and Ireland. The folklorist S. P. Menefee suggested that it could be attributed to an animistic understanding that these megaliths had lives of their own. Antiquarian and archaeological investigation Antiquarians have been aware of Chestnuts Long Barrow since the 18th century. The earliest possible reference to the monuments was provided by the antiquarian John Harris in an ambiguous comment in his History of Kent in Five Parts, published in 1719. In 1773, the site was described in print by the antiquarian Josiah Colebrooke in a short article for Archaeologia, the journal of the Society of Antiquaries of London. He described it as one of the "temples of the antient Britons". Colebrook's analysis was echoed in the 18th-century writings of Edward Hasted, W. H. Ireland, and John Thorpe. In the early 1840s, the Reverend Beale Post conducted investigations into the Medway Megaliths, writing them up in a manuscript that was left unpublished; this included Addington Long Barrow and Chestnuts Long Barrow, which he collectively labelled the "Addington Circles". In the late 1940s, the site was visited by the archaeologists John H. Evans and Albert Egges van Giffen, with the former commenting that they examined the site in its "overgrown state". In 1953, the archaeologist Leslie Grinsell reported that several small trees and bushes had grown up within the megaliths. That year, the field was prepared for horticultural use, being levelled and ploughed, although the area around the megaliths was left undisturbed. At this time, 16 megaliths were visible, lying at various angles. A high holly tree stood in the centre of them, and there was no sign of a mound. The landowner, Richard Boyle, opened a few test trenches in the area, during which he discovered Mesolithic flint tools. A large number of surface finds were discovered in both the field and a quarry to the east. In the latter part of the 1950s, with plans afoot to build a house adjacent to Chestnuts Long Barrow, the Inspectorate of Ancient Monuments initiated an excavation of the site under the directorship of John Alexander. The excavation, which lasted five weeks in August and September 1957, was funded by Boyle, with the support of the Inspectorate, and largely carried out by volunteers. Following excavation, the fallen sarsen megaliths were re-erected in their original sockets, allowing for the restoration of part of the chamber and façade. The finds recovered from the excavation were placed