EXCAVATIONS AT ECCLES, 1962
First Interim Report
By A. P. DETSICAS, M.A., F.S.A.SCOT.
INTRODUCTION
Excavations were carried out by the Lower Medway Archseological
Research Group during the 1962 season at Rowe Place Farm, Eccles,
in the parish of Aylesford. The work was undertaken by kind permission
of the landowners, Messrs. Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers
Limited and the Reed Paper Group, and with the wholehearted
co-operation of the farmers, Messrs. A. A. and A. C. Southwell, to whom
grateful acknowledgment is here made for many acts of kindness ; it
was financed entirely by generous grants1 and public donations.
The excavations covered an area of about half an acre and continued
every weekend from Easter to the end of September. My many thanks
are due to the numerous volunteers who made this excavation possible
by talcing part in the work at one time or another, and it is only considerations
of space that prevent me from mentioning each one of them
individually. I must, however, record my appreciation to the following
for their sustained support : Misses M. Bennett, P. Hagon, L. Smith ;
Messrs. D. Bartram, P. Dives, D. Dorrington, L. A. Griffith,
A. C. Harrrison, B.A., T. Hetherington, E. R. Swain, M. Syddell,
P. Whiteoak ; to Mr. R. G. Foord who took charge of the photography
and kindly supplied all the photographs illustrating this report; and
to Mr. M. A. Ocock who completed a field survey of the site and,
together with Miss W. I. Edridge, undertook practically all the field
drawings, which form the basis of my plans and sections.
THE SITE
The site lies to the South-West of Eccles village and about half a
mile East of the right bank of the Medway (N.G.R. TQ 722605 ; O.S.
6 in. Sheet TQ 76 SW) ; it is situated on the Gault Clay at about 85 feet
above O.D. The valley to the East is covered with the solifluction
1 From the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, the Kent Archaeological Society
and the Society of Antiquaries of London. My grateful thanks are also due to
Miss B. de Cardi, F.S.A. and to Col. G. W. Meates, F.S.A. for much help on and
off the field. I have also greatly benefited by the advice of Professor S. S. Frere,
V.-P.S.A. -who, besides visiting the site and offering several valuable suggestions,
has kindly read this report in draft form.
125
EXCAVATIONS AT ECCLES, 1962
(mud-flow) deposit known as ' Head', which would have formed in
the late Pleistocene under periglacial conditions. There are also
patches of the second terrace gravel of the Survey just to the South,
and also the alluvium of the Medway to the South-West of the site.2
The earhest reference3 to the presence of antiquities in this area is a
communication* by the Rev. Beale Poste, in 1848, which mentions the
discovery of Roman coins and ' sepulchral remains '. In 1908, George
Paine re-visited the Rev. Beale Poste's site and added some further
information,5 although some of this does not refer to the present site
owing to a probable misunderstanding on the part of his informant.
The area is marked on the O.S. map as ' Roman Building (Site of)',
at N.G.R. TQ 720606, on the basis of a reference to Roman foundations
appearing in a local journal.6 This is a little to the West of the
site, but there is no doubt that the foundations referred to are those of
a wall belonging to the villa.
On the basis of the above references and the presence of abundant
surface dehris, the area was covered by an air survey in 1961,7 which
provided sufficient indications to justify trial-trenching ; this was
undertaken by members of the Group in the late summer of 1961 and
established that the crop-marks photographed from the air were in fact
the result of the walls of a large building lying under this area.
Fig. 1 is a provisional plan of the site based on ground and air
observation8 as well as on a field survey of the crop-marks. It does
not include a further semi-circular crop-mark to the South-East of the
site, which is likely to be the original outline of the pond, nor does it
take into account a further building, which is known to exist to the
South-West of the site. Similarly, the centre of the surveyed area,
between broken lines, where crop-marks were not so clearly discernible,
has been left blank, though both excavation and the shape of the
visible crop-marks strongly suggest that the whole area is probably
occupied by the main section of the villa.
THE EXCAVATION
Excavation during this first season of work was concentrated on the
extreme west end of the site as known from the 1961 air reconnaissance.
2 Information from Dr. R. P. S. Jefferies, F.G.S., of the British Museum
(Natural History). 3 I am indebted for the information contained in this paragraph to the generosity
of Mr. J. H. Evans, F.S.A., F.R.G.S., and Mr. M. A. Ocock, who kindly made
their records available to me. 4 Journal of the British Archaeological Association, IV (1849), 81. 5 Arch. Cant., XXIII (1908), 12 ff. 6 Rochester Naturalist, VI, no. 130 (1924), 63.
J Conducted by Mr. M. A. Ocock, on behalf of the Lower Medway Archseological
Research Group. 8 In 1962, by Messrs. M. A. Ocock and H. V. Summerton, to whom I am
grateful for several valuable prints.
126
EXCAVATIONS AT ECCLES, 1962
C C C t C S ROMAN VILLA
PROVI s /OAM £ s/ re p LAN
V
FIG. 1.
It has been established that this part of the site is occupied mainly by
an early building, and then the successive bath buildings9 of the villa.
Three main building periods have so far been recognized, and they
may tentatively be dated as follows :
Period I, c. A.D. 75-100 : The Early Building.
Period II, c. A.D. 100-140/160 : The Bath Building, First Phase.
Period III, c. A.D. 140/160-290 : The Bath Building, Second Phase.
This dating depends largely on a prehminary examination of the
stratified pottery, and partly on the evidence of the few coins found in
stratified layers.
Evidence has also been recovered for later periods, but as yet in
insufficiently concrete form to indicate their chronological termini ;
0 In the absence of any conorete evidence to prove that the structure was
directly connected with the main block of the villa, the description of bath building
is preferred to that of bath wing.
127
EXCAVATIONS AT ECCLES, 1962
there is not much doubt, however, that the site remained in continuous
occupation throughout the Romano-British period.10
Period I, c. A.D. 75-100 : The Early Building
This first period is represented by the vestigial remnants of an early
building almost completely covered by the opus signinum floors of the
succeeding bath buildings. Two different sections of walls belonging
to this period could be recovered : (a) under and outside the north-west
wall of the Period I I I Room 18, and (b) under the Period I I Rooms 3,
8 and 9, though it is not beyond doubt that these two sections belong
to the same structure.
The section of wall (a), partly overlaid by the north-west wall of
Room 18, was built of ragstone set in yellow mortar, 2 feet thick and
slightly wider than section (b), and was robbed right down to its
foundation courses by the time the Period III walls were being built.
It is clear, however, from the small part of this wall preserved under
the north-west wall of Room 18, that this section of wall extended some
way to the South-East, but whether to connect with section (b), it was
impossible to ascertain because of the thickness of the opus signinum
floor in Room 17. Further to the South-East, where it has been possible
to excavate to the subsoil, no trace of any structure has been found
which can be associated with this period.
The long section of wall (b) was 18 inches thick, built of ragstone
set in bright yellow mortar and was, probably, an outer wall of this early
building. The purpose of this early building is not at present determined ;
that it was, however, of some importance and richness is suggested by
the materials, clearly belonging to this period, which were used as makeup
for later floors. They were laid over a hard-core, which contained
several fragments of a coarse, white and green mosaic, found under the
destroyed Period II floors, and two fragments of oolitic limestone
pillar-bases of Bath stone11 (Plate I) found under the hypocaust floor in
Room 19.
Belonging also to this period are the two drains found (a) under
Rooms 17,18 and 19, and (b) under Room 9.
Drain (a) was first exposed in the eastern part of Room 18, traced
under Room 17 and found once again in the east corner of Room 19
where a break in the hypocaust floor allowed excavation at depth ; it is
not at present Icnown where this drain outflowed, but it certainly did
not exist under Room 20 for a test trench opened at the base of this
room's south-east wall failed to find it. It certainly began where first
exposed under Room 18 for no traces of it could be found further to the
10 There are some structural remnants clearly pointing to much later occupation,
supported by a stratified coin of Gratian. 11 Identified by Dr. F. W. Anderson, F.G.S., of the Geological Survey.
128
EXCAVATIONS AT ECCLES, 1962
South-East (Fig. 3, Section C-D). This drain was of very solid construction,
with walls of bonding-tiles rendered with opus signinum and
floored with tiles, which will have probably also been used to form a
roof to the drain. No material at all was found stratified inside this
drain and, where its roof had not collapsed, it was found completely
empty and clean. Its attribution to Period I is, therefore, based on
inferential grounds in view of the later structures built upon it, though
it was certainly brought back into use again in Period II, even if only
on a temporary basis.
Drain (b) is a section of drain, which was later re-used by the
construction of a further channel of opus signinum over i t ; it had sides of
ragstone faced with opus signinum and continued North towards Room 6.
The dating of this period to c. A.D.75-100 is based almost completely
on the pottery which was found securely stratified with the remnants
of this early building, and that found in or close to the subsoil. Of the
two suggested dates, the earlier is very tentative and relies on pottery
which is not usually met in much later contexts, though it could, of
course, have been in use at the site at a rather earlier date ; the date
assumed to mark the closing of this period is much more secure in that
it is based upon coarse pottery and samian ware, which cannot be much
earlier than the closing years of the first century A.D., or later than
the first decade of the second century A.D.
It is hoped that much more of the plan and purpose of this early
building will be forthcoming next year. It is certainly known, from air
photography, that a structure did exist further to the North-West of
the site and beyond the limits of the present excavation, and it is
probable that part at least of this structure does belong to this period.
PeriodII, c. A.D. 100-140/160 : The Bath Building, First Phase
The first known bath building of the villa was constructed during
this period upon the remains of the earlier building, which must have
been methodically removed as none of its walls have been found
incorporated in the bath building : it is, of course, quite possible that
the Period I structure was itself a bath building, but this will only be
ascertained after much more work on the site.
Before it was superseded by its successor, this bath building had a
fairly long life during which at least three12 phases of alterations and
additions to the original plan have been distinguished ; these phases
can easily be recognized on a consideration of the building materials
and techniques employed in their respective structures : Phase A is
exclusively built of ragstone set in off-white mortar, Phase B has walls
of bonding- and/or roofing-tiles set in yellow mortar, and Phase C
uses chalk blocks and/or bonding-tiles set in off-white mortar.
12 A fourth phase was recognised in 1963.
129
9A
EXCAVATIONS AT ECCLES, 1962
The original bath building was a fairly large suite comprising a
range of at least twelve rooms serving the usual functions in such a
structure ; no attempt, however, is here made to attribute a definite
purpose to each one of the bath building's rooms, except in passing and
where certain, as this will have to await the completion of the excavation
for discussion in the definitive report. The walls of all these
rooms were almost exclusively built of ragstone set in off-white mortar,
with an occasional levelling course of bonding-tiles, particularly at the
top of the slightly wider foundation courses.
Room 2. This narrow room with much of its north-west and northeast
walls covered by the later Phase C walls is thought to have served
either as a latrine or an apodyterium ; it had a yellow mortar floor and
a doorway leading South-East into Room 3. A gap in the north-west
wall, which was later filled in with ragstone, was probably an outlet
into the drain immediately beyond the north-west wall. This drain,
which was partly robbed at its north-eastern end, was floored with
bonding-tiles, and care was taken to prevent seepage by facing its
containing walls with opus signinum, and even by adding a strip of opus
signinum quarter-round moulding at the junction of the flooring tiles
and the north-west wall of Room 2. In the original plan of the building,
Rooms 1 and 2 may have been one unit, as it is suggested by painted
wall-plaster preserved in situ by later walls, and divided into two
separate rooms first in Phase B ; in Phase C, this Room 2 seems to have
become smaller still with the building of new north-east and north-west
walls against the north corner of Room 3, and the laying down of large
ragstones as foundation material for a floor of chalk blocks faced with
ragstone, which formed a sort of ledge at the southern end of the room.
At the close of this period, Room 2 was used for the deposition of surplus
building material, and was found filled with the powdered brick and
tile material used in the composition of opus signinum.
Room 3. A long and rather narrow room, the south-east end of
which may not terminate on the conjectural south-east waU ; this room
was so thoroughly demolished in subsequent times as to render its
purpose rather problematical. Its three estabhshed walls were built
of the usual ragstone and off-white mortar, and must have been internally
faced with painted wall-plaster on the analogy of its contemporary
Rooms 1 and 2. The north-west wall of this room was pierced by a
doorway leading into Room 2 ; there was no sleeper-wall across this
entrance, but a strip of yellow-green clay at the foot of the opening in
Room 2 suggests that it may have served as the foundation for a wooden
screen. The north-east wall of this room had another door over a
sleeper-wall, which was probably one of the original entrances into the
bath house until it gave access into the later Room 16 and before it
130
E C C E S
TESSELLATION
-OPUS SIGNINUM B A T H B U I L D I N G
FLOOR
RUBBISH
VZWy. Vyi
ryyi OPUS SIGNINUM
FLOOR
yyyyyyyyyyy/y / wyy yyyyyyyyy,
yyyyyyy/y 'yyf/yx&yyyyyyyyyyy/y y yyyyyyyyyyyyy,
^y^222Z)^m CHALK
SLOCKS
DRAIN
pJDRAIN
r FLUE'
! ©
XDCDGQ
D O Z
OUTLET —
CHALK I
FEATURE
^HiHN LJ LJ u ^ X X L J LJ L i LJ LJ t_ ^ >
i—i n rn r - y y - i r*i n r-i r-i r - 7 /
L j LJ t_J L . W . J U J-J L.J-J-L l-.//*
n n n r-vvVr-J n i--r r-; r-c r - V / 1
LJ L j LJ" I_J! L. V ^
n rt r-i 1--1I i— VV
rn rn r, r-P^r--; ri ri rj m r j ^
Lrrnj
RUBBISH PIT
K n C C w ^ W ^ t ^ ^
WtttKI I • • i
J LJ L!
n rp r'1 <"-> r*1 r ** r
_ J U j | _ L J L . J L j L J L
D-i r;-i n n r"t ry
j L M LJ L J L J l[ y \
^4—, H-i r n r n r*1 f t r r ^ . S A V \
^\] j L-j L J L J L J L J L'J « - 4 0 \V
RUBBISH PIT s n u n [ ] " " • • „ . v n n n n n n D^
LEAD P PE ^ ] D D D D DD
/ p | \ _ V \i—i i—i i—i i—t i—i i—i i—i
_, r'-i r-i r-x r - l r i r h I" S \ \ > I
j-L--. L J L J i J UJ L-J-L-S^NA g.
n r-i rn n n i—i r* \ \ \g*}
L J L. J UJ L J L J L. J L. \
0 n • • M.,, .fTn-r;--
^ ^ ^ •ggg
"p i-i n r-1 r " ' n l~ V V — , ' r ~ ' n ' T i - r r r - n ' T T '
, H 1_J I—I LJ l-J l_l l _ . \ \ - J LJ ,_J LJ LJ L J . L J L.
p L J j . . j U j U L A V - J I - J L J L J L J ^ H J L .
.-> r i n r-i n (—1 p v \ \ - 1 r t r -j r i f l i l ' l i,
ST
DRAIN
^
BOX-TILE-L=
FLUE
ss^ss&^v. DDDCOa •DRAIN
DRAIN I
BURNT
CLAY I ASH
INFERRED
ROBBED
1..1-..1.-.K.:.. ' ••• • i..L PERIOD II
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