Archaeologists have uncovered artefacts dating back 12,000 years during excavation work at the proposed development site at Cheeseman's Green, including the flint tools of ancient hunter gatherer communities, and Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age activity sites, settlements and farmsteads.
     A fascinating picture is emerging about how Ashford's agricultural landscape looked from the late Bronze Age through to the early years of Roman occupation in what is now southeast England. The finds are similar to those previously recorded at Park Farm, Brisley Farm, Waterbrook Farm, the Orbital Park, and most recently in trial trenching at Chilmington Green.
     The information gained from all of these sites is of regional importance as it suggests that south Ashford was very densely settled from the late Bronze Age to the early Roman period. It also implies that the agricultural landscape was completely re-organised under the Romans, with the deliberate destruction of settlements and monuments and the laying out of large rectilinear field systems.
     The entire development site will eventually be examined and the findings published.

Edited from Kent Online (6 October 2012)