is defined by the River Stour.

EXCLUSIONS: any fences, posts or surfaces of modern trackways are excluded from the scheduling, but the ground beneath these features is included.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

SF 208

Legacy System:

RSM - OCN

Sources

Books and journals
Oswald, A, Dyer, C, Barber, M, The Creation of Monuments: Neolithic Causewayed Enclosures in the British Isles, (2001)

Websites
Historic England, Aerial Photo Explorer, accessed 29 August 2025 from https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/archive/collections/aerial-photos/

Other
Fiona Small, Kedington Neolithic Causewayed Enclosure: Air Photographic Transcription and Analysis, RCHME (February 1996)

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