Time had taken its toll on the culvert over the years and floodwaters had begun to severley damage the struture, washing debris into it and dislodging many of the stones. At the beginning of 2009 when the restoration project finally got underway, the entrance to the culvert was completely obscured by silt, deposited by years of flood water rushing through the ghyll and eroding the soft clay banks in the process.

Strawberry wood culvert is situated in the High Weald of Kent, a complex landscape typified by small irregular hills and ridges separated by steep wooded valleys (ghylls), with a settlement pattern of small hamlets (often aggregated in modern times into larger villages) and scattered farmsteads linked by an intricate network of sunken lanes.