SDO11463 - Two Mid-Saxon Grain-driers and Later Medieval Features at Chantry Fields, Gillingham, Dorset; Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society

'Investigations ahead of construction of a relief road around Gillingham, Dorset, revealed two large stone and clay ovens from which archaeomagnetic and radiocarbon dates of late 7th-early 8th century AD were obtained. Both had been altered at least three times and ash layers associated with the ovens produced a range of carbonised plant macrofossils. Quantities of iron slag were recovered from layers not directly associated with the ovens, but other material finds were scarce. The ovens were surrounded by a group of earthworks dated in the main by pottery to the 12th-13th centuries AD.' 'An earthwork survey was undertaken by the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments of England (RCHME) at the request of Wessex Archaeology.'