Holborough a Retrospect

( 68 ) M M » ? =>=*>- <££ L _ M>* HOLBOROUGH: A RETROSPECT BY R. F. JESSUP, F.S.A. THE conspicuous spur on the slope of the chalk downs behind the unattractive vUlage of Snodland is known locaUy as " Holborough Knob " or more simply as " The Knob," the barrow1 from which the hamlet of Holborough derives its name being situated on its eastern flank. Although the barrow has been known to antiquarians since the days of EHzabeth and its bibhography is quite extensive, no account of it has yet appeared in our Journal. The foUowing notes may therefore be of interest: they were made after a fruitless visit to try to locate the find-spot of Roman pottery and iron-work said to have been found there recently. We make no apology for including extracts and reproductions of Ulustrations from an account of an excavation of the mound which took place in the heyday of social-romantic archaeology just over a century ago. With its high conical shape, steep sides, and flattened top, the 1 mound has the characteristic profile of a Roman barrow,2 and such « relics as were obtained from it by accident and by its rather unhandy excavation support that date. There is also strong topographical confirmation of Roman date. It Hes less than a mUe from a Roman viUa, the waUs and pavement of which have from time to time been uncovered on the banks of the Medway near Snodland church and particularly on the site of the gas-works, from which have been obtained 1 Map references: Kent, 6-inch sheet XXXI, N.W.; 1-inoh sheet War Edition. 116 grid 140814. 2 G-. 0. Dunning and B. F. Jessup, " Roman Barrows," Antiquity, March, 1936, pp. 37-53. HOLBOROUGH : A RETROSPECT 69 pottery and a scatter of coins dating from the late first to the late third centuries, a notable bronze buckle-plate decorated with portrait medaUions and inlaid with nieUo, and an unusual terra-cotta mask which was probably an architectural ornament from a buUding of some pretensions.1 An equaUy short distance northward is a Roman road ; for the " Old Road"—that prehistoric route along the Downs—provides evidence of burials along its course at Cuxton and Upper Hailing to show that this part of it at least was still in use in Roman times. The barrow is now about 18 feet in height and almost 100 feet in maximum diameter. No surrounding ditch is visible either on the ground or in an air photograph. It lies a little below the 150-foot contour, and like the majority of known Roman barrows, it is not on the sky-line although it must have been a far-seen landmark from the vale of Maidstone before regenerated scrub invaded the lower slopes of the downs. The coUapsed and sUted trench of an early excavation together with the tip pUed along its edges and spread over the top of the mound are stUl clearly visible, otherwise apart from a Hght growth of wayfaring tree and thorn and a Httle damage from rabbits, the barrow is in fair condition. On its western side it is approached very closely by the tram-Hne of the large chalk quarry which is graduaUy destroying Holborough Knob, and if a further extension of the quarry is made in that direction the barrow wiU be in immediate danger of destruction. The nature of the site is fortunately recognized by the landowners, the Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers Ltd., who would not permit its unwarranted removal. The barrow was first brought to notice as long ago as 1576 by WiUiam Lambarde, the famous Kentish topographer. " As touching that Holboroe (or rather Holanbergh)," he writes,2 " it Heth in Snodland . . . and tooke the name of beori), or the HiU of buriall, standing over i t : in throwing downe a part whereof (for the use of the chalke) my late Neighbour, Maister Tylghman,3 discovered in the very Centre thereof Urnam cineribus plenam, an earthen pot fiUed with ashes, an assured token of a Romane Monument." It is not very often that Lambarde goes out of his way to describe field antiquities, and the reason here must be that as he Hved for some time at Lower Hailing scarcely two mUes away from Holborough, he was probably familiar at first hand with details of the discovery. Nothing further is likely to be known of this early accidental find, but we may accept the story without reserve. I t was almost three hundred years later that Holborough was 1 References are collected in V.O.H. Kent, IH (1932), p. 124. * W. Lambarde, The Perambulation of Kent, 1570 (1640 ed.), p. 445. Hence Hasted, History of Kent (8vo ed.), IV (1798), p. 464. s The Tylghmans owned Holloway Court and other property in Snodland. The Maister Tylghman concerned may have been the son of that William Tylghman who died in 1541 and to whom there is a brass in Snodland Church. 70 HOLBOROUGH : A RETROSPECT made a Roman hoHday. In 1843 the British Archaeological Association, fostered by those zealous antiquaries Charles Roach Smith and Thomas Wright, held its first Congress at Canterbury under the distinguished Presidency of Lord Albert Conyngham, afterwards Lord Londesborough. For the edification of the Congress several Saxon barrows had been opened on the President's estate at Bourne Park near Canterbury, and as in those days barrows could nearly always be reHed upon for antiquarian entertainment, then it may have been that plans were made for the turning over of Holborough. At any rate in the foUowing summer Wright and his noble patron came to stay at The Friars at Aylesford, where they gathered round them the persons proper to attend upon the digging of a barrow, namely the local clergy, their ladies, an Oxford undergraduate, Aretas Akers by name, and a dozen labourers. Wright thus describes their progress1: " I t was the labour of four long days to cut entirely through the barrow; but we who were not absolutely diggers contrived to pass our time to the fuU satisfaction of aU the party. We had hired one of the boats which are used in this part of the country for carrying the amateur toxophUites along the Medway to their archery meetings; and each morning after an early breakfast we were rowed down the river, which is here picturesque and singularly tortuous, to the place of landing. A plentiful supply of provisions had been procured for ,• A t 5>_* i f #£ - * _ C i *=& m ^e&v. ,