|
and Counties Bank on the
west side of the junction of High Street and St. Margaret’s
Street, there was unearthed in 1860, at a depth described as
‘the Roman level,’ a layer of burnt wheat and wood ashes,
8-10 in. thick—remains, presumably, of a Roman store which
had perished by fire (Arch. Cant. iv, 36; Proc. Soc.
Antiq. Ser. II, i, 327). Later excavations in 1887 showed
that the soil beneath the bank itself was full of Roman debris
and burnt wood; a gold coin of Tiberius, first brass coins of
Vespasian, Trajan, and Hadrian, and Samian potsherds emerged,
while, a white clay figurine of Gaulish type, 7 in. high, of a
woman in a wicker chair, was found under Hammond’s Bank,
immediately west of the other Bank (Dowker, Arch. Cant. xvii,
34: figure in Museum). In connexion with these remains may~ be
mentioned three walls, built entirely of Roman tiles, 3 ft. to
4 ft. apart, running due east and west, crossing St.
Margaret’s Street obliquely, at 9 ft. from High Street, and
therefore quite close to the last-noticed finds (Arch. xliii,
1551, 159, no. 53). The direction of these walls is
oblique to that of those found under High Street (2) and the
Parade (4). Their depth is not recorded. Their position and
construction suggest that they are Roman work.
(4) In the Parade the drainage works of 1860
revealed a series of 8 or 9 walls, built of stone or tile, 1˝-2˝
ft. thick, 18-25 ft. distant from one another, and 8-10 ft.
deep, which crossed the modern street at right angles at
.various points between the London and County Bank—90 ft.
east of St. Margaret’s. Street—and the east end of the
Corn Exchange, a total distance of some 180 ft. (Proc. Soc.
Antiq. Ser. II, i, 328, and briefly Gent. Mag. 1861,
i, 70, and Cant. Olden Time, 15 (Find at Amos’
shop)). Between two of these walls, in front of the Fleece
Inn, at a depth of 7 ft., Pillbrow discovered in 1867—8 a
floor, 4 ft. wide, of white tesserae and, next it on the west,
a tiled floor, laid 3 in. lower, and a flint and mortar wall,
presumably one of those seen in i 86o (Arch. xliii,
155, no. 35; piece of tessell. in Museum; Mus. Cat. p.
1, unless it be another find). At a distance of 9 ft. 10
in. north of the building line of the Fleece Inn, 13 The
Parade, a Roman wall of flint rubble 2 ft. 8 in. thick and
running north-west and south-east, was found in 1929 (Journ.
Rom. Studies, xix, 210).
(5) Close to the preceding, at the High
Street end of Butchery Lane, Pillbrow found in
a wall, 4˝ ft. thick, constructed of flint with three
courses of red tiles, and one course of black (?burnt) tiles,
possibly a bonding course. Its foundation was not reached at a
depth of 10 ft.; its direction was east and west, that is,
oblique to the walls under the Parade; against its western
face stood a circular column of Roman bricks (Arch. xliii,
163, no. 34). The whole appears to be Roman; the column was
perhaps a hypocaust pillar. Here also may be mentioned some
undescribed foundations detected at the Parade end of Iron Bar
Lane,. the age of which is entirely uncertain (ibid. 156, no.
29).
(6) At the east end of the series of walls in the
Parade lay a great deposit of black vegetable soil, 135 ft.
wide and very deep. It stretched along the street from the
Corn Exchange to Iron Bar Lane, and it was also traced beneath
a house (once Frend’s) next to the Exchange on the north
side of the street; while another piece of it, or another
deposit, was noted in 1885 further to the west on the south
side of the street, under the London and County (now
Westminster) Bank. In this deposit lay promiscuously Roman
potsherds, oyster-shells, and bones of bos longifrons
(Proc. Soc. Antiq. Ser. II, i, 328 (cf. vi, 378), and Arch.
Cant. iv, 35; xvii, 37). It is probably connected
with similar deposits in Iron Bar Lane and Burgate Street, and
may represent a former channel of the Stour, still partly open
in Roman times.
(7) East of the black deposit less has been
found. In 1867—8 the drainage revealed under St. George’s
Street, in front of a house once Mr. Sanderson’s, now
identifiable as No. 43, midway between Ironbar and Canterbury
Lanes, two walls 8 ft. apart, 3 ft. thick and coursed
with Roman tiles, with a tile floor adjoining the eastern
wall; near by lay a few coins, an enamelled bronze fibula,
etc. The tops of these walls were 9˝ ft. and the floor 10 ft.
below street level (Arch. xliii, 155 (no. 27)
and 156 (no. 29), plate xxxii, i). The walls appear to have
been Roman; if so, they are the most easterly Roman structure
yet definitely recorded in Canterbury. Battely, indeed,
mentions as Roman ‘an arch firm and solid’ and near it
‘a pavement of broad freestones,’ found about 1700 a
little within St. George’s Gate (Somner, Canterbury, ed.
1703, p.. 192). But this can hardly be discussed without more
knowledge of its site, depth, and character. Small objects of
Roman date have, however, been found in the interval between
the black deposit and the gate. Many potsherds are said to
have occurred here, though few details are given (Mus. Cat.
p. 20; Proc. Soc. Antiq. Ser. II, i, 328). A Roman
urn containing burnt bones was found in 1860 near the church,
8 ft. deep in what seemed alluvial soil (Arch. Cant.
iv, 36, and (briefly) Cant. Olden Time, 20, 42, Proc.
Soc. Ant. Ser. II, i, 328). Outside St. George’s Gate
and along the New Dover Road nothing has been recorded, except
a Roman leaden coffin found near the Gate, in Bridge Street
(p. 73).
B. Remains found south of High Street and the
Parade, described from west to east.
(8) In Stour Street (Lamb Lane), besides the
foundations by the County Hotel noted above (p. 6z), the works
of 1867—8 revealed, just at the end of Jewry Lane, a
pavement 5 ft. wide, made, |