( 338 )
ROMAN CANTERBURY (DUROYERNUM).
BY CANON SOOTT ROBERTSON.
IK High Street, Canterbury, beneath six houses, numbered 30 to
35, one of which is the Eleur de Lis Hotel, and beneath the roadway
in front of them, lie the massive foundations of a large and
important Eoman building. Mr. James Pilbrow, E.S.A., when
constructing the deep drainage system of Canterbury, in 1868,
carefully examined these foundations and came to the conclusion
that they appertained to the Eoman Citadel, or arx of Durovernum.
He therefore marked them with the letter C upon his Plan of
Canterbury,* The late Mr. Thomas Godfrey Eaussett, in his
admirable paper on Canterbury till Domesday,^ distinguishes by the
letter N the Eoman building which stood upon these foundations.
I think we may identify this Eoman building as having contained
a tessellated pavement, which was discovered in High Street",
in June 1758. Of that pavement a coloured drawing is now preserved,
by Miss Dunkin of Dartford; and a chromolithograph,
which she courteously permitted to be taken from it, is given in
the earlier part of this volume, between pages 126, 127, in illustration
of Mr. Eoach Smith's valuable monograph upon Roman
Tessellated Pavements.
To form a cellar for a house, next door to the King's Sead Inn,
excavations were made which brought to light this pavement, about
three feet below the surface, 125 years ago. Such insertions of
cellars necessarily tend to raise the level of the soil and street, and
* Archcsologia, vol. xliii., pp. 154,155. The foundations (Nos. 73,74, 75, and
76 on Mr. Hlbrow's plan) run beneath the present roadway, at right angles to
its direction. Seven feet below the surface, Mr. Pilbrow came upon the tops
of three parallel walls. The middle wall (30 feet 10 inches thick) was 14 feet
distant from the western wall (4 feet thick), and 16 feet from the eastern wall
(8 feet thick). The western wall stood 4 feet from the corner of Lamb Lane.
Further east, than any of these, was a fourth wall (4 feet thick) not so deep
down as the others. It stood 21 feet west of White Horse Lane ; and opposite
the end of that lane " the wall seemed to terminate" eastward, by a heavy
pavement of large stones (each 12 inches thick), 6 feet below the surface. This
pavement and the foundations extended up White Horse Lane, some distance
southward,
•f Arehaiologioal Journal, vol, xxxii,
ROMAN CANTERBURY. 339
here we ascertain some facts respecting the result. In 1868, more
than a century after the cellar was inserted, Mr. Pilbrow found 5
feet of soil above the Eoman pavement of large stones, close by, in
High Street, which extends also up White Horse Lane.*
Through the courtesy and research of Mr. J . E . Hall, I have been
enabled to ascertain that the site of the King's Head is now occupied
by the Kentish Gazette office, which is No. 31 High Street.
Thus it becomes evident that the tessellated Eoman pavement,
discovered in June 1758 (beneath the street in front of No. 30 or
No. 32) formed part of that Eoman building which Mr. Pilbrow
called the Citadel, and Mr. Eaussett denoted'by the letter N.
I t is interesting thus to be able to identify the site of one of
the most remarkable of all the buildings within Eoman Canterbury.
The spot is still one of the busiest in the modern city.
WAILS OF THE EOMAN SETTLEMENT.
The site of the Eoman building, in which this pavement was
situated, is a notable landmark with reference to the extent of
Durovernum, or Canterbury under the Eomans.
Mr. Pilbrow and Mr. Eaussett coalesce in a belief that the
WESTEEN BOUNDAEvf of Durovernum stood within 30 or 40 yards
west of that building, and that the NOETH WALL of Durovernum
commenced about 100 yards north of the same edifice.
The line of the western boundary is upon Mr. Pilbrow's plan
marked thus: -o-o-o, at a distance of about 50 feet eastward
from the present eastern bank of the river Stour. It must be
remembered that 1000 years ago, the river's tide would flow
far beyond the existing banks. During so long an interval, the
surface of the ground has risen 5 feet, 6 feet, or 7 feet in different
places. This is proved by Mr. Pilbrow's" excavations. He found
that, upon the Eoman roads and pavements, soil had accumulated
to those depths. In fact, upon the west bank of the river, near
* WHITE HOESE LAKE looks very much like a corrupted form of such a
name as WHITE HOUSE LANE. If the designation be of any antiquity, it may
very possibly have arisen from the great stone house of Eoman foundation,
situated at its north-west corner. Outside Canterbury the name WHITEHALL
still clings to land in and around Eoman earthworks at Harbledown, which
overhang the Chatham and Dover railway. Bare Eoman coins of gold have
been found there. The same name WHITEHALL is found in divers parts of
Kent, and in every English county, still clinging to land in which signs of
Eoman occupation have been found.
f Mr. Faussett suggested that the Roman roads from Lymne, Dover, and
Eiohboro', which converge to pass the river at Canterbury, were made before
any defensive walls were constructed at Durovernum.
z 2
340 ROMAN CANTERBURY.
King's Bridge, he discovered the longitudinal half of an oak trunk,
30 feet long, which had been used as a footbridge. Over it no less
than 7 feet of soil had accumulated. It is marked 88x upon his
valuable plan; portions of which are reproduced here, as it is
not easily accessible to many readers in the Archceologia, vol. xliii.
The exact line of the Eoman west boundary was determined by
the fair face of a wall which Mr. Pilbrow discovered, under the roadway
in front of All Saints Church. It is marked 72 on his plan ;
and is distinguished by the letter M on Mr. Eaussett's. This solid
wall ran from east to west, in the same direction as the road, for a
distance of 12 feet. It was 4 feet below the present surface, and
was built of squared stones, each 13 inches thick, well jointed, and
laid on a bed of concrete. This wall seems to have been part of a
gateway in the Eoman boundary. Its eastern face stood about 90
feet from the west wall of the great building which Mr. Pilbrow
denominates " The Citadel;" and lies in a direct line with the
rough footbridge found on the opposite side of the river, 7 feet
below the surface.
An indication of the NOETHEEN WALL of Durovernum was found
running through, beneath the north end of G-uildhall Street, into
Sun Street. It is marked A upon Mr. Pilbrow's plan; and Mr.
Eaussett says, " At the very spot where the Palace boundary abuts
upon Sun Street, there was found, continuing its line onwards across
Sun Street, the lower part of an enormously massive wall of Eoman
masonry, with the usual string-courses of brick ; and the same wall
was found again continuing the same line a few yards
further on in G-uildhall Street The discovery of this
piece of unmistakably Eoman wall, from its width also unmistakably
CITX WALE, gives fresh point to the question whether we may not
expect some future excavation into the earthen banks, on the
southern and eastern sides [of Canterbury], to reveal a Eoman
wall" in them. " Or can we suppose one side of the city to have
been fortified with earthwork only, and the other with a wall of
stone?"
Mr. Eaussett believed that the existing earthen wall of the city
is a Eoman wall or occupies its site. The earthen wall stops
suddenly, not far north of Burgate, in the garden of a residentiary
house* near the south-eastern corner of the Cathedral Precincts.
Erom that point, said Mr. Eaussett, it probably ran directly towards
* Occupied now and for many years past by the Rev. F. Eouch, a Minor
Canon of the Cathedral.
•
•
(n*X)
Scale of Feet
? - T T T T— 5 g -r i T 3"
4
STDUNSTAF'S 1 \
PLAN SHEWING SITES OF ROMAN AND MEDI/EVAL REMAINS FOUND BY M* J. PILBROW BENEATH THE STREETS OF CANTERBURY IN 1868.
-FKeii.Fhoto-Litho.CarxU 35 Holborn,London.Ef
ROMAN CANTERBURY. 341
the spot upon which now stands the sduth-west tower of the
Cathedral. Thence it crossed to Sun Street, where the solid
masonry of its mural continuation still remains in the soil. Thus
the site of the Cathedral itself was just outside the north wall of
the Eoman settlement, according to Mr. Eaussett. Urn burials
found in Palace Street (at points marked 62 and 63 on Mr. Pilbrow's
plan) proved, said Mr. Eaussett, that those sites stood outside the
Eoman north wall; and that the north gate of the Eomans must
have stood far to the south of the mediaeval north gate.
Thus on the EAST and SOUTH, he considered that the existing
city walls coincide with Eoman boundaries; and he was probably
correct. But these may have been late boundaries of a settlement
which, during the lapse of two or three centuries, the Eomans had
extended far beyond its original limits.
That the site of the Cathedral precincts was entirely outside
the Eoman wall is a fact upon which Mr. Pilbrow remarks very
forcibly. He says, " In trenching through the Cathedral precincts,
so extensively as we did, scarcely a thing was met with, though
greater precaution was taken than could possibly be in the open
streets of the city, to secure everything discovered." In noticing
the discovery of a skeleton opposite Christ Church Q-ate, at the
entrance to Mercery Lane, he suggests that the Eoman wall may
have turned eastward near to, but south of, the spot whereon the
skeleton was discovered.
Mr. Pilbrow suggested, as the result of his investigation of
foundations, discovered beneath the streets, that the original Eoman
walls enclosed but a very small area. He saw such remarkable
foundations* of enormous strength, beneath the space marked E, B,
where Watling Street meets Castle Street and St. Margaret's Street,
that he could ascribe them to nothing less than the defensive wall
of the original settlement. He therefore marks the eastern wall as
passing through this space B, B. At one point, in St. Margaret's
Street (marked 49), opposite Mr. Oollard's offices, there was a
foundation, 22 feet long, so massive that labourers wrought at it,
day and night, for two weeks before they had broken it up. Mr.
John Brent, E.S.A., suggested that a Eoman Citadel, or arx, stood
upon this substructure.f At another point, marked 4A, it was found
easier to tunnel under, than to break through, masonry 13 feet
wide which went down 12 feet to the solid gravel.
* Numbered 44 to 49 on Mr. Pilbrow's plan.
f Canterbury m tlie Olden Time, 2nd edition, p. 16.
B4& ROMAN CANTERBURY.
On the SOUTH, Mr. Pilbrow found in Stour Street, near the end
of Hospital Lane, foundations which he supposed .to be those of a
tower or fort. He therefore marks the line of the original Eoman
south wall as running from Castle Street to Stour Street, north of
Hospital Lane. He thus excludes the site of the Castle and the
Dane-John from the original enclosure of Durovernum. In this
Mr. Brent agreed with him.
Nevertheless, Mr. Eaussett's theory, that a wider area was
enclosed within Eoman walls, seems to have been realized at a
later period. Leland, Stukely, and other writers who had seen the
ancient Eiding Grate (on the east) and the old "Worth Q-ate (on the
south), ascribe both of them to Eoman origin. Mr. Pilbrow also
testifies that under the Worth Q-ate, he found (at a point marked
83 on his plan) a hard concreted wall with Eoman tiles in two
courses, bedded in strong mortar, 4 feet wide. This formed the
core of the south wall of the Castleyard, or City wall. He
acknowledges that this was undoubtedly part of an anterior wall,
built by the Eomans. The tiles measured, some 11 inches by 14,
and others 13 inches by 18. Beyond this wall he found the ancient
fosse of the city, 23 feet wide, which had been filled up.
The extent and number of the Eoman cemeteries discovered
outside the city walls, tend greatly to support Mr. Eaussett's views.*
They prove that Durovernum ultimately developed into a large and
populous place.
The area enclosed within the walls, as sketched by Mr. Eaussett,
is divided pretty equally into two parts by the line of the great
Eoman road from Dover, called Watling Street,f which entering by
Eiding Grate had its exit at Beer Cart Lane. This equal partition of
the area by a central road, as he points out, would accord well with
the Eoman method of planning such a settlement as Durovernum.
* One cemetery, on the east, runs under and on both sides of the road now
called " Old Dover Eoad j " part of it was subsequently used as the graveyard
of St. Sepulchre's Nunnery. A second Eoman cemetery was found outside
Worth Q-ate, It was adjacent to the site of the Chatham and Dover Railway
Station, and extended into Wincheapfield, beyond the Gasometer. A third
cemetery was on the St. Dunstan's Eoad. It included the site of St. Dunsfcan's
churchyard, but it extended from the South-Eastern Railway cutting to the
London Eoad on the north-west. A fourth cemetery was found at Vauxhall,
beside the Eamsgate Eoad, It included the sites of the Infantry and Cavalry
Barracks. A fifth seems to have been near Little Barton and the cemetery of
St. Augustine's Abbey. See Brent's Canterbury in the Olden Time, 2nd edition,
pp. 31-33, 38-41.
f The Eoman road was found throughout Beer Cart Lane; but in Watling
Street it runs under the houses on the north side of the street, not beneath the
roadway. It also ran considerably to the north of Old Dover Eoad, not beneath
the present roadway there.
THE DANE-JOHN MOUND. 343
THE DANE-JOHN MOUND, AND EIDING GATE.
The extension and development of Durovernum, after the lapse
of a century or more from its original settlement, may well account
for and reconcile the differing views of Mr. Pilbrow and Mr.
Eaussett, respecting the area within the Eoman walls. Tet all
questions connected with the date of the southern and eastern walls
are not thereby set at rest. The unknown and much disputed
origin of the Dane-John Mound causes, and probably always will
cause, doubt and difficulty. At present, it is within the City wall.
Was it there before the wall was made ? Is it a work earlier than
the time of the Eomans, or was it thrown up after their departure ?
Was it a moated mound, or was it not p I shall not attempt to
explain all the difficulties surrounding its history. I hope, however,
that a few facts not yet put upon record may be stated here; which
will perhaps assist others in their investigations respecting this
celebrated mound.
Mr. George T. Clark has more scientific knowledge of early
defensive works, whether earthen or of masonry, than any other
man in England. To him therefore I ventured to apply, when our
Archaeological Society visited Canterbury in 1881, asking for his
opinion, which would be of great value. The amount of difficulty
connected with the question will at once be seen by any one who
reads his lucid statement, which I have much pleasure in appending.
ME, G-. T. CLABK ON THE DANE-JOHN.
" As TO DANE-JOHN, I don't think anybody, who really understands
the earthworks of our island, would venture to pronounce
dogmatically upon it. I can only say what I suppose it to be.
" I t is evidently artificial, and there are, or were I think some
years ago, traces of a ditch, of which the main ditch of the city is
part, but which I conclude surrounded the hill, and in fact gave
birth to it.
" I f this be so it was intended for defence, and was not a
sepulchral barrow.*
" I t is, I think, older than the bank and ditch of the City
just within which it is placed, and which seem to have been deflected
* Leland's record of a leaden coffin relates to a part of the Dungeon Manor
which lies outside the city wall. He says, " Many years since, men sought for
treasure, at a place called the Dungen, where Baron Hales' house is now ; and
there, in digging, they found a corpse closed in lead." Very recently skeletons
have been found, in digging foundations, beside the Chatham and Dover
Eailway Station, which occupies the site of part of a Roman Cemetery, on the
Dungeon Manor.
344 ROMAN CANTERBURY.
somewhat so as to include i t ; as is the case with the Bayle Hill at
York, which it much resembles in its position as regards the City
bank and ditch.
" Eor these reasons I believe it to be a MOATED MOUND, such
as in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is called a Burh; and of which you
have a fine example at Tonbridge, and a smaller but very perfect
one at Binbury, on the high ground above Thurnham " [towards
Stockbury].
" The Chronicle gives the names and dates of about twenty-five
to thirty of these Burhs, and enough of them remain to shew what
they were.
" The BEITONS never used MOATED MOUNDS for defence, nor as
a dwelling, and although Mounds are found in Eoman encampments,
they are subordinate to the main work, like the Cavaliers in Yauban's
fortification; whereas in the English work the Moated Mound is
the main feature.
" Where these Mounds, as at York, Wallingford, Wareham,
Cardiff, and Tamworth, are mixed up with rectangular works, whose
history or else their plan shews them to be of Eoman or Brito-
Eoman origin, it is very evident that the Mound is later than the
bank. What, at Canterbury, was the precise course of the Eoman
enceinte, whether it was walled all round, or how it ran, as regards
Dane-John I do not know.
" You mention Boley Hill at Eochester, usually regarded as a
Danish work thrown up to enable them to command the Castle.
That it is Danish is probable, for both Danes and Saxons used the
MOATED MOUND; but I do not see how it would command the
Castle, from which it is more than a bow-shot distant. I certainly
do not think that Dane-John had any reference to the Castle of
Canterbury. It would be of no use at all in an attack. The Castle,
moreover, I take to be pure Norman, altogether Post-Conquistal;
a new work, not constructed like Dover, or Bramber, upon any
already existing earthwork.
" As to the Mounds outside the City-ditch, opposite Dane-John,
now, I rather think, destroyed by the railway, they or one of them,
for when I was there I only made out one, looked rather like a
Moated Mound, but I could not feel sure of it.
" I may add that I suspect the original Mound was rather larger,
and has been pared and scarped for ornamental purposes, and the
parings thrown up so as to raise it nearly to a point.
" G-. T. CLAEK."
THE DANE-JOHN MOUND. 345
When such an authority, with respect to defensive mounds, walls
and castles, expresses his inability to solve the doubts and difficulties
connected with the Dane-John Mound, and its relation to the Eoman
enceinte, or boundaries, we must be content to remain in doubt.
I t is evident, however, that Mr. Clark is much inclined to
believe that the Mound was a Moated Mound thrown up by the
English (or Anglo-Saxons, as our fathers called them). He would,
in that case, say that the present city-wall, of earth, was a later
work not known to the Eomans. I may point out that if this were
conceded Mr. Eaussett's theory would need very little alteration.
At Worth G-ate, Eoman masonry was found by Mr. Pilbrow; the
Eiding G-ate was also of Eoman origin; the direct line of a Eoman
wall running between those two gates would leave the site of Dane-
John Mound fifty or sixty yards outside, on the south. Eef erence to
Mr. Pilbrow's map will shew that the plan of the city wall of stone
around Dane-John bears a singular resemblance to that of the wall
beside Broad Street, the origin of which Mr. Eaussett distinctly
ascribes to a period far later than that of the Eoman occupation.
This being premised, I may now refer to certain facts which
seem to me strongly to support the idea that the Dane-John was
originally a Moated Mound.
The name Eiding Gate, which the majority of people suppose to
mean " the rider's gate" (as Leland did of old), has no connection
whatever with horses. Erom the thirteenth century to the
fifteenth we find it spelt Eedingate. Mr. Eaussett defines its
meaning to be " Gate of the Eoads," whence " the three great
harbour-ways of Antoninus spread out like a fan, through swampy
ground for the first few hundred yards, as the soil testifies." I believe
that the words which I have italicized contain an allusion to the true
origin of the name Eeding-gate. We know how frequently the
Celtic root Re or Rhe occurs in connection with water, and swampy
marshy sites. The Rhee* in Eomney Marsh with Read or Red Hill
in Appledore at its inland extremity; and, still further inland,
Reading Street and Reading Sewer in communication originally
with the same Rhee or waterway, may well illustrate the name
Reding Gate. The term Reding combines the English (or Saxon)
suffix " ing " (meadow) with the Celtic root Re, in an orthodox manner.
The combination exactly describes the site of Eiding Gate in the
Middle Ages and earlier. The present dry state of the ground at
* For numerous examples of this river name and its derivatives, see
Arolwsologia Cantiana, XIII., 268-9 ; and Words and Places (6th edition),
pp, 137-8.
346 YIEW OE CANTERBURY IN A.D. 1588.
and around Eiding Gate is utterly unlike what it used to be. Some
idea of its former condition may be gathered from William Smith's
ancient bird's-eye view of the city. It was taken in 1588, the year
of the Spanish Armada's alarming visit to our shores. It proves
that, 300 years ago, water flowed completely round the Castle, and
washed against the city walls, beyond Worth Gate, to Eiding Gate;
and beyond Eiding Gate, as far as St. George's Gate. This view
of Canterbury, while it shews how nearly a Moated Mound the
Dane-John Hill was, even so lately as A.D. 1588, likewise confirms
Mr. Clark's opinion that the Mound was formerly much larger,
rougher, and not so lofty as it now is. It verifies his conjecture
that the sides have been scarped, and that the soil therefrom has
been heaped upon the top of the mound. William Smith's bird'seye
view is the earliest plan of the city that we possess. It cannot
be expected to exhibit the accuracy of a modern Ordnance Survey,
but in a rough way it gives a fair idea of what the city was like,
when the churches of St. John Pauper, St. Mary de Castro, and St.
Michael were still standing; and before the churches of the G-reyfriars,
the Blackfriars, and St. Gregory's Priory had disappeared.
I t errs in labelling St. Stephen's Church as " Harboldowne;" in
converting the tower of St. Mildred's Church into a mural tower
of the City wall; and in labelling St. Gregory's as " St. Jones."
There is likewise some confusion as to the position of the Castle in
relation to Worth Gate and Wincheap Gate. It is inserted between
the two, which is clearly a mistake.
Looking at William Smith's plan we can understand how it was
that the Black Dyke, or sewage cesspit of the city, was in the
Dungeon or Dane-John Grounds. The neighbourhood of the
Eiding Gate had, in Eoman times, been upon a lower level than the
rest of the city. Mr. Pilbrow says, " The old road evidently dipped
towards the Eiding Gate, before arriving at which there was found
rough pebble pitching, at 3 feet deep : under this there was a great
depth of black vegetable mould, at 14 feet, in which was found a
Eoman silver spoon [of which he gives an engraving], some black
vases containing burnt bones or ashes, and boars' tusks." Outside
the Eiding Gate he found remains of the piers which carried a drawbridge
over the waterway. Their tops were 5 feet below the present
surface, and the pier nearest to the gate was 32 feet distant from its
outer face. At 18 feet below the present surface the base of the
wall-pier had not been reached. This shews how extremely low, in
early times, was the level of firm ground outside Biding Gate. The
most remarkable discovery, however, was made about 185 yards
CANTERBVRY
Ct?
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