Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

The structure was built of roughly shaped blocks of chalk laid in courses and had a width of 3ft. It lay nne-ssw and was traced for a distance of 15ft. So far as could be determined, the contemporary ground level was just below the cellar floor, and it was covered by a deposit of broken roofing tiles, oyster shells and all the fragments of a 15th century watering pot.

Monument Types

• STRUCTURE (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)

Full description

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At Nos 11-13 St George’s Street foundation trenches revealed a wall still standing to a height of 6ft above the modern cellar floor and penetrating into the virgin soil to an undetermined depth greater than 10ft below that level. The structure was built of roughly shaped blocks of chalk laid in courses and had a width of 3ft. It lay in a nne-ssw direction and was traced for a distance of 15ft. So far as could be determined, the contemporary ground level was just below the cellar floor, and it was covered by a deposit of broken roofing tiles, oyster shells and all the fragments of a 15th century watering pot. The building of which this wall formed part must have been an important one, and it is quite likely that it was the so-called Hall of St Dunstan owned by the monks of Christ Church, Canterbury. It stood in Throughall Lane (Later Iron Bar Lane) which still bounds the wall on the south east side. The building was let to a baker in the 15th century and was burnt down in the year 1532 but was immediately rebuilt. The cost of repairing it is recorded in the Sacrists Rolls of Christ Church, Canterbury, as £5-10s-2 (Arch Cant [1936] XLVIII, 73)
A few yards to the east of the wall just described and close to the old frontage of Iron Bar Lane the remains of a circular baking oven were found at a depth of 4ft 9ins below present ground level. It was built of flat roofing tiles set in clay, those forming the hearth being ‘pitched’ in order to retain the heat. The oven sealed the top of a well shaft steined with chalk blocks, which was certainly later than a rubbish pit, which contained a few pieces of pottery of 13th century type. The floor, which was contemporary with the oven, was of rammed gravel. Although no dating evidence was otherwise found it is tempting to think that the oven belonged to the tenant baker mentioned above. From an unspecified level above, the oven came a 16th century brown glazed pottery moneybox.

Jenkins, F., Jenkins Archive Material (Unpublished document). SKE30008.

Andrews, G., 1985, The Archaeology of Canterbury: An Assessment (Unpublished document). SKE30429.

Bennett, P. & Parfitt, K., 1991, Whitefriars Assessment Report (Unpublished document). SKE30140.

Sources and further reading