19th December 2013:

In November, Oxford Archaeology took part in an event celebrating recent archaeological work in Ashford, Kent. This was organised by Kent County Council’s Heritage Conservation Team and held at the Singleton Environment Centre in South Ashford. The event was prompted by the recent publication of Archaeology South East’s excavations at Brisley Farm. This site lies less than 1km from the major Roman roadside settlement site of Westhawk Farm excavated by OA, and there are a number of interesting points of connection between the two.

Copies of the Westhawk Farm volume and the Brisley Farm publication were presented by their authors to the Mayor of Ashford, Councillor David Smith, at a gathering attended by councillors, council officers and others. OA had a display relating to its work in the area, and this and displays by other contracting organisations were used as part of a range of educational activities by parties from a number of local schools, as well as forming the backdrop for the presentations and concluding words from County Councillor Matthew Balfour.

The event and displays were very well received and the KCC Heritage Conservation Team were very pleased with the efforts put in by the contracting organisations and the consequent raising of the archaeological profile of the South Ashford area, which is rapidly becoming one of the most intensively investigated archaeological landscapes in the South East.