Kit's Coty House
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Kit's Coty House or Kit's Coty is a
chambered long barrow Long barrows are a style of monument constructed across Western Europe in the fifth and fourth millennia BCE, during the Early Neolithic period. Typically constructed from earth and either timber or stone, those using the latter material repres ...
near the village of
Aylesford Aylesford is a village and civil parish on the River Medway in Kent, England, northwest of Maidstone. Originally a small riverside settlement, the old village comprises around 60 houses, many of which were formerly shops. Two pubs, a villa ...
in the southeastern English county of
Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...
. Constructed ''circa'' 4000 BCE, during the
Early Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wi ...
period of British prehistory, today it survives in a ruined state.
Archaeologists Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...
have established that the monument was built by pastoralist communities shortly after the introduction of
agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...
to Britain from continental Europe. Although representing part of an architectural tradition of
long barrow Long barrows are a style of monument constructed across Western Europe in the fifth and fourth millennia BCE, during the Early Neolithic period. Typically constructed from earth and either timber or stone, those using the latter material repres ...
building that was widespread across Neolithic Europe, Kit's Coty House belongs to a localised regional variant of barrows produced in the vicinity of the
River Medway The River Medway is a river in South East England. It rises in the High Weald AONB, High Weald, West Sussex and flows through Tonbridge, Maidstone and the Medway conurbation in Kent, before emptying into the Thames Estuary near Sheerness, a to ...
, now known as the Medway Megaliths. Of these, it lies near to both
Little Kit's Coty House Little Kit's Coty House, also known as Lower Kit's Coty House and the Countless Stones, is a chambered long barrow located near to the village of Aylesford, Kent, Aylesford in the southeastern English county of Kent. Constructed ''circa'' 4000 B ...
and the Coffin Stone on the eastern side of the river. Three further surviving long barrows, Addington Long Barrow, Chestnuts Long Barrow, and Coldrum Long Barrow, are located west of the Medway. They were among the first ancient British remains to be protected by the state, on the advice of General
Augustus Pitt-Rivers Lieutenant General Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers (14 April 18274 May 1900) was an English officer in the British Army, ethnologist, and archaeologist. He was noted for innovations in archaeological methodology, and in the museum display o ...
, the first Inspector of Ancient Monuments. The site is now under the ownership of non-departmental public body
English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...
, and is open to visitors all year round. Kit's Coty can be reached on foot along a track that appears at the junction where the
Pilgrim's Way A pilgrims' way or pilgrim way is a standard route that pilgrims take when they go on a pilgrimage in order to reach their destination – usually a holy site or place of worship. These sites may be towns or cities of special significance such ...
and Rochester Road meet. The chamber is encircled by iron railings. It lies approximately 2 kilometres north of another of the Medway Megaliths,
Little Kit's Coty House Little Kit's Coty House, also known as Lower Kit's Coty House and the Countless Stones, is a chambered long barrow located near to the village of Aylesford, Kent, Aylesford in the southeastern English county of Kent. Constructed ''circa'' 4000 B ...
. The name "Kits Coty" allegedly means "Tomb in the Forest" according to signs at the site, possibly related to the Ancient British ''*kaitom'', later ''*keiton'', meaning "forest". The site is the namesake of Kitscoty, a village in Alberta, Canada. The inclusion of the term "House" in the site's name has confused some visitors, who have gone to the site expecting a built dwelling.


Context

The Early Neolithic was a revolutionary period of British history. Between 4500 and 3800 BCE, it saw a widespread change in lifestyle as the communities living in the
British Isles The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr ...
adopted
agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...
as their primary form of subsistence, abandoning the
hunter-gatherer A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived Lifestyle, lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, esp ...
lifestyle that had characterised the preceding
Mesolithic The Mesolithic (Ancient Greek language, Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic i ...
period. This came about through contact with continental societies, although it is unclear to what extent this can be attributed to an influx of migrants or to indigenous Mesolithic Britons adopting agricultural technologies from the continent. The region of modern Kent would have been a key area for the arrival of continental European settlers and visitors, because of its position on the estuary of the
River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...
and its proximity to the continent. Britain was largely forested in this period; widespread forest clearance did not occur in Kent until the
Late Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...
(c.1000 to 700 BCE). Environmental data from the vicinity of the
White Horse Stone The White Horse Stone is a name given to two separate sarsen megaliths on the slopes of Blue Bell Hill, near the village of Aylesford in the South East England, south-eastern England, English county of Kent. The Lower White Horse Stone was destr ...
, a putatively prehistoric
monolith A monolith is a geological feature consisting of a single massive stone or rock, such as some mountains. Erosion usually exposes the geological formations, which are often made of very hard and solid igneous or metamorphic rock. Some monolit ...
near the
River Medway The River Medway is a river in South East England. It rises in the High Weald AONB, High Weald, West Sussex and flows through Tonbridge, Maidstone and the Medway conurbation in Kent, before emptying into the Thames Estuary near Sheerness, a to ...
, supports the idea that the area was still largely forested in the Early Neolithic, covered by a woodland of oak, ash, hazel/alder and
Maloideae The Maloideae C.Weber was the apple subfamily, a grouping used by some taxonomists within the rose family, Rosaceae. Recent molecular phylogenetic evidence has shown that the traditional Spiraeoideae and Amygdaloideae form part of the same cl ...
. Throughout most of Britain, there is little evidence of cereal or permanent dwellings from this period, leading archaeologists to believe that the Early Neolithic economy on the island was largely
pastoral The pastoral genre of literature, art, or music depicts an idealised form of the shepherd's lifestyle – herding livestock around open areas of land according to the seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. The target au ...
, relying on herding cattle, with people living a nomadic or semi-nomadic life.


Medway Megaliths

Across Western Europe, the Early Neolithic marked the first period in which humans built monumental structures in the landscape. These structures included
chambered long barrow Long barrows are a style of monument constructed across Western Europe in the fifth and fourth millennia BCE, during the Early Neolithic period. Typically constructed from earth and either timber or stone, those using the latter material repres ...
s, rectangular or oval earthen
tumuli A tumulus (: tumuli) is a mound of Soil, earth and Rock (geology), stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, mounds, howes, or in Siberia and Central Asia as ''kurgans'', and may be found through ...
which had a chamber built into one end. Some of these chambers were constructed out of timber, although others were built using large stones, now known as "
megalith A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. More than 35,000 megalithic structures have been identified across Europe, ranging geographically f ...
s". These long barrows often served as tombs, housing the physical remains of the dead within their chamber. Individuals were rarely buried alone in the Early Neolithic, instead being interred in collective burials with other members of their community. These chambered tombs were built all along the Western European seaboard during the Early Neolithic, from southeastern Spain up to southern Sweden, taking in most of the British Isles; the architectural tradition was introduced to Britain from continental Europe in the first half of the fourth millennium BCE. Although there are stone buildings—like
Göbekli Tepe Göbekli Tepe (, ; Kurdish: or , 'Wish Hill') is a Neolithic archaeological site in Upper Mesopotamia (''al-Jazira'') in modern-day Turkey. The settlement was inhabited from around to at least , during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic. It is famou ...
in modern Turkey—which predate them, the chambered long barrows constitute humanity's first widespread tradition of construction using stone. Although now all in a ruinous state and not retaining their original appearance, at the time of construction the Medway Megaliths would have been some of the largest and most visually imposing Early Neolithic funerary monuments in Britain. Grouped along the River Medway as it cuts through the
North Downs The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. Much of the North Downs comprises two Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Areas of Outstanding Natural Be ...
, they constitute the most southeasterly group of megalithic monuments in the British Isles, and the only megalithic group in eastern England. The archaeologists Brian Philp and Mike Dutto deemed the Medway Megaliths to be "some of the most interesting and well known" archaeological sites in Kent, while the archaeologist Paul Ashbee described them as "the most grandiose and impressive structures of their kind in southern England". The Medway Megaliths can be divided into two separate clusters: one to the west of the River Medway and the other on
Blue Bell Hill Blue Bell Hill is a chalk hill between Maidstone and Rochester in the English county of Kent. It overlooks the River Medway and is part of the North Downs. Settlements on the hill include the Walderslade suburb of Chatham and the villages o ...
to the east, with the distance between the two clusters measuring at between . The western group includes Coldrum Long Barrow, Addington Long Barrow, and the Chestnuts Long Barrow. The eastern group consists of Smythe's Megalith, Kit's Coty House,
Little Kit's Coty House Little Kit's Coty House, also known as Lower Kit's Coty House and the Countless Stones, is a chambered long barrow located near to the village of Aylesford, Kent, Aylesford in the southeastern English county of Kent. Constructed ''circa'' 4000 B ...
, the Coffin Stone, and several other stones which might have once been parts of chambered tombs, most notably the
White Horse Stone The White Horse Stone is a name given to two separate sarsen megaliths on the slopes of Blue Bell Hill, near the village of Aylesford in the South East England, south-eastern England, English county of Kent. The Lower White Horse Stone was destr ...
. It is not known if they were all built at the same time, or whether they were constructed in succession, while similarly it is not known if they each served the same function or whether there was a hierarchy in their usage. The Medway long barrows all conformed to the same general design plan, and are all aligned on an east to west axis. Each had a stone chamber at the eastern end of the mound, and they each probably had a stone facade flanking the entrance. They had internal heights of up to , making them taller than most other chambered long barrows in Britain. The chambers were constructed from
sarsen Sarsen stones are silicification, silicified sandstone blocks found extensively across southern England on the Salisbury Plain and the Marlborough Downs in Wiltshire; in Kent; and in smaller quantities in Berkshire, Essex, Oxfordshire, Dorset, an ...
, a dense, hard, and durable stone that occurs naturally throughout Kent, having formed out of sand from the
Eocene The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes ...
epoch. Early Neolithic builders would have selected blocks from the local area, and then transported them to the site of the monument to be erected. These common architectural features among the Medway Megaliths indicate a strong regional cohesion with no direct parallels elsewhere in the British Isles. Nevertheless, as with other regional groupings of Early Neolithic long barrows—such as the Cotswold-Severn group in south-western Britain—there are also various idiosyncrasies in the different monuments, such as Coldrum's rectilinear shape, the Chestnut Long Barrow's facade, and the long, thin mounds at Addington and Kit's Coty. These variations might have been caused by the tombs being altered and adapted over the course of their use; in this scenario, the monuments would be composite structures. The builders of these monuments were probably influenced by pre-existing tomb-shrines they were aware of. Whether those people had grown up locally, or moved into the Medway area from elsewhere is not known. Based on a stylistic analysis of their architectural designs, the archaeologist
Stuart Piggott Stuart Ernest Piggott, (28 May 1910 – 23 September 1996) was a British archaeologist, best known for his work on prehistoric Wessex. Early life Piggott was born in Petersfield, Hampshire, the son of G. H. O. Piggott, and was educated ...
thought that the plan behind the Medway Megaliths had originated in the area around the
Low Countries The Low Countries (; ), historically also known as the Netherlands (), is a coastal lowland region in Northwestern Europe forming the lower Drainage basin, basin of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta and consisting today of the three modern "Bene ...
; conversely,
Glyn Daniel Glyn Edmund Daniel (23 April 1914 – 13 December 1986) was a Welsh scientist and archaeologist who taught at Cambridge University, where he specialised in the European Neolithic period. He was appointed Disney Professor of Archaeology in ...
thought their design derived from Scandinavia, John H. Evans thought Germany, and Ronald F. Jessup suggested an influence from the Cotswold-Severn group. Ashbee noted that their close clustering in the same area was reminiscent of the megalithic tomb-shrine traditions of continental Northern Europe, and emphasised that the Medway Megaliths were a regional manifestation of a tradition widespread across Early Neolithic Europe. He nevertheless stressed that a precise place of origin was "impossible to indicate" with the available evidence.


Design and construction

The surviving part of the monument represents three stones covered by a capstone. The H-shaped entrance to the tomb survives. It is made of
sarsen Sarsen stones are silicification, silicified sandstone blocks found extensively across southern England on the Salisbury Plain and the Marlborough Downs in Wiltshire; in Kent; and in smaller quantities in Berkshire, Essex, Oxfordshire, Dorset, an ...
(a fine-grained, crystalline sandstone) and consists of three
orthostat This article describes several characteristic architectural elements typical of European megalithic (Stone Age) structures. Forecourt In archaeology, a forecourt is the name given to the area in front of certain types of chamber tomb. Forecourts ...
s supporting a horizontal
capstone __NOTOC__ Capstone may refer to: Architecture * Keystone (architecture), also known as a capstone Brands and enterprises * Capstone Investment Advisors, a US investment management firm * Capstone Partners, an investment banking firm * Capstone P ...
. The archaeologist Timothy Champion suggested that these stones "give some idea of the scale of the sculpture". The front part of the chamber, as well as a possible façade, are now gone. The mound and flanking ditches have largely been ploughed flat but remain visible from aerial photographs. A 1981 survey found the mound to be ''circa'' 70 metres long and 1 metre high. Champion suggested that in total, the long-barrow would have been about 80m long. As a result of chalk rubble in the plough soul, it estimated that it had once been c.11 to 15 metres wide. An area of dark soil suggested that there had been a wide ditch on the southern side. Ashbee noted that various worn pottery sherds had been found in the soil on the barrow. In 1897, John Evans recounted as having found a leaf-shaped arrowhead—likely of Neolithic date—near to the site.


The General's Tombstone

At the western end of the monument was a megalith known as "the General's Tombstone", which was destroyed in 1867. This may once have been part of the long barrow's structure.


Damage and dilapidation

Ashbee suggested that when the barrow was being slighted, the kerbstones might have been dragged away or buried under the ditches.


Folklore, folk tradition, and modern Paganism

In 1722, the antiquarian Hercules Ayleway noted—in a letter written to his friend, the fellow antiquarian
William Stukeley William Stukeley (7 November 1687 – 3 March 1765) was an English antiquarian, physician and Anglican clergyman. A significant influence on the later development of archaeology, he pioneered the scholarly investigation of the prehistoric ...
—a local belief that the Lower Kit's Coty House and Kit's Coty House were erected in memory of two contending kings of Kent who died in battle. In 1946, Evans recorded a local folk tale that held that the chamber at Kit's Coty House was erected by three witches who lived on Blue Bell Hill. According to this story, a fourth witch helped them put the capstone on. Several
modern Pagan Modern paganism, also known as contemporary paganism and neopaganism, spans a range of new religious movements variously influenced by the Paganism, beliefs of pre-modern peoples across Europe, North Africa, and the Near East. Despite some comm ...
religions are practised at the Medway Megaliths, the most publicly visible of which is
Druidry A druid was a member of the high-ranking priestly class in ancient Celtic cultures. The druids were religious leaders as well as legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers, medical professionals and political advisors. Druids left no wri ...
. Research conducted among these Druids in 2014 revealed that some Druidic ceremonial activity had taken place at Kit's Coty.


Antiquarian and archaeological investigation

Kit's Coty House was briefly mentioned in
John Twyne John Twyne (c.1505–1581) was an English schoolmaster, scholar and author, and also Member of Parliament for Canterbury. Life He was born about 1501 at Bullington, Hampshire, the son of William Twyne. He was educated, according to Anthony Wo ...
's ''De Rebus Albionicis'' (written c.1550, but not published until 1590), and in
William Camden William Camden (2 May 1551 – 9 November 1623) was an English antiquarian, historian, topographer, and herald, best known as author of ''Britannia'', the first chorographical survey of the islands of Great Britain and Ireland that relates la ...
's ''Britannia'' (1586): Camden reported the popular tradition that it was the tomb of the 5th-century British prince
Catigern Catigern () is a figure of Welsh tradition, said to be a son of Vortigern, the tyrannical King of the Britons, and the brother of Vortimer. A figure of this name also appears in the Welsh genealogies, though he is given different parentage. Catig ...
, supposedly killed at the
Battle of Aylesford The Battle of Aylesford or Epsford () was fought between Britons and Anglo-Saxons recorded in the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' and the ''Historia Brittonum''. Both sources concur that it involved the Anglo-Saxon leaders Hengist and Horsa on one si ...
in 455. In 1590, a group of antiquaries visited the site. One of them,
John Stow John Stow (''also'' Stowe; 1524/25 – 5 April 1605) was an English historian and antiquarian. He wrote a series of chronicles of History of England, English history, published from 1565 onwards under such titles as ''The Summarie of Englyshe C ...
, wrote: Stow published a version of this report in his ''Annals'' in 1592; while another of the group,
William Lambarde William Lambarde (18 October 1536 – 19 August 1601) was an English antiquarian, writer on legal subjects, and politician. He is particularly remembered as the author of ''A Perambulation of Kent'' (1576), the first English county history; ''Ei ...
, published his own description in the 1596 edition of his ''Perambulation of Kent'', drawing a comparison with
Stonehenge Stonehenge is a prehistoric Megalith, megalithic structure on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, to ...
. Camden described the monument in greater detail from personal observation in the expanded 1610 English translation of ''Britannia'': In 1659, Thomas Philipot wrote about the site, again describing it as the tomb of Catigern. The antiquarian
John Aubrey John Aubrey (12 March 1626 – 7 June 1697) was an English antiquary, natural philosopher and writer. He was a pioneer archaeologist, who recorded (often for the first time) numerous megalithic and other field monuments in southern England ...
made mention of the monument in his unpublished manuscript on British archaeological sites, the ''Monumenta Britannica''. There he included a drawing of the site produced by the classical scholar Thomas Gale. Aubrey then directly cited Philipot's earlier work. There is no direct evidence that Aubrey visited the site but Ashbee thought it "inconceivable that he did not" given that he made frequent visits to Kent, using a road which would have taken him very close to Kit's Coty House.
William Stukeley William Stukeley (7 November 1687 – 3 March 1765) was an English antiquarian, physician and Anglican clergyman. A significant influence on the later development of archaeology, he pioneered the scholarly investigation of the prehistoric ...
visited the site in 1722 and was able to sketch the site whilst it was still largely intact. Before this,
Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys ( ; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English writer and Tories (British political party), Tory politician. He served as an official in the Navy Board and Member of Parliament (England), Member of Parliament, but is most r ...
also saw it and wrote: Stukeley included four engravings of Kit's Coty House in his two volumes of ''Itinerarium Curiosum''. A 1722 print of the site showed the chamber, mound, and the General's Tombstone. In c.1783, James Douglas set one of his workmen to dig on the western side of the monument, and produced a watercolour painting illustrating the scene. In 1880, the archaeologist
Flinders Petrie Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie ( – ), commonly known as simply Sir Flinders Petrie, was an English people, English Egyptology, Egyptologist and a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology and the preservation of artefacts. ...
included the stones at Addington in his list of Kentish earthworks. In 1893, the antiquarian George Payne mentioned the monument in his ''Collectanea Cantiana'', describing it as a "fallen cromlech" and noting that there were various other megaliths scattered in the vicinity, suggesting that these were part of the monument of another like it, since destroyed. In his 1924 publication dealing with Kent, the archaeologist
O. G. S. Crawford Osbert Guy Stanhope Crawford (28 October 1886 – 28 November 1957) was a British archaeologist who specialised in the archaeology of prehistoric Britain and Sudan. A keen proponent of aerial archaeology, he spent most of his career as t ...
, then working as the archaeological officer for the
Ordnance Survey The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see Artillery, ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of ...
, listed Kit's Coty House alongside the other Medway Megaliths and reprinted one of Stukeley's engravings of it. The author
George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to a ...
visited the site on 21 August 1938, as detailed in his domestic diary of that date. He describes it as "a druidical altar or something of the kind. ... The stones are on top of a high hill & it appears they belong to quite another part of the country." The stones are actually well down the slope of Blue Bell Hill, 1.32 km to the north.Google Earth 51.3199°N 0.5029°E In January 1981, Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit carried out a survey of the site.


Management by English Heritage

Ashbee suggested that Kit's Coty House was "the best known" of the Medway Megaliths, while Champion thought it "perhaps the best-known monument in Kent". In 2005, Philp and Dutto referred to Kits Coty as an "important monument" that was "amongst the best known in Britain".


References


Footnotes


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


External links


Photo and location mapPictures and personal experiences of Kit's Coty House at The Modern Antiquarian Further research and history: English Heritage
* {{Long Barrows in Britain Archaeological sites in Kent Stone Age sites in Kent Tonbridge and Malling Tourist attractions in Kent Scheduled monuments in Kent English Heritage sites in Kent Dolmens in England Barrows in England