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THE ALKHAM VALLEY
PROJECT
ALKHAM
PROJECT
Our
original plans to start geophysical surveys around the valley have been
interrupted by the extremely bad weather over preceding month, despite
these delays the project will commence shortly. Anyone interested in
taking part in this project are welcomed to contact Vince Burrows (see
contacts page). Please note: All volunteers must be registered with our
project team.
In
recent months, the group has received kind offers from local valley
landowners to survey their land as part of this project. If you are a
landowner and feel that your property may be able to add information for
the betterment of our joint historical knowledge of Alkham Valleys
History, please do let us know.
If
you have chanced across interesting flint, pottery, metallic or any other
suspected historical material, please bag it, and label with where it was
found and your details. Vince would be happy to identify these kinds of
finds for you. In fact, any assistance with local ancient maps, land deeds
etc may be of help to our general researches.
Geophysical surveys have now been carried out on land at Green Hill Farm
owned by Nigel & Wendy Burrows and on land owned by Gordon & Janet
Adamson’s at South Alkham. Results from this work will be posted (coming
soon).
2009-2011 Welcome to the next stage of the
project. Over the coming months and years, this website will be used to
document the progress of the work, after every stage has been completed.
The site will also serve as a live historical record containing
photographs, geophysical imagery and explanations of the sites and their
findings. We hope you will join us on this journey back into the valleys
past. We hope you will also support this voluntary project via our secure
online pay pal donation system located on this sites home page.
PROJECT DESIGN Since closing our archaeological
investigations on Mean Ridge at Wolverton, small-scale excavations will be
planned for Oakwood between 2009-10. The third and more extensive phase of
the project has been designed to encompass up to around 13 locations
around and atop the valley commencing in the Spring-Summer 2009. This
ambitious project will take around three years to complete, primarily
involving geophysical evaluations over the different sites selected. This
approach will remove the need for invasive and costly excavations
although, some minor trenches may be cut at sites that cannot be
determined. During the course of this project, Alkham residents will be
most welcome to volunteer and work with our team and the University
students study archaeology.
1)
Evaluate the potential relationship between the barrow and
Anglo-Saxon cemeteries on the ridge and the possible archaeology within
Oakwood.
2)
To recover datable material and delimit the wood boundary
ditch system.
3)
To geophysically survey up to 13 new sites around the
valley.
4)
To record and publish our findings in the Kent Archaeologia
Cantiana Volumes and produce reports for local residents of the Alkham
Valley.
5)
If further funding becomes available, an excavation across
the former Alkham Valley River course may be possible. This work will
enable us to determine the rivers original attributes together with the
sedimentary date phasing of the rivers demise. The
forthcoming survey work, will be undertaken by the projects main partner
Sub Scan South-East Archaeological and Commercial Geophysical
Surveys |