Paul Bennett

This is the account of 'rescue' excavations undertaken during gravel quarrying between 1972 and 1974 at Ickham on the Little Stour river in Kent.

This latest volume in Canterbury Archaeological Trust's Occasional Paper series describes discoveries along the route of the Whitfield-Eastry by-pass. An extensive programme of fieldwalking and evaluation investigated a number of sites: two sites were subject to full excavation.

In the Foreword, Barry Cunliffe writes: "The publication of the excavation of the multi-period settlement site at Highstead near Chislet is a matter for celebration. Highstead, with its long sequence of occupation spanning the first millennium B.C. and early first millennium A.D.

The widening of the road between the Monkton and Mount Pleasant roundabouts on the A253 led to the archaeological investigation of a 3km long strip of land between July 1994 and February 1995. Prehistoric discoveries included Neolithic inhumations and pits, well-preserved Beaker graves and ten ring-ditches of late Neolithic and Bronze Age date.