Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

The city wall was observed in three places; just west of Abbot's Bridge waterlogged conditions prevented full excavation and only the Medieval chalk wall could be examined. At a point 11.58m east of the bridge only the lowest flint courses of the Roman wall survived. A Medieval square tower, seen on a map of 1789, was also revealed.

Monument Types

• TOWN WALL (AD 270?, Roman to Unknown - 270 AD?)

Full description

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During work to the main drainage system of Canterbury in 1868 the city engineer, James Pilbrow, observed one of the city wall towers. This was located at 6 Pound Lane.

A drain trench was cut through the City wall at St. Radigund's, opposite Knott's Lane, Canterbury in late 1971 and early 1972 and recorded photographically by Frank Jenkins.

The city wall was observed in three places; just west of Abbot's Bridge waterlogged conditions prevented full excavation and only the Medieval chalk wall could be examined. At a point 11.58m east of the bridge only the lowest flint courses of the Roman wall survived. A Medieval square tower, seen on a map of 1789, was also revealed. The lowest courses supported a structure 6.1m wide from east to west and built of chalk blocks. These were faced along the east and west edges with coursed ashlar blocks of Kentish ragstone. The outer edge of the structure was not exposed. Between 13 and 15 St Radigunds Street the city wall was cut at right angles. Here the Roman wall stood to a height of c. 1.3m and was built of flint and yellow-brown mortar. The maximum width was 2.74m and the rampart behind the wall had been destroyed by a modern drain trench.

An excavation in advance of the building of a new landing stage next to St Radigunds Bridge was undertaken in spring 1984 and the site code was SGRB84.

The Medieval city wall and remnants of the Roman core were uncovered. A small amount of battered ashlar plinth survived at the base over a little Roman flint core. A series of dump levels, some of a water lain nature, of Medieval and later date were also examined against the outer face of the wall. The Medieval core of the wall survives at its highest against the pavement edge in St Radigunds Street.

A watching brief was undertaken at 16 Pound Lane, a tower on the city wall, in January 1976 prior to the concreting in of some floors.

The area beneath the 19th timber floor revealed the top of the Medieval city wall outside the property to the west, and the Romano-British city wall inside it. Two very small trenches were dug between the city wall and the tower and showed clearly the ground level associated with the building of the tower and the re-facing and widening of the city wall. Above this was a layer of silt, thought to be deposited by flooding and resulting from a rising sea-level.

The excavations at the tower of 16, Pound Lane revealed a battered plinth of fine ashlar bloacks of Kentish ragstone, carrying on down to a great depth and buried in later silt. The plinths allow the tower to extend out into the city ditch, without risk of undermining. The upper part of the tower wall proved to be 1.3m thick, made of chalk block and flint and filled with a core of strongly mortared chalk and flint. Beow the modern floor there was an off set on the inside of the foundations, making them nearly 2m wide to prevent sapping by an enemy. No dting evidence was found at the level of the Medieval ground so no archaeological date was possible for the tower and widened city wall though the tower is thought, on architectura style, to date from the late 14th century.

Only a small section of the Romano-British city wall, on the inside of the tower where it had not been re-faced, was examined; it was made of the characteristic courses of large flints found elsewhere along the circuit of the wall. A single Romano-British tile was found in the face of the wall and, lower down, an offset was visible; in the post-Roman period, the face of the wall had been buried by silt and later the wall of the Medieval tower was straight-jointed against it. The base of the Romano-British city wall was not examined as it probably extended several metres down.

Cross, R., Canterbury: St Radigund's Street (Machine readable data file). SKE30598.

Rady, J., DB1 (Digital archive). SKE29774.

Jenkins, F, Kent Sheet XLVI.N.E, Jenkins annotated map (Cartographic materials). SKE30116.

Pilbrow, J., 1871, Discoveries made during excavations at Canterbury in 1868 (Serial). SKE30226.

Mead, H. T., 1911, Canterbury (Serial). SKE30777.

Cozens, W., 1928, Annual Report, Canterbury Archaeological Society (Unpublished document). SKE30775.

Jenkins, F, 1947, Treasures of the Museum (Monograph). SKE30701.

Tatton-Brown, T., 1977, 16 Pound Lane, Canterbury (Serial). SKE30774.

Tatton-Brown, T., 1978, 19 Pound Lane and Church Lane, Canterbury. (Serial). SKE30771.

Frere, SS, Stow, S, and Bennett, P, 1982, Excavations on the Roman and Medieval Defences of Canterbury. (Monograph). SKE28530.

Blockley, P., 1984, Butterfly Garden, next to 16 Pound Lane (Article in serial). SKE30776.

Blockley, P., 1984, St Radigund's Bridge (Article in serial). SKE30630.

Andrews, G., 1985, An Assessment. Gazetteer of Excavations. Prehistoric, Belgic and Roman Excavations (Monograph). SKE30006.

Mckenna, K., 1993, The Woolstore, Pound Lane (Article in serial). SKE30773.

Ward, A., 1995, A Watching Brief at St Radigund's Bridge, Canterbury. (Excavation archive). SKE30778.

Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 1997, No 12 Pound Lane (Article in serial). SKE30772.

Sources and further reading