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similar in construction, except that it was
built on a causeway laid on piles, and it was not buried so
deeply.44 The left bank of the river,
for some distance here, had once been a marsh 350 yds. wide
even at its narrowest point, where the Roman road made an
angle to cross it. A section of the Roman road was cut in
laying storm-drains in 1897, near the railway bridge, at the
junction of Station Road and High Street. The layers were: (1)
a paved surface of rag boulders with fine gravel in the
interstices (7 in.) ; (2) small pebble gravel mixed with black
earth (9 in.); (3) flints, broken fine (7 in.) ; (4) rammed
chalk (5 in.); (5) large flints, rough pieces of Kentish rag
and bits of Roman tile (3 ft. 6 in.); (6) below this was marsh
mud containing oak piles, about 4 in. long, with pieces of
wood laid across them at intervals. The road seemed to be
about 14 ft. wide, and on the surface were grooved
wheel-tracks. Coins of Nerva, Pius, Gordian, and Maximian were
found in the excavations, and a large lump of lead ore (60
lbs.) in layer No. 6. The road was found again in front of
Aveling and Porter’s works, close to the bridge, and in
other parts of High Street. Timber and piles were found in
front of the Southern Railway Station and beneath the bridge.
Part of another paved road was also found near Aveling and
Porter’s works, and was thought to be a lane leading down to
the river from the main Roman road. This road was found again
on the Rochester side, just outside Eastgate, beneath
Franklin, Homan’s warehouses (Nos. 178—180 High Street),
between Eastgate and Star Hill, and just a little south of the
present road, which here curves slightly to the north. The
layers were accumulated earth (1 ft. 3 in.); road paved with
Kentish rag, laid in stiff, dark clay (6 in.); pebble gravel
mixed with similar clay and rammed (6 in.); chalk and flints
rammed (1 ft. 6 in.); and in 1927, as Mr. Dibley reports, it
was found again further south beyond Almond Place and on the
west side of the street.
Roads running north and south have also been
found. The straight lanes that connect the Common and High
Street may easily represent the site of Roman streets, and, in
fact, the Roman road was found beneath North Gate (formerly
called Pump Lane). Those on the south side of High Street arc
no longer traceable, for castle and cathedral and monastery
have completely obliterated or overlaid them. A piece,
however, was found in 1900 beneath the offices of the
Bishop’s Registrar (Arnold, Baker and Day), between College
Green and Boley Hill Street. The section showed accumulated
surfaces (2 ft. 8 in.); road paved with blocks, about 8 in.
square, in a bed of mortar, 2 in. thick; rammed chalk (4 ft. 6
in.); flint, sharp gravel and fragments of tile (2 ft. 4 in.).
The whole lay on a bed of vegetable mould.
While more is known about the walls of Rochester
than about those of many other Roman towns, almost nothing has
been discovered of the buildings within them. The
reason is a simple one : very few houses in Rochester have
been rebuilt from the foundations for a century or more, and
opportunity for observation has therefore rarely arisen in
modern times. When rebuilding begins on any considerable
scale, a great chance will present itself for recovering the
general lay-out of the Roman town.
During the restoration of the Cathedral in or
before 1888, Roman pottery and faced stones (not in situ) were
found ‘under the south transept gable in a
44 "A
measured section of this road is preserved in the Rochester
Museum. See below under ‘roads’
(p. 136) and Top. Index under Strood. |