Excavations at Biggin Street, Dover

EXCAVATIONS AT BIGGIN STREET, DOVER DA YID WILKINSON AND DUNCAN WOOD with contributions by K. Atherton, K. Brown, P. Blinkhorn, P. Booth, B. Charles, C. Ingrem and H. Lamdin-Whymark In January 1999 the Oxford Archaeological Unit (now Oxford Archaeology) undertook an excavation in advance of the construction of a new retail store on the site of a former Post Office at Biggin Street, Dover (NGR TR 3172 4162: Fig. 1). A desk-based assessment had been produced and the site had already been evaluated. The excavation identified archaeological deposits from various phases of occupation. These include the location of Roman boundary ditches/gullies, a possible Saxon cultivation soil, several late medieval/post-medieval wells, a post-medieval cultivation soil and post-medieval structural features (wall remnants). Artefacts recovered from the site ranged in date through all of these periods, and some residual flint artefacts were also found. Excavations were limited to the locations of the foundation piles, allowing a proportion of the archaeological deposits to be preserved in situ. The excavation strategy was designed by Paul Chadwick of CgMs Consulting, acting as Archaeological Consultant to the developers, Chartwell Land Development Limited, who funded the archaeological fieldwork and publication. The site lies on the corner of Biggin Street and Priory Street in the town centre of Dover (Fig. 2). The site geology consists of brickearth overlying a buff chalky clay with shattered flint known as Coombe Rock. The base geology is Middle and Lower Chalk. The site lies on the approximate edge of an inner basin on the west side of Dover and at the mouth of a west-east dry valley (Fig. 1 ). Both of these topographical features have dictated the nature of the site drift geology which formed during the Devensian and mid Holocene. Jn situ alluvial deposits relating to the inner basin were identified during an archaeological evaluation (OAU, June 1994) approximately 20m to the north of the present Biggio Street frontage. 153 Fig. I Site Location in Dover. Prloty Groun