Observations and further finds from the Sandhills, near Deal
(THE LOST HAMLET OF SPRUCKLEHAM)
By Vince Burrows
As a young teenager, I recall being informed by a local boat repairer on Deal beach, known as Wimpy, about a lost medieval village. He told me that this once stood just north of the Queens Inn, formerly the Halfway House, situated alongside the ancient highway from Deal to Sandwich in the Sandhills. This was an enigma that captured my interest, having on countless occasions traveled this ancient highway past the alleged site. Recently, I managed to acquire a missing issue for my Kent Archaeological Review collection, containing an article on the lost hamlet of Spruckleham in the Sandhills. (Tomaszewski 1979).
I recollect, from the discussion with Wimpy, that he spent many years searching, and on occasions digging, small areas in and around the rough undulating parcel of land enclosed by the western sea bank and the ancient highway on the seaward side between NGR: 36518-56097 & 36580-56531 (fig 1). It was here, on this narrow tract of land, that Wimpy alleged he uncovered evidence for medieval buildings and other associated finds. However, he would not elaborate. Wimpy also stated that he had located evidence for the base of a watch tower he believed to be Roman in date, at or near to the northern juncture of the ancient highway at Dickson’s Corner, approximately NGR: 36420-56769.
This location is about 220m east of the site of Roman occupation discovered at Dickson Corner, Lydden (Parfitt 2000). It is generally believed locally that the sea banks which surround the northern and western periphery of this enclosed land were originally thrown-up to defend a small ancient hamlet from seasonal inundation of the sea via the Lydden Valley marshes. Other banked defences are reported to have been dug during the English Civil War around the Halfway House on the seaward facing side and others may exist on the northern side. The ancient highway through the Sandhills was originally called the Roman highway and for hundreds of years was the shortest route between Deal and Sandwich until the coming of the turnpike roads (Laker 1921).
Further information relating to a Roman coin hoard and indeed ship found in 1830 (Parfitt 1982) has been recorded, ‘In 1830 near the old rifle-butts in the Sandhills, a man digging sand found two urns full of roman coins. The late Mr Nobbs, of Deal who was present as a boy when the find was made, said the coins were found in the remains of a roman ship loaded with stone. He noted the ribs of the ship, and said that the stone was afterwards carted away for use on the roads’ (Laker 1921).
During my late teens, in the mid-seventies, a neighbor and friend camped out with a few friends just behind the Chequers Inn. Whilst digging a pit for the campfire, Kevin Douglas came across orange-red pottery sherds, some with design on them. The sherds were confirmed as Samian ware by a local passer-by, who was either an historian or archaeologist, but were then taken away and not seen again. The location of this find spot does not seem to have been recorded, however, I was shown the spot by Kevin some weeks after the find, which is NGR: 36382-55717.
Two further unrecorded find spots include a scatter of five copper alloy Roman coins, a Constantine II A.D. 337-340, Valentinian A.D. 364-378 and 3 illegible minims, and the top section of a Cobbler’s boot brooch dating between the second and third century, found in 2002 at NGR: 36031-56825 (centred), 553 meters NNW of the Dickson Corner excavations. At this location, the 2003 Google Earth images have captured small enclosures, occasional small pits and field systems. Groundsmen also reported Roman pottery sherds uncovered when laying out the new practice green near the corner of Blackhouse Wall and the Cinque Ports Club House at NGR: 37150-54304 (centred), (Love, pers. comm.1970s).
The historical growth of the sand and shingle bar northwards, occupied by the Sandhills, has received much debate, in particular the extent of Roman occupation at Dickson’s Corner, the most northerly site so far recorded (Parfitt 2000). Although no visual evidence exists today, it would seem that there may be good reason to suggest that the alleged Roman shipwreck located in the Sandhills may have once been anchored in a creek or inlet that perhaps extended a short distance into the Deal marsh during the Roman period. My theory is based on the following extract. ‘In August 1648, a party of three hundred musketeers, stationed in ships off the Downs, landed long-boats in a creek near Sandown Castle. During this military action in the neighborhood the Halfway House (Chequers Inn), was burned down’ (Laker 1921). This historical text records a creek; maybe more than one existed, large enough for a considerable number of long-boats to moor and discharge men at arms during the English Civil War. Moreover, the creek is recorded as being in the general vicinity of the location of the alleged Roman vessel, perhaps alluding to an ancient small anchorage dating back to at least Roman times. In the 1990s, I picked up a foreign medieval silver hammered coin circa 1700s from rubble foundations of a former
unrecorded structure just west outside the seabank surrounding the Dickson Corner site at NGR: 36126-56593. This structure is just visible on the ground as a raised hump that may also have been a casualty in the Civil War skirmishes around this neighbourhood.
A surprisingly little known stone memorial exists on the top of the western sea bank near Dickson’s Corner, Lydden, at NGR: 36351-56734. Marked on the Street Atlas of East Kent, this is the spot where a local woman was murdered. On 25 August 1782 Mary Bax was walking along the Ancient Highway from Deal to Sandwich carrying a parcel. She was 800 metres beyond the Chequers Inn when she was apprehended by a Swedish sailor, Martin Lash, who demanded the parcel. She refused, and in the struggle Mary was struck many times; her body was concealed in a ditch. The murder was witnessed by a young boy, described as the son of ‘a looker in the Marshes’ (a looker was a shepherd). The boy ran back to Deal to raise the alarm. Martin Lash was eventually apprehended in Folkestone asleep at the foot of a tombstone in the parish churchyard, still in possession of the stolen parcel. It transpired that he had deserted his ship while it was in the Downs. He was taken to Maidstone Gaol, tried and executed. The worn inscription on the stone reads: On this spot August 25th 1782 Mary Bax Spinster aged 23 years was murdered by Martin Lash a foreigner who was executed for the same. (Lyden Valley Research Group 2014).
References
Laker, J., 1921, ‘Lakers History of Deal’, Published by T.F. Pain & Sons, London
Love, ca 1970s, pers. comm.
Lyden Valley Research Group 2014. [online] www.lyddenvalley.org.uk/crime.php date accessed: 10th April 2014.
Parfitt, K., 2000, ‘A Roman Occupation Site At Dickson’s Corner, Worth’. Archaeologia Cantiana vol cxx, p107-148.
Parfitt, K., 1982, ‘Roman finds from the Sandhills, North of Deal’, Kent Arch. Rev, 70, 225-227.
Tomaszewski, N.E., 1979a ‘Spruckleham: Near Deal. A lost Ham?’, Kent Arch Rev., No 56, p142-144.