Secret Kent Archaeology Dig to Feature on BBC’s Digging for Britain

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View of the 2025 excavations Photo- Ray Duff

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By Ray Duff – Following the screening of Folkestone’s Iron Age excavations on East Cliff, as part of episode two of the new series, another Kent archaeological dig is to feature on BBC’s Digging for Britain show.   This time it is a second visit to a highly important early medieval site in rural Kent several miles from Canterbury but within a triangle with Folkestone and Ashford.

Known since the mid 19thCentury the site is a late 5th to late 7thC Anglo-Saxon burial ground, a period which spans pagan to early Christian Kent so it is believed the interments are a mix of both, and of people who were perhaps some of the first settlers in this part of Britain after the Romans left in 410AD, and probably some of their descendants also.  Whether there are any post Roman ancient Britons amongst them is also to be determined. The site has been preserved largely intact with some very important remains and relics from the period, giving us an intimate insight into the daily lives of these early, then newcomers, to our shores. 

The finds will join those already known about and will, following some painstaking cleaning and close examination, hopefully be displayed at both Folkestone and Dover Museums at some point in the future.

The site will be featured during the third of six programmes on Wednesday 21 January on BBC2 at 9pm.  It will also be available to watch on BBC iplayer.