Bower Road, Smeeth, Kent - Integrated Site Report

The site at Bower Road, Smeeth, Kent (OS NGR 605946 138812) was discovered and excavated as part of an extensive programme of archaeological investigation carried out in advance of the construction of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL). CTRL was built by London & Continental Railways Limited in association with Railtrack Group plc. The project was authorised by Parliament with the passage of the CTRL Act, 1996. The high-speed line runs for 109 km (68 miles) between St Pancras station in London and the Channel Tunnel and was built in two sections. Section 1 lies entirely within Kent and runs from Fawkham Junction (Gravesham) to Folkestone. The work was project managed by Rail Link Engineering (RLE).Oxford Archaeology (OA), formerly Oxford Archaeological Unit (OAU), was commissioned to monitor all earthworks within CTRL Project Area 440, which extended for 15.5 km from North of Sevington Railhead to Frogholt.. Following the discovery of extensive significant remains c 4.5 km south-east of Ashford, the Bower Road site was subject to detailed investigation. The location of the site is shown on Figure 1 and the details of the archaeological works are given in Table 1.