Thanet Hidden History

Have you ever wondered what is under our school field?

Thank you Frank from the Thanet Hidden History page on Facebook who has allowed us to share this information.  

Hidden away on Margate`s high ground which has been used for thousands of years for Windmills and homes by the local people are theses amazing ruins! .

In the foreground of the photograph was the excavation of a Late Iron Age or Early Roman enclosure which took place on the playing field of Drapers mill school. The ditched enclosure is located on the edge of the site of a Romano-British villa, which was disturbed by the construction of the school in the 1930’s and investigated by excavations between 1959 and 1961 and again in 1981. The villa most likely replaced a small Iron Age settlement, which lay within the enclosed ditch. A filled in chalk quarry from the Roman period in the 2nd century AD, located near the houses to the right of the mill in the photograph, produced an amazing cast bronze head of a boxer ! .

In the background at the centre of the photograph is Draper’s Mill, a smock mill constructed in 1845 by the Canterbury millwright John Holman. A smock mill has a sloped body, with a cap at the top that rotates so that the sails can be turned to face the winds. The windmill is the last of three mid 19th century windmills that that once stood together on this rounded downland hilltop. Draper’s Mill was threatened with demolition in 1965, but was saved and restored in 1968.