The Meads Community Woodland and The Henge

A relatively new community woodland in Sittingbourne which reconnects with it's past by featuring a replica Neolithic wood henge to provide an insight to its history. Offering walks within the young native trees, traditional hedgerow and poplar, with many birds, butterflies, dragonflies and reptiles present. The woodlands are also featured on Explore Kent and the Woodland Wildlife Hidden History websites where more detailed information can be downloaded. Volunteers constructed a replica henge at the site in 2017, it's well worth a visit to discover the individually carved and decorated henges which are set out in the same way as the original neolithic henge. This park and open space has at least one accessible route but otherwise is considered to be less suitable for visitors with pushchairs and/or wheelchairs. Historic Significance : Canterbury Archaeological Trust excavations in the nearby Jenny Wren and Sonora Estate area in 2008 revealed evidence for Neolithic, Bronze Age and Anglo-Saxon activity, including a group of Beaker period burials, a Bronze Age ring-ditch (almost certainly the remains of a round barrow) and an extensive Anglo-Saxon cemetery. An aerial photograph showed a cropmark of a sizable ring-ditch was in fact a large circular enclosure ditch of a henge. Measuring some 30m in diameter, the enclosure encompassed several features in its interior, the most striking of which were two concentric groups of post-holes situated at the centre. Probably dating to the late Neolithic period (3,000 to 4,800 years ago), the henge is the first to be confirmed and excavated in the Swale area. You can download the leaflet ' The Mysteries of The Meads Community Woodland' here.