Details

The monument includes the remains of a dispersed medieval settlement and an
earlier Roman building situated on the southern slope of a clay hill around
7km north west of Canterbury.
The Roman remains are represented by below ground archaeology, and have been
identified as a villa. The scatter of masonry visible in the plough soil
suggests that it occupies the northern part of the monument. Analysis of
associated pottery fragments indicates that the building was in use during the
first to third centuries AD.
The dispersed medieval settlement survives in the form of earthworks and
associated buried remains. The earthworks survive to a height of up to around
0.5m and represent three adjoining north west-south east aligned rectangular
enclosures identified as a manor house complex and two associated,
contemporary dwellings. Part of a roughly north-south aligned track runs along
the eastern side of the monument. Documentary evidence, including an entry in
the Domesday Book, suggests that the settlement was in existence by the 11th
century. Analysis of pottery fragments found within the settlement suggests
that it had fallen into disuse by the early 15th century. Immediately beyond
the monument to the north east is the associated parish church of St Cosmus
and St Damian, Listed Grade II, the standing fabric of which dates mainly to
the 13th century. The church and its churchyard, both of which remain in use,
are not included in the scheduling.
Three telegraph poles situated on the monument are excluded from the
scheduling, although the ground beneath them is included.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

Medieval rural settlements in England were marked by great regional diversity
in form, size and type, and the protection of their archaeological remains
needs to take these differences into account. To do this, England has been
divided into three broad Provinces on the basis of each area's distinctive
mixture of nucleated and dispersed settlements. These can be further divided
into sub-Provinces and local regions, possessing characteristics which have
gradually evolved during the last 1500 years or more.
This monument lies in the Eastern Weald sub-Province of the South-eastern
Province, bounded by the North and South Downs and comprising an oval
arrangement of inward facing escarpments of chalk and sandstone, separated by
clay vales, all ringing a higher sandstone ridge. Apart from concentrations of
nucleated settlements in the Vale of Holmsdale and around Canterbury, the sub-
Province is dominated by high and very high densities of dispersed
settlements, giving a countryside with farmsteads and associated enclosed
fields, of medieval foundation, intermixed with cottages, medieval moated
sites and hamlets bearing the names `green' or `dene'.
The Canterbury-Thanet local region contains the regional centre of Canterbury,
on which converges routes from Dover and former ports such as Richborough and
Reculver. It is a long cleared and anciently settled countryside, lacking
scattered farmsteads and with villages clustered as densely as in the
Midlands. It has probably been a zone of arable cultivation for several
millennia.

Medieval dispersed settlements, comprising hamlets of up to five dwellings or
isolated farmsteads, were scattered throughout the parish or township. Often
occurring in the more densely wooded, less intensively farmed areas, the form
and status of dispersed settlements varied enormously. When they survive as
earthworks, their most easily distinguishable features include roads and
tracks, platforms on which stood houses and other buildings such as barns, and
the enclosed fields or irregular field systems with which the dwellings were
associated. These rural settlements can also be represented by below ground
deposits. Higher status dwellings, such as moated residences or manorial
complexes, may have well-defined boundaries and planned gardens. In the
western and south eastern provinces of England, dispersed settlements were the
most distinctive aspect of medieval life, and their archaeological remains are
one of the most important sources of understanding about rural life in the
five or more centuries following the Norman conquest.

The medieval settlement remains at St Cosmus and St Damian in the Blean
represent the predominant, dispersed form of medieval rural settlement within
the Eastern Weald sub-province. The settlement remains survive well, in
association with an adjacent, contemporary church and an earlier Roman
building, retaining visible earthworks. Field survey indicates that the
monument will contain important archaeological and environmental evidence for
the development and abandonment of the medieval settlement and the earlier
Roman building.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
St Clair-Terry, S, Blean During the Middle Ages, (1986)
Tatton-Brown, T, 'Medieval Village Research Group Annual Report' in Medieval Village Research Group Annual Report: Kent, , Vol. 25, (1977), 9-10

Source: Historic England