Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Archaeological works on the site of the French Hospital, Rochester, revealed information on the Roman town wall in this part of the city.

Monument Types

• TOWN WALL (Roman - 43 AD? to 409 AD? (at some time))

Full description

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During April 2000 a watching brief was maintained on two trenches at the French Hospital, Rochester (TQ 76 NW 330). In the first trench, the Roman town wall was encountered at a depth of 0.2M below the modern ground surface. Although the outer face was not exposed, the wall is known from other excavations to be c. 3.00m wide at its base. Two offsets on the inner face of the wall were encountered. The first was 0.60m below the top of the surviving Roman wall and 0.25m wide. The second offset was 1.50m below the surviving top of the wall, its full width was not uncovered (0.20m was observed in the trench). It is possible that this lower offset formed part of the widened plinth that had been recorded at foundation level along other sections of the Roman wall. The ragstone rubble face of the wall between the two offsets was relatively neatly coursed, but this may not originally have been visible. It is known that an earth rampart existed behind the wall to a considerable height and the report suggests that the observed wall fragment's inside face, would have had this rampart abutting it. The earth rampart may later have been removed in the medieval period.
A further ragstone wall was recorded, constructed over the Roman wall and at right angles to it, although it is almost certainly of post medieval date.
In the second trench, a series of archaeological deposits were recorded, which were undated, although they sat on what was interpreted as an old Roman topsoil (1).

In July and August 2003, a watching brief observed the augering of six pile holes, immediately inside the eastern defences of the city (centred on grid ref (574430,168430). It is possible that some of the clay deposits observed were from the 2nd century rampart of the phase 1 Roman defences [2].

<1> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2000, An Archaeological Watching Brief at the French Hospital, Rochester 2000 (Unpublished document). SKE7628.

<2> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2003, An Archaeological Watching Brief at the French Hospital, Rochester (Unpublished document). SKE12452.

Sources and further reading

Related thematic articles

• The Defence of Kent (Thematic Essay)