Westhawk Farm is a Romano-British roadside settlement on the southern outskirts of modern Ashford, Kent, situated at the junction of two Roman roads — the route from the Wealden iron-working district running north to Canterbury (Durovernum Cantiacorum), and a road heading east towards Lympne (Portus Lemanis). Founded in the mid-1st century AD shortly after the Conquest, it flourished through the 2nd century and contracted significantly in the 3rd, with only limited activity into the 4th century.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The settlement's location and date strongly suggest it functioned as a local economic node servicing the Wealden iron industry, providing a market, residential focus, and likely a posting station on the route moving iron and other goods to Canterbury and the Channel ports. It is one of the better-understood "small towns" of Kent and provides a rare excavated example of an unwalled, planned roadside settlement in the civitas of the Cantiaci.
Extensive open-area excavation by Oxford Archaeology in 1998–9, ahead of development, revealed the road junction, ladder-like roadside plots containing timber strip-buildings, two probable shrines (including a polygonal temple), a substantial cremation cemetery, iron-smelting evidence, and wells. The WWII pillbox standing on the site reflects its position commanding the same routeways in a later strategic context.
Westhawk Farm is a Romano-British roadside settlement on the southern outskirts of modern Ashford, Kent, situated at the junction of two Roman roads — the route from the Wealden iron-working district running north to Canterbury (Durovernum Cantiacorum), and a road heading east towards Lympne (Portus Lemanis). It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a settlement site from the Roman period in Britain.
Romano-British roadside settlement and World War II pillbox immediately east of Westhawk Farm is classified as a Roman settlement — a civilian site in the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer. Roman Britain's archaeology encompasses thousands of sites ranging from legionary fortresses and marching camps to villas, temples and towns.
Several Roman sites lie within a short distance, including Roman Bath-House at Little Chart, Kent (8.3 km), Aldington Knoll Roman barrow and later beacon (8.4 km), Romano-British building S of Burch's Rough (9.3 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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Research the area around Romano-British roadside settlement and World War II pillbox immediately east of Westhawk Farm