More Roman Finds by the KAS Resistivity Meter

The last KAS Newsletter brought news of a new Roman villa site near Sheldwich and a hexagonal bath house near Faversham. The trend continues; Lenham Archaeological Society have reported two Roman buildings to the SMR Officer since August and we now have a possible third one which looks like a substantial bath house with a large plunge pool. These finds are in the neighbouring parish of Hollingbourne.

Little archaeology has 'officially' been found in Hollingbourne parish. I say 'officially' because it is well known that night hawkes have been raiding the church field for many years for Roman, Medieval and Saxon finds. Also, a huge Iron Age settlement was revealed by construction work at Junction 8 of the M20.

I was not surprised, therefore, when a farmer friend phoned in August to say that a building had 'appeared' in one of his meadows. Even in the drought of 1976 it had not revealed itself, but now it was a very distinctive parch mark. The field is not far off the spring line, so presumably has subterranean water supplies - but in August they failed.

The farmer was keen to use his JCB to see what the mark was, so he expertly opened up a short 1m x 2m slot, across one wall and another in the centre of the building. Then we trowelled back carefully. Bingo! A 10cm-wide wall of ragstone overlaying a flint foundation, a small amount of mortar, two scraps of grey Upchurch ware, iron slag and a few pieces of IA pot were found. There was no evidence of any floors. The shallow depth of the ruins (25cm) was somewhat surprising.

Later that year, after the heavy rains in September and October, we started using the KAS resistivity meter. As we had already measured and plotted the position of the building (hereafter Building 1), and a second one (Building 2) that had also appeared as a parch mark 65m to the east, we knew where to look. (Right are the printouts for both structures.)

These printouts are very clear. Perhaps because the ground was so dry and hard in August, when we came to do the resistivity, moisture had still not managed to percolate through the walls and foundations.

LAS's recent publication 'Discovering Ancient Lenham' (see details of this publication at the end of page), carries an article by Dennis Rayfield in which he has drawn the floor plan of Building 1. It is remarkably similar in size, layout and orientation to the Villa at East Farleigh dug by the Maidstone Area Archaeological Group last summer. (Below are the two plans together. Left is the Hollingbourne building and right is the Roman Villa at East Farleigh.)

BUILDING 1

BUILDING 2

If our Building 1 is so similar to East Farleigh, one could even assume that it was built by the same architect, and if this is the case, is it of the same third to fourth century date? It might then follow that the apparent curved apse in building 2 (the apse shows on the inside of the western end) could be that of an early Roman church, for these two buildings seem to be related and therefore of the same date. The apse and altar of Roman churches was often at the western end. Nay, I hear people say - it's just a bath house ....

However, we have found a third structure standing close to the nearby stream. Perhaps it would be more logical to assume that this is the bath-house. We have not finished the resistivity as yet, but the printout appears to show a curving ditch (perhaps a leat from the stream?) entering the building into a 9m x 6m cistern. The leat runs under an existing bank and there is no hint of a ditch on the surface. It has been difficult getting all the building surveyed because of dense blackthorn thicket.

Other resistivity printouts in the area show extraordinary underlying features. There appear to be a double ditched circle 30m across, linear features and a possible cursus. We can only do more resistivity and roll back the blinds on this remarkable hidden ancient landscape.

Building 1 was found just in time for inclusion in our recent publication, 'Discovering Ancient Lenham' (see details of this publication at the end of page), carries an article by Dennis Rayfield in which he has drawn the floor plan of Building 1. It is remarkably similar in size, layout and orientation to the Villa at East Farleigh dug by the Maidstone Area Archaeological Group last summer.