Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

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.

Monument Types

• WALL (Medieval - 1301 AD to 1400 AD)

Full description

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Medieval City Wall Foundations - 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.

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

Sources and further reading