Aspects of Kentish Local History

Home
News & Events
  Publications Archaeological
Fieldwork
Local & Family
History
Information
by Parish


Victoria County History of Kent Vol. 3  1932 - Romano-British Kent - Towns - Page 80

all laid between two iron bars, each 15 in. long by 2 in. wide by ¼ in. thick, and covered by an inverted bowl in which the actual bowl was made of wrought bronze, and has mostly perished, while the handles and base were of cast bronze and have survived (ibid. 161, with plate, here reproduced. The interment is plainly Roman, however misdescribed.
   (ix) A small red vase, with a head decorating the mouth (a late type of pottery), was found in Broad Street in 1849, seemingly in connection with a burial; it is now in Liverpool Museum (cf. Brit. Arch. Assoc. Journ. v, 337).
   (x) In Lower Bridge Street, between Ivy Lane and the New Dover Road, the drainage trenches in 1867—8 revealed, 6 ft. deep, a lead coffin coated with lime and wrapped in clay, containing the skeleton of a young girl, lying with head to north, on a bed of lime. The coffin itself, 14. in. by 56 in. in size, bore on the lid a raised pattern of ropes, running diagonally, and roses, common on such Roman coffins (Arch. xliii, 160; C. R. Smith in Arch. Cant. xiv, 35, plate). In Gent. Mag. 1868, i, 369, other coffins are stated to have come to light at the same place and time.
   (xi) Black vases containing burnt bones were found in 1867—8 in an extensive deposit of black vegetable mould under Wading Street (p. 65), just within Riding Gate, and also a silver spoon and boars’ tusks which have presumably nothing to do with the burials (Arch. xliii, 157, plate of the spoon).
   (xii) Outside Riding Gate, a little way down the Old Dover Road, an urn was found at the same time with animals’ bones (ibid.).
   (xiii) The handle of a Roman bronze mirror is said to have been found in 1864 in a stone coffin, just outside Riding Gate, near the site of St. Edmund’s Church (Brent in Proc. Soc. Antiq. Ser. II, iii, 55; compare Cant. Olden Time, i 118, 259). Many medieval stone coffins, from the church, were found here three or four years later in the drainage works, and the provenance of the mirror-handle may have been mistaken or misstated. Still the object itself may well have come from a Roman grave.
   (xiv) Lastly, the fragment of a tomb-slab was found in Stour Street in 1911. The first three of the surviving letters are uncertain, but just enough remains to suggest that the slab was erected by a mother to her daughter (Journ. Rem. Studies, xiv, 246). The stone is now in the Canterbury Museum.
   7. Of uncertain origin. Canterbury Museum contains a Roman tombstone of unrecorded origin—in this resembling many other objects in that museum. It is a slab of calcareous limestone, 14 in. high, 4¾—5¾ in. wide, and 1¾ in. thick, with letters 11—14 in. high, inscribed:
           D(IS) M(ANBUS) S(ACRUM) P(UBLIA) VAL(ERIA) MAXIMINA, ANN (ORUM) VI, 
           OPP(IA) VALE RIA ET S(EXTUS) POM(PEIUS) CAPRATINUS FILIAE PIENTI 
           SSIMAE F(E)C(ERVNT) S(IT) T(IBI) T(ERRA) L(EVIS).

   Despite irregularities in the nomenclature, the stone may be genuine. Its provenance is un-known, but may well be Italy. Brent’s Catalogue (Cant. 1875, p. 29) prints it (not quite accurately) without giving any origin, and the Museum Donation Books, searched back to contain no reference to it.. It does not resemble a stone from Rome or Italy: it might be Gaulish or local; in any case it seems worth recording.

3. ROCHESTER

    The dominant geographical feature of North Kent in its central portion is the winding Medway. This river, still tidal as far as Allington lock, and navigable by fair-sized barges even above Maidstone, bordered sometimes with marsh and sometimes with tall hills, cuts a sharp, sinuous furrow across the north of the county. In particular it affects traffic. It is very rarely fordable, and spots where its width and its banks agree to suggest bridges are few and important. Of these spots the most famous is that which is nearest to the sea, where Rochester Bridge connects Rochester and Chatham with Strood and Frindsbury. There has been a bridge here since Roman days. The Romans, laying out their roadway from the port of Richborough to Canterbury and thence along the fertile margin of the North Downs to London, directed its line upon this convenient spot. And, before long, the bridgehead became the focus of a considerable Romano-British population.
   In the absence of evidence to the contrary, it may be assumed at present that this new bridgehead population formed the first significant settlement upon the site. But, apart from the incidence of the river-crossing, the site

Previous Page       Page 80       Next Page       

Back to Towns page listings         Contents Page

This website is constructed by enthusiastic amateurs. Any errors noticed by other researchers will be gratefully received so 
that we can amend our pages to give as accurate a record as possible. Please send details to localhistory@tedconnell.org.uk