Aspects of Kentish Local History

In 39 Ed. III (1365-6) the King being informed that the Sea had more than formerly overflowed the Lands, Marshes, and other Tenements, extending from a certain place called the Clivesende, within the Isle of Tanet, unto the Town of Stonore, which contained in compasse two miles; whereby in a short time the hurt and damage done thereto, was such, as that was almost destroyed: And that within a few dayes, except some help were had to resist those violent over-flowings, all the low grounds adjoyning to the Sea and Arms thereof within the Hundreds of Ryvesko, Wyngham, Prestone, and Downhamford, to an inestimable damage, would be overwhelmed; he assigned Raphe Spigurnell, then Constable of Dover Castle, John Cobham, Robert Belknap and others, to enquire and determine thereof according to the Law and Custome of this his Realm.

   The excavations by the second author, with the help of Mr. B. W. Pearce and other friends, give us the following section as exposed by the steam navvy. Above the clean shingle, which is dredged from below water level (see Pt. I, in A.C., LIII, 70) is about 5 ft. 8 in. of shingle with non-continuous seams of sand. Where the top of the shingle has not been disturbed, the parting between it and the occupation deposit is a buff sandy loam with scattered pebbles. Where disturbed, it shows an infiltration of muddy material from the early occupation. The whole of this top shingle with its overburden is being dug and dumped into the older of the two artificial lakes. In this way the face of the medieval layer is exposed, and is brought down as the excavation proceeds.

   The occupation deposits can in many places be divided up into two beds, both from the contents and from a slight difference in composition. In one place this bedding was shown by a discontinuous course of blocks of chalk and finer chalk, while at another occurred a course of a few broken pale-buff haven-mud bricks of a late fifteenth or early sixteenth century type, measuring in width and thickness 4 1/4 in. by 2 in. A section at the latter spot showed the medieval layer to be 13 in. thick, while the thickness from the base of the bricks to the bottom of the concrete foundations of the 1914-18 war sheds was 17 in. The height of the concrete floor of the sheds nearest the present excavations is 13·93 ft. above O.D. at Liverpool, and the top of the shingle on which the medieval layer rests is on the average 3 ft. below this.
   The lower (medieval) occupation deposit lies on the fairly level surface of the shingle but in places, where there had been hearths, it lies in shallow hollows, or in one case in a definite trench-like hollow. This last (A.C., XLV, 257, and XLIX, 278-9) ran for some feet nearly north and south, and contained much pottery. On its northern side was a well, steened with rubble stonework, the longer pieces shaped to the curve of the face, and large flints. This was cleared down to water level and in its filling was found one of the timber crutches for the rope drum.