Time Team - Queenborough Castle, Isle of Sheppey, Kent - Archaeological Evaluation and Assessment of Results

Wessex Archaeology

The fieldwork comprised six machine-excavated evaluation trenches. The evaluation area comprised Castle Green, a large, low mound used as a public area of open grassland in the centre of Queenborough. The mound, which lies at the East end of Queenborough High Street, is all that remains of Queenborough Castle and is a Scheduled Monument (SM Kent 23030).

Queenborough Castle was completed in 1367 and survived for 300 years before being systematically demolished. There are no visible remains of the castle today; the site is a public area that is grassed over. The eastern area of the site was cut into by a railway line in 1860; Queenborough Elementary School was built on a portion of the western area in 1864 and in the 19th century a pump-house was constructed in the centre of the site, on top of the original medieval well, now marked by a concrete platform.

Three possible medieval features, comprising a short, rather irregular length of gully and two small, irregular scoops or hollows, were located during the evaluation. The remains of the castle are represented by a series of large robber trenches, resulting from the mid 17th century demolition of the castle and subsequent salvage of the building materials; only very small areas of in situ medieval masonry foundations were recorded.

The finds assemblage recovered from the fills of the robber trenches included two sherds of residual medieval pottery along with a small assemblage of Flemish brick fragments which are likely to have been used in the original structure of the castle. Further medieval pottery and building materials were recovered from other contexts, but were largely residual.

Following the mid 17th century demolition and salvage, which would have left the area scarred with large, partly filled robber trenches, a large made-ground deposit, comprising redeposited London Clay with rubble lenses was deposited over the whole of the mound. Other features and deposits recorded relate to the now demolished Victorian pump-house constructed above the castle well to provide water for the railway, the modern capping of the well-head and the landscaping of the mound undertaken by the local council in the 1970s.

The results of the evaluation means that several research questions relating to the size, orientation, morphology and preservation of the castle remains can now be addressed, although the comprehensive demolition and salvage of the fabric of the castle is likely to have destroyed all evidence of the function of individual rooms or areas within the castle, along with any evidence for repairs and alterations during the life of the castle.