Roman Aisled Building at Hog Brook
Excavation by students of the Kent Archaeological Field School this summer at Hog Brook, close to Deerton Street and just to the north of Watling Street (the A2), revealed an exceptionally well-preserved early Roman stone-built aisled building which continued in use into the Saxon period.
Full details of the excavation will not be given here but will be in the final report to be published later this year.
From geophysical survey conducted as part of the student coursework it is clear the building was not isolated but associated with other buildings in the vicinity and the large Roman villa located to the west of the spring. This villa has been excavated by students of the Field School over four constant campaigns and dates from the early 2nd century to the 5th century.
The large Roman villa estate is one of a number found in recent years by Paul Wilkinson along the line of Watling Street. All are located around a spring, set back from Watling Street and with easy access to the sea. It seems the area farmed is about 2000 acres per villa and at Deerton Street there can be recognised in the modern field boundaries field divisions of 20 actus square, the classic field shape from the Roman period.
The spring at Deerton Street is called Hog Brook, and on the east bank field-walking located the remains of a substantial Roman building which on excavation turned out to be 35m 70cm (117ft 2inches) long and 15m 40cm (50ft 7inches) wide, with twenty substantial stone piers still surviving to the first course (fig 1). The late Roman floors were still intact, as was, amazingly, a fallen Roman rectangular column built of Kentish ragstone and flue blocks mortared together with a thin orange tile of Roman tiles spaced vertically every 1m 80cm to 1m 16cm (fig 2).
Under the fallen 8m column there was the articulated skeleton of a small cow.
Stamped Samian pottery from the initial builders trench date the construction of this massive stone building from 80AD to 85AD whilst Saxon pottery and a gilt bronze brooch found on the late Roman floor show the building continued in use until at least the 5th century.
The building was destroyed by fire as attested by burnt roof timbers still surviving under the fallen tiled roof.
With so much surviving from the building it is possible to state that the design was of an arcaded stone building with clerestory lighting, with separate nave and aisle roofs of a type favoured by Collingwood, Richmond and others (Collingwood & Richmond 1969, 1419).
The building shows that for this villa estate at least, a basilical prototype was drawn upon for the aisled building, and that in form it had much more in common with a basilica in a Roman forum than with a medieval aisled barn (figs 3 & 4). Why such an architecturally sophisticated stone building should have been built so early in the Kentish countryside can probably be answered by one word - corn. The Romans needed huge amounts, and this building, established early with the villa estate in one of the most fertile parts of Kent, its huge side entrances and a deepwater channel abutting the rear of the building, allowed barges to load and unload alongside this huge warehouse with ease.
Dr Paul Wilkinson
Director Kent Archaeological Field School
Fig 1
Fig 2
Fig 3
Fig 4