Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit

By Dr Brian Philp

This year 2021, marks the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit (KARU), the very first county Unit in the UK, soon followed by the Oxford Unit in 1972 and the Norfolk Unit in 1973.

These early formations were a response to a national crisis where growing developments of town-centres, industrial sites, motorway construction, massive house and school building programmes exposed and destroyed large numbers of archaeological sites. Government and county bodies were unable to deal with this major threat to the buried heritage. Thus this initiative rescue response in which Kent clearly led the way.

With three others, I formed the Kent Unit, a registered charity already carrying out large-scale excavations in the centre of Roman Dover. For the previous 18 years, we had completed many rescue operations, more notable at Faversham Abbey in 1965, Saxon cemetery at Polhill in 1964 and 1967, the Roman Forum in London in 1968, the Darenth Roman Villa in 1969 and then Dover town-centre from 1970 until today. All these operations since fully published.

Now in 2021, as the years have slipped by, we can look back on some 800 projects completed across Kent and S.E. London. There have been many battles! The team’s core members gave up their careers, and eventually, the Government provided financial support. In this way, we carried out rescue excavations in the town-centres of Faversham, Maidstone, Dartford,

Rochester, Gravesend, Dover and Folkestone and also on numerous sites in the Darent Valley. We also covered the M2, M20, M25 and M26 motorways and many gravel and sand extraction sites. Most of these were grand adventures, except in very severe weather or where developers were less than helpful.

The Unit also carried out an extensive programme of education and tourism. Two of our major sites, the Roman Villa at Orpington and the Roman House at Dover, we saved from certain destruction and then built cover-buildings over them and opened them permanently to the public.

Images

Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit hospital and Covid input – the signs were seen by over 200,000 people and we have raised nearly £2,000

The former has welcomed over 85,000 London schoolchildren on special Roman workshops over the past 30 years. The Painted House at Dover has had over 700,000 visitors, the majority foreign and from schools over a longer time.

The whole operation has seen the hard work and dedication of extensive teams, the majority trained volunteers, drawn from the whole of Kent and far beyond. Indeed, three of the original team are still working with us, though sadly, many others have inevitably passed on to the great excavation in the sky. We remember them all.

In 2013 the Unit won the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service at a special ceremony at the University of Kent. But one less than attractive innovation is the advent of commercial archaeology, which has led to the introduction of non-Kentish teams often with lack

KARU PUBLICATIONS

Due to the Covid pandemic, we have cancelled some of our outdoor projects and turned to increase our publications programme. Hence two new publications and two more on the way.

Rescue Excavations in West Kent

This new book, of some 44 pages with illustrations, covers three important sites. of co-operation, poor interpretation and rather average work.

But last year saw a new challenge, the Covid Pandemic. At once the Unit’s outdoor projects were cancelled, a new programme of publication greatly advanced and help provided to adapt to this new crisis. This took the form of creating and erecting new signs for the NHS and raising funds for various health charities; this new form of rescue has been much appreciated.

So we now enter 2021 with a positive approach and look forward. Indeed, we can extend a warm welcome to all KAS members to come and visit our Roman House at Dover, reserved as a special day, on Saturday, 4th September 2021. I shall be giving site lectures at 11.30 am and 3.00 pm that day. There will be no admission charge, but donations and book-purchase are always welcomed. Please make a note in your diaries when I shall look forward to seeing you.

Brian joined the KAS as a schoolboy in 1954 and is now its longest-serving member.

The first is The Roman Settlement at Twitton, Otford. Here in 1989 the Kent Unit carried out an urgent rescue-excavation just ahead of a housing development. This located 35 important features, pits, ditches and post-holes of Roman date. The pottery ranged in date from about A.D.70–180. Several sherds of late-Iron Age date were also found. These discoveries extend the area of known activity hereabouts. The overall settlement could include the 70 or so cremations burials at nearby Frog Farm. It constitutes a significant advance for knowledge of the Otford area in Roman times.

The second site describes the discovery of an unknown Roman Enclosure on the top of Holwod Hill, Keston, just above the major Iron Age hillfort known as Caesar’s Camp. A large, wide ditch enclosed a rectangular area about 100 x 70m, hence well over one acre.

This was clearly defensive in character, and the small amount of pottery found in the ditch dated from the mid-first century A.D.

The most likely interpretation is that this was an early Roman military site, dominating the hillfort and at a very high point where it overlooked much of the Thames Valley. A signal station here would have been significant.

The third site was part of the Anglo- Saxon cemetery at Horton Kirby. In 2016 and 2017 the Kent Unit carried out more urgent work just ahead of landscaping work. This revealed ten more graves of the cemetery partially excavated in 1937-8 under a council housing project.

Now a total of 125 burials can be identified, mostly dating from the 7th century. The new work included a warrior grave complete with an iron sword and also a rare sword- bead. This large cemetery, partly matched by another at Polhill to the south, clearly represents a major settlement in the Darent Valley.

This new publication concludes with details of how the great Tudor Palace at Otford was saved from severe damage in 1974 when the Kent Unit carried out critical rescue-excavations and then arranged for the site to be bought from the builder.

The book is available from the Kent Unit for just £6 with £1 postage.

See www.karu.org.uk for further details.