Interim Reports on Recent Work carried out by the Canterbury Archaeological Trust

211 interim reports on recent work carried out by the canterbury archaeological trust canterbury city sites 1. ‘Cycle Facility’, St George’s Lane (TR 1513 5757) In March 2005 the watching brief maintained during the construction of the ‘cycle facility’ at the site of the Roman tower on the town wall, recorded the edges of two large Ragstone slabs set together in mortar. Investigation revealed four more Ragstone slabs, a large block of Corallian limestone1 and several smaller pieces of Ragstone rubble, all arranged in two horizontal layers, one above the other. Consequent excavation and further observation has led to a sequence of events being proposed for the construction of the town wall and tower (Fig. 1). A ditch was cut for the main defensive wall, the up-cast soils from which formed a small mound on the intramural side. Foundations were then laid to approximate ground level. A shallower ditch was cut for the internal tower through the up-cast material and then this shallower ditch was filled with foundation deposits. The first courses of superstructure (for wall and tower) were laid and the two slabs may have been incorporated at this stage. Rampart material was deposited against the northern and western sides of the tower. The level upper surface of this primary rampart acted as a construction platform for the second course of wall and tower superstructure and then a second layer of rampart material was added before a third phase of wall and tower construction. How exactly the two mortared slabs relate to the wall and tower was not conclusively established. There was early speculation, based partly on the close proximity of several Roman burial mounds, that some of the stones may have originally formed part of a funerary monument dismantled prior to construction of the defences.2 There is perhaps more evidence supporting the theory that the mortared blocks formed part of the northern side of a gate for a postulated route suggested by a small length of Roman street excavated in 2003,3 which if aligned with Dover Street would have passed through the wall here. Dover Street was present INTERIM REPORTS BY CANTERBURY ARCHAEOLOGICAL TRUST 212 in Anglo-Saxon times and therefore might have had a Roman origin. An external tower discovered by Dr Frank Jenkins4 could be included in this arrangement, but sadly insufficient dating evidence was recovered from the soils around the slabs to substantiate this theory. 2. Choir House, Cathedral Precincts (TR 1519 5796) Three evaluation trenches were excavated in October 2005 in the grounds of Choir House prior to proposed extension of the property. Trenches 1 and 2 were located in the garden to the east of an existing extension and Trench 3 in the yard to the west of the main building. The Choir House is situated in the area of the infirmary buildings of Christ Church Priory. The remains of the Infirmary Hall and Chapel lay to the south-east and the Choir House itself partially overlies the northern aisle of the Infirmary Hall and parts of the Table Hall survive within its fabric. The Table Hall was constructed adjoining the main Infirmary Hall between c.1260 and 1265. It was substantially rebuilt and refurbished c.1343 and portions of this building survive at the rear of the Choir House. The refurbishments are recorded in treasurer’s accounts for the Site of the earlier excavation Site of the minor excavation undertaken during the watching brief Internal tower Side of the gate (conjectured) Roman wall (conjectured & observed) Roman wall (conjectured & observed) Line of road (conjectured) External tower (conjectured) Modern wall & tower Modern wall Junction of the wall & the battered base of the external tower, found by Dr F Jenkins U ppe r Br i dg e St r e et 5m. Fig. 1 Cycle Facility, St George’s Lane: site location. INTERIM REPORTS BY CANTERBURY ARCHAEOLOGICAL TRUST 213 years 1342 and 1343 when the construction of a new hall with a chamber (actually the refurbishment of the existing hall), other new chambers and pentices (external wooden cloisters) are documented.5 The evaluation exposed deposits possibly relating to the fourteenthcentury buildings, all close to the existing ground surface in Trench 2. A short section of wall was recorded running north-north-east to southsouth- west with a possible post-pad close to the southern end of the wall. The wall measured some 0.20m in width and was constructed from small flint nodules and chalk blocks set in a pale to mid yellow sandy mortar. The pad was formed from peg-tiles set in a similar mortar. These remains probably represented a dwarf wall supporting a timber plate for a frame wall which was terminated by a principal post defined by the post-pad. A compact level spread of brown-yellow sandy mortar was exposed at the southern end of the trench. Whilst this deposit may represent a demolition deposit, its compact nature and regular northern edge might suggest a basis for a flagged stone floor. The wall, post-pad and possible surface were sealed by a thin compact layer of demolition material itself sealed and cut by garden soils and planting pits associated with the gardens. Trenches 1 and 3 each contained building debris, the deposits in Trench 1 presumably derived from documented demolition of buildings in 1828. 3. Church Street St Paul’s (TR 1530 5771) In April and May 2004 a small excavation took place on the site of the new parish hall and identified the scant remains of two probable medieval buildings and more extensive remains of a succession of later buildings up to Victorian times. No finds were made to date the buildings, so a chronology for them was proposed based on constructional techniques, materials and stratigraphic relationships. Earlier evaluation in 2002 had identified domestic occupation in the form of a peg-tile hearth and a possibly contemporary chalk-lined well. In 2004 the remains of several walls were recorded that together formed a large building which appeared to extend southwards beyond the limits of the excavation. At least three rooms were identified and a tentative fourth. The walls were constructed from chalk blocks and knapped flint bonded with a light brown sandy mortar and probably would have supported a timber frame. Fragmentary remains of clay floors were recorded. An external yard or perhaps a passage to Church Street was identified west of the building. A later phase of activity in the building was indicated by an apparent rebuilding of several walls and later sequences of clay floors. A separate two-roomed property was recorded fronting Church Street. Much of the structure had been removed, but walls that survived were of large flint nodules bonded in a hard, yellow grey mortar very different to the mortar used in the building to the south. INTERIM REPORTS BY CANTERBURY ARCHAEOLOGICAL TRUST 214 The shallow depth of excavation afforded by the development precluded full examination of medieval and earlier levels on the site, but a study of historical records for the parish of St Paul’s illuminated the findings of the excavation.6 4. Barton Court Grammar School, Longport (TR 1569 5759) A watching brief maintained in June 2005 during the cutting of foundation trenches for a new classroom, located four pits, all cut into the underlying natural chalk. Three of the pits, based on their similar dimensions and alignment, may have been of a common date and function. Two of them contained pottery, one spanning 1025-1125 and the other 1175-1250. The fourth pit, on a different alignment, appeared earlier since it was cut by one of the three; it contained no finds. The watching brief was the most recent in a series of archaeological interventions during on-going school improvements. The school is situated on the former ‘barton’ or home farm of St Augustine’s Abbey. The medieval Barton Court building was replaced in the mid eighteenth century by the Georgian house which now forms part of the school. The previous investigations recorded similar archaeological features dating between 1050 and 1225, all of which might be associated with the Court Lodge Farm. An agricultural function for the latest features, perhaps associated with the ‘Great Stone Barn’ whose postulated position is within 10m of the present site, is entirely possible. 5. HM Prison, Longport (TR 1573 5771) Several observations were made during the cutting of service trenches and test pits at the prison throughout 2005. Evidence for extensive brickearth quarrying in the area was recorded in service trenches in Chapel Yard and in test trenching in a grassed area east of the prison entrance on Longport. In places the underlying brickearth had been quarried to a depth of 1.30m below present ground level. The features in both areas had similar fills consisting of laminated deposits of crushed mortar and stone rubble and fragments of Roman brick and tile. Road gravels and an east-west aligned ditch were observed in a service shaft dug on the western front lawn, the gravel at a depth of approximately 1.60m below modern ground surface. These road features were sealed by soils containing pottery of late first- to mid second-century date, indicating that an early Roman road line changed or narrowed. A 28m length of compacted laminated flint gravels, observed in a service trench cut along the pavement on the northern side of Longport, fell well within the presumed alignment of the Canterbury to Richborough Roman road. A short distance further west and immediately south of the Roman road INTERIM REPORTS BY CANTERBURY ARCHAEOLOGICAL TRUST 215 line, a section of north-south aligned wall was recorded. The 0.50m wide wall was constructed with fractured sandstone, bonded with gritty lime mortar and was cut into the top of natural brickearth. Its position in relation to the Roman road and the modern alignment of Longport, possibly established before the Norman conquest, might suggest an early medieval or Late Saxon date for the wall. 6. No. 14 Westgate Grove (TR 1452 5807) Excavation undertaken prior to extension of an eighteenth-century residential property, formerly a malt-house, revealed at least two earlier buildings on the site, possibly three. Elements of the first (sections of masonry and a clay floor) were only observed in the bases and sides of the foundation trenches and later cuts, but it appeared that the building was timber-framed on flint and chalk dwarf walls. Two rooms were observed, one facing the street frontage and one to the rear. The only dating evidence was a single sherd of Tyler Hill ware (c.1375-1525) found beneath a dwarf wall, giving a date for the building probably no earlier than the fifteenth century and most probably sixteenth or seventeenth century. Though repaired in places, there was only one clay floor, suggesting brief use of the building before it was flooded, an event indicated by a deposit of silt. A second phase of building was then constructed, again with front and rear rooms, and possibly a passageway between it and the neighbouring property at No. 12. A peg-tile hearth was present in the centre of the rear room. A deeper sequence of clay floors in the second building, together with more evidence for alterations to layout, suggests a longer period of use. The passageway was blocked by the insertion of a short wall and a clay floor on its street side suggests creation of a street frontage room. Traces of a third building were observed in a service trench on the south-west side of the garden, though it was not possible, due to the depth of modern overburden, to determine a link between it and the sequence recorded for Buildings 1 and 2. 7. House of Agnes, No. 71 St Dunstan’s Street (TR 1446 5817) A watching brief, maintained in July and September 2005 during renovation works, focussed mainly on a foundation trench associated with the replacement of a rear extension. Evidence for activity in the Roman period was present in the form of a number of pits cutting into natural brickearth. These were sealed by a mixed deposit containing late Saxon material, itself sealed by a series of clay floors belonging to a timber-framed structure. It was during the rapid excavation of the floor sequences that one of the most important archaeological finds made in Canterbury for many years came to light: a scientific instrument known INTERIM REPORTS BY CANTERBURY ARCHAEOLOGICAL TRUST 216 as an astrolabic quadrant. These instruments were used for many and varied purposes, navigation, land surveying and time-keeping for the observance of strict prayer timetables being amongst them. The instrument is made from a flat copper alloy plate cut to a quarter circle. An X-ray photograph revealed one side to be engraved with degree scales around its outer edges, whilst spanning across its surface is a series of varying curves some containing the names of the zodiac star constellations. On the opposite side is a series of concentric circles divided into segments by a series of radial spokes which subdivide the circles into different fields, each containing numerals and symbols either singly or in groups. This is surmounted centrally by a rotating figure of a bird with outstretched wings, each wing appearing to act as a pointer to the numerals and symbols in the surrounding segmented circle. The object would appear to be a simple computing device with the user rotating the bird so that the tip of one of its wings points towards one of the symbol groups in the outer circle. The tip of the other wing would then point to a corresponding symbol in the inner circle. Detailed study of the object has dated it to either 1312 or 1388, with the latter date preferred.7 A circular structure with a burnt clay base was recorded beneath the concrete floor of the rear extension. This was possibly the remains of a pottery kiln and a pit in a nearby service trench contained a considerable amount of ‘waster’ pottery dating between c.1550 and 1725. The discovery of this possible kiln and its waste material is of some significance in the study of the development of post-medieval potteries in Canterbury after the decline of the Tyler Hill industry. sites outside canterbury 8. Ellington School, Ramsgate (TR 3770 6660 centred) Excavation took place on a green-field site at Newlands Farm, Ramsgate, due to be developed for the creation of a new school (Fig. 2). The excavation formed part of a programme of work associated with the first Kent Grouped Schools Private Finance Initiative. Five other schools had been subject to a desk-based archaeological assessment and/or evaluation trenching. The site at Ramsgate was the only one where a second phase of investigation was deemed necessary, this based on the wide range of prehistoric finds recorded. In all over 450 cut features were identified during the investigation which produced some 5,600 sherds of flinttempered pottery, over 700 fragments of animal bone and 200 fragments of burnt daub. The vast majority of the pottery dates to the later Bronze Age to Early Iron Age transition and consisted of storage jars and other simple vessels typical of the location and period. Activity was also present in the later Neolithic, Anglo-Saxon and medieval periods. INTERIM REPORTS BY CANTERBURY ARCHAEOLOGICAL TRUST 217 Pysons Road Little Newlands Farm Newlands Lane Newlands Farm ? ? 167000m. 166900m. 166800m. 166700m. 166600m. 637500m. 637600m. 637700m. AREA A1 AREA A2 AREA A3 AREA C1 Enclosure ditches Medieval field boundaries Post-hole structures ?Ring-ditch Ring ditch Neolithic Enclosure G53 finds F138 Ring-ditches Post-hole structures Metalled hollow way F50 Anglo-Saxon structure G52 Enclosure ditches Bronze hoard F211 Enclosure ditches Cremation burials and related features and deposits Bronze working area Enclosure ditch F22 ?Roman ditch F1 Enclosure ditches F20 and F22 Grooved Ware pot Soakaway 3 Soakaway 1 Soakaway 2 50m. Fig. 2 Ellington School, Ramsgate: site plan. INTERIM REPORTS BY CANTERBURY ARCHAEOLOGICAL TRUST 218 Though few, if any, features could be attributed to the Neolithic a considerable quantity of lithics of that date was recovered during the initial machine stripping and from later features. This assemblage included a very fine leaf-shaped arrowhead found at the base of a large, metalled hollow way (F50) located in the north-eastern corner of Area C1, a number of faceted flint hammerstones recovered as residual finds from features of a later date, and two polished axes, other finished implements and a large quantity of struck flakes recovered in association with later Bronze Age material from the basal fill of a pit (F138), also located in Area C1. A small assemblage of later Neolithic pottery was also recovered. This included: a fragmented grooved-ware vessel retrieved during the stripping of Area A3; the base of a vessel from an evaluation trench located on the western side of Area A3 and residual sherds from a number of features in areas A3 and C1. It is also possible that a series of segmented ditch-lines forming a funnel shaped enclosure located immediately to the north-west of the hollow way may have their origins in the Neolithic period, although a secure date for these features will rely on the results of further pottery and environmental analysis. The majority of the features identified at the Ellington School site would appear to date from the later Bronze Age or Early Iron Age period and include: field boundary, drainage and enclosure ditches, post-hole structures and alignments, domestic refuse pits and ‘industrial’ pits, cremation burials, and evidence for bronze-working. At the eastern end of road strip A1, immediately to the east of its junction with Pysons Road, two phases of a substantial, north-south aligned slightly curvilinear ditch (F20 and F2), a possible subrectangular post-hole structure, an area of pitting and a number of other smaller features were identified. The character and dimensions of the later ditch (F2) implied a defensive boundary function. The main focus of settlement in the excavated area appeared to be located toward the northern end of road strip area A2 and in Soakaway pit 3, where numerous pits, post-holes, ditches, several cremation burials and other cut features (probably small clay quarries) were located. Evidence of bronze-working in the form of slag and bronze droplets was recovered from the fills of several pits. A substantial bronze hoard (F211) which contained over eighty implements including socketed axes, spear-heads, gouges, sword fragments and other implements together with copper and bronze ingots also came from this site, but had been illegally removed by a metal detectorist and is now in the possession of the British Museum. The hoard has been dated to the Ewart Park phase of the later Bronze Age and was probably deposited at some time between 1050 and 850 bc. Four un-urned and one urned cremation burial together with three small pits containing in situ ceramic vessels (offerings?) were also identified INTERIM REPORTS BY CANTERBURY ARCHAEOLOGICAL TRUST 219 toward the northern end of Area A2. In addition to these funerary features a number of the pits in this area contained what appeared to be ‘placed’ objects consisting of large pot sherds, animal bone, fragments of quern and other cultural material. Two ring-ditches were also possibly Bronze Age, but could not be conclusively dated. A number of possible post-hole structures, pits and ditch alignments were recorded at the southern side of Area A3 and northern extent of Area C1. At least one enclosure was identified; the majority of the ditch features may have represented droveways. Occupation of the area seems to have largely ceased in the Late Iron Age. An Anglo-Saxon sunken-featured structure located towards the eastern side of Area C1, was the only evidence recovered for that period. Its dimensions and characteristics made it a typical type of the sixth to ninth century. No evidence of medieval occupation was identified, apart from a few sherds of pottery possibly introduced during manuring of fields. 9. Admiralty Lookout, Dover Castle (TR 3274 4163) A watching brief was maintained during the cutting of several investigative trenches and services in January 2006, associated with restoration of the Admiralty Lookout buildings. Three trenches revealed brick foundations and walls of the nineteenth-century Garrison Hospital, demolished in the 1960s. Remains of a concrete platform and a brickbuilt wall of the former gun battery built between 1871 and 1875, were also recorded. 10. Sea Cadet Headquarters, Castle Road, Sandgate (TR 2063 3518) Evaluation trenching was undertaken prior to housing development on this site adjacent to Sandgate Castle, constructed by order of Henry VIII between 1539 and 1540. The evaluation confirmed that the development area overlay former storm beach gravels. Remnant Ragstone blocks recorded within these gravels were assumed to derive from documented episodes of storm damage, which eventually claimed one third of the castle area. In the south-west corner of the development area a segment of dressed Ragstone wall, capped with dressed granite blocks and with a War Department marker at its north end, might be attributed to nineteenthcentury modification to the castle. 11. New Romney sewer scheme As a result of earlier evaluation,8 excavation was undertaken in two locations in the autumn of 2005. At the western end of Church Road (TR 0600 2460) monitoring during creation of a settling pond and a works INTERIM REPORTS BY CANTERBURY ARCHAEOLOGICAL TRUST 220 compound observed a series of shallow ditches and finds indicating activity in the area from the late medieval period through to the sixteenth century. More detailed excavation revealed several metalled surfaces and a sequence of pits suggesting the presence of a building nearby. The site was particularly rich in terms of finds9 and of special note were eleven silver short-cross and long-cross pennies ranging in date from the late twelfth to the early fourteenth century, some of which had been cut to create half pennies and farthings. The site was also rich in terms of environmental remains with a good assemblage of bird and fish bone as well as mollusc shells. At the southern end of St Martin’s Field, off Ashford Road and Fairfield Road (TR 0646 2487), forty-seven graves were recorded at the edge of the former burial ground of St Martin’s Church, the first parish church of New Romney. A possible boundary ditch was located and deposits either derived from the demolition of the church in 1549 or to the adjacent priory, were also recorded. Again, the site was rich in medieval finds, with an interesting corpus of coins. A watching brief during the cutting of sewer pipe trenches continued until May 2007 and will be reported next year. 12. Sussex Road, New Romney (TR 0618 2481) A prolonged watching brief was maintained during the demolition of Sussex Road Garage and the subsequent erection of two new houses, between September 2003 and July 2005. The earliest archaeological deposits observed consisted of a sequence of silty sand overlying the natural sand dune and a single linear feature cutting this. An interesting group of finds was retrieved including pottery dating to 1150-1175, animal bone and evidence for industrial activity, including several hand-held stone (?linen) smoothers, a Schist hone stone, numerous sheep horn cores (which may indicate horn working) and a layer of Caen stone chippings. Sealing these earlier deposits was a series of medieval rectangular timber buildings with associated clay floors, hearths and other structural features, all fronting medieval road surfaces on the line of Spitalfield Lane. Ten structures with six phases of activity spanning the years 1150-1650, were identified. 13. Roman Road, Aldington (TR 06752 36261) A watching brief was maintained at the end of December 2005 during the installation of a new electricity service cable across one of Kent’s major Roman roads.10 A 450m length of narrow machine-excavated trench was monitored, extending north and south from Roman Road, but findings were only made where the trench crossed the road. The trench sides then INTERIM REPORTS BY CANTERBURY ARCHAEOLOGICAL TRUST 221 provided a clear section showing the Roman road construction, with a 0.30m thick layer of small Ragstone chippings just beneath the modern tarmac and various make-up levels.11 14. Foster Road, Sevington (TR 03115 40880) Fifteen trenches were cut in the spring of 2006 to evaluate a site at Ashford Business Park prior to the erection of industrial units. Significant archaeological remains were identified in all of them. The site lay in an area of high archaeological potential with discoveries nearby ranging in date from the Mesolithic period through to the Iron Age, then through Roman and Anglo-Saxon times, to Domesday, with medieval features possibly associated with Boys Hall.12 It was only possible to investigate a selective number of the features and deposits revealed in the trenches. The features in the southern area consisted of field and boundary ditches, occupation deposits and rubbish pits. A row of post-holes parallel to a ditch appeared to represent a fenced enclosure. Ground beam slots associated with post-holes probably formed part of a timber structure. Trenches to the north of the area also included field boundary ditches as well as concentrated pit groups and isolated post-holes. A broad shallow linear feature traversing the area north-south appeared to be a trackway. The pottery recovered from these features was almost entirely Late Bronze Age and Iron Age in date with a sherd of late Anglo-Saxon or early medieval local Ashford ware being the exception. Environmental sampling identified small quantities of charred cereal grain and seeds in addition to cattle and sheep/goat bones, all indicative of a mixed agricultural economy typical of later prehistoric settlement. The single sherd of late Anglo-Saxon or early medieval pottery and a number of undated features focused in the west and east, probably field boundaries and drains, indicated that activity may have resumed in the early medieval period before the founding of Boys Hall in the mid thirteenth century. 15. Holborough Quarry, Snodland (TQ 7025 6235) In November 2005 and April 2006 two further areas were excavated and a geological investigation of underlying subsoils undertaken at Holborough Quarry. Excavation in 2004 had uncovered evidence for prehistoric activity predominantly of Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age date, amongst which was a mould for a Ewart Park type sword and other industrial debris. Several cremation burials were also recorded.13 The second phase of investigation undertaken in 2005 to the west of the area, located a large number of pits, stake- and post-holes and three INTERIM REPORTS BY CANTERBURY ARCHAEOLOGICAL TRUST 222 more cremations. A number of subcircular and rectangular structures were again represented by post-holes and a number of refuse pits were excavated. The absence of metalworking debris in this area reinforces the earlier theory that domestic and industrial areas were separated by the segmented ditch excavated in 2004. The third phase of work investigated the south-west corner of the area. Again a large number of post- and stake-holes were present together with pits, short lengths of ditch and gully and a small furnace, probably associated with bronze-working. Again the features appeared to be predominantly of Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age date, although a number of mid to late Iron Age and Roman pottery sherds were recovered from a number of features. The features in this southern area appeared to form a separate focus of activity and possibly represented a later phase of occupation. The geological work, undertaken in four test pits cut along the western side of the final strip area, recorded a dynamic sequence of periglacial deposits overlying the solid chalk bedrock. Probable terrace gravels were also identified toward the northern side of the site and ancient/buried soils underlying and sealing the archaeological horizon were observed, particularly toward the south-western corner of the site. 16. Church Street, Hoo St Werburgh (TQ 7828 7186) Evaluation took place in September 2005 prior to proposed development of a site adjacent to St Werburgh church. Previous archaeological discoveries, most recently during the construction of a pipeline south of the proposed development,14 together with documentary sources, indicated the site to be of high archaeological potential and findings from the twelve evaluation trenches confirmed this to be the case. The earliest features consisted of two Late Bronze Age pits and a scatter of residual worked flints. A possible Romano-British ditch was exposed at the southern end of the site. The remains of a possible kiln or oven base, dated by a single sherd of pottery to the early or middle Anglo-Saxon period, was recovered in the south-west corner of the site. The limited nature of the evaluation precluded further investigation of these features. Early medieval features were recorded in the north of the development area. Three pits, all with traces of burning around their edges, a rubbish or cess pit and a ditch, all shared a date range of c.1050-1250. Bulk soil samples were collected from all of the excavated early medieval features. Several produced assemblages of carbonised cereal remains and associated crop weeds, as well as charred hazelnut shell. Fragments of six species of edible marine molluscs were recovered from the early medieval features, together with fish bones. The bone assemblage demINTERIM REPORTS BY CANTERBURY ARCHAEOLOGICAL TRUST 223 onstrated evidence for both butchery and horn-working and ferrous residues, including slag and hammer scale, indicated metalworking in the early medieval period. Features dated to the late medieval period (c.1250-1550) consisted of two rubbish pits, a field ditch and a pit containing the articulated skeleton of a pig. Post-medieval features, including further rubbish pits and a series of metalled surfaces may relate to agricultural buildings shown on the 1840 tithe map and the 1870 Ordnance Survey. 17. Claxfield Farm, Lynsted (TQ 9470 6220) A watching recording brief was maintained during the removal of topsoil and the consequent extraction of brickearth in May and June 2005. Only three features were exposed by the topsoil strip: an undatable fire pit and two recent sheep burials. A Quaternary geologist was present for the second phase of work when a 4m high section through the subsoil was observed. Five deposits were distinguished. The lowest strata consisted of coombe rock, made up of rounded chalk clasts up to 0.03m in diameter set in a chalky matrix. The deposition of this deposit is commonly associated with down-slope movement during intensely cold (periglacial) conditions. The coombe rock was overlaid by coombe deposits comprised of reworked Thanet Beds, fine to medium sand resting on scattered Bullhead Bed flints. This deposit had a maximum thickness of 0.60m to the south. The bedded nature of this deposit suggested deposition by incremental layers of slopewash or possibly by running water. It was in this horizon that Palaeolithic artefacts were recovered during investigations at nearby Bapchild.15 Three limon (brickearth) units followed, composed of a mix of clay, silt and fine sand generally thought to have been deposited by slopewash or by the wind. The lowest limon unit had a maximum thickness of 0.80m and was yellow brown in colour with chalk granules less than 0.05m in diameter and occasional large flints up to 0.10m in diameter. The junction between the limon with chalk granules and the overlying layer, limon à doublets, was marked by a discontinuous concentration of flint gravel up to 0.06m in diameter. The doublets comprised slightly lighter and darker bands and had been deformed since deposition with a maximum thickness of 1.10m. The change from deformed to undeformed doublets indicated that there was a break in deposition during which the lower bands within the doublets were deformed before the resumption of deposition. This is only the second site in Britain in which a positive identification of the limon à doublets has been made, the first being at Bapchild.16 The uppermost limon unit was dark yellow brown with a maximum thickness of 1.50m and showed no indication of bedding. INTERIM REPORTS BY CANTERBURY ARCHAEOLOGICAL TRUST 224 endnotes 1 From the Pas-de-Calais (pers. comm., Bernard Worssam). 2 M . Houliston, in A.P. Fitzpatrick, ‘Roman Britain in 2005’, Britannia, xxxvii (2006), 426. 3 A . Hicks and M. Houliston, 2005, ‘Whitefriars’, in Canterbury’s Archaeology 2003- 2004, 4-7. 4 S .S. Frere, S. Stow and P. Bennett, Excavations on the Roman and Medieval Defences of Canterbury, The Archaeology of Canterbury II (1982), Maidstone. 5 R ev. R. Willis, ‘The Architectural History of the Conventual Buildings of the Monastery of Christ Church in Canterbury’, Archaeologia Cantiana, vii (1868), 1-206; M. Sparks, A History of the Choir House, pamphlet. 6 G . Shand and S. Sweetinburgh, 2007, ‘Church Street St Paul’s’, Canterbury’s Archaeology 2005-2006, 15-17. 7 A full report on the study and other findings at the site is forthcoming. 8 S ee Archaeologia Cantiana, cxxvii (2007), 329. 9 M . Diack, ‘New Romney sewer scheme’, Canterbury’s Archaeology 2005-2006, 33-4. 10 R oute 131, I. Margary, Roman Roads in Britain I: South of the Foss Way-Bristol Channel (1955), London. 11 A . Linklater, ‘Roman Road, Aldington’, Canterbury’s Archaeology 2005-2006, 37-8. 12 S ee R. Helm, Canterbury’s Archaeology 2005-2006, 38-9, for details. 13 S ee Archaeologia Cantiana, cxxvii (2007), 330. 14 C . Moore, ‘Late Bronze Age, Romano-British and early/middle Saxon features at Hoo St Werburgh’, Archaeologia Cantiana, cxxii (2002), 259-74. 15 H . Dines, ‘The Palaeolithic Site at Bapchild, near Sittingbourne’, The South Eastern Naturalist and Antiquary, being the Transactions of the South Eastern Union of Scientific Societies, 33 (1928), 100-107; ‘The flint industries of Bapchild’, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society of East Anglia, 6 (1929), 12-26. 16 D ines, op cit. (see note 15).