Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Excavation in 2000-2002 carried out as part of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link found two early Roman features overlooking the springs at the head of the Ebbsfleet, both were viewing platforms and one contained a large oven or crop dryer (Location accurate to the nearest 1m based on available information)

Monument Types

• OVEN (Roman - 70 AD? to 150 AD?)

Associated Finds

• SHERD (Roman - 50 AD? to 100 AD?)

Full description

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Excavation in 2000-2002 carried out as part of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link found two early Roman features overlooking the springs at the head of the Ebbsfleet. Both were terraced into the slope and were interpreted as viewing platforms associated with the ritual activity at the spring. Within the northern of these two platforms was a substantial oven or crop dryer which appears to have been an original feature within the ‘viewing platform’. This was 5 m long and comprised a stokehole, flue, and chamber, though nothing of the superstructure survived. Pottery from the earliest fills in oven indicates a period of use in the second half of the 1st century AD. (1)

<1> Oxford Wessex Archaeology Joint Venture, 2010, Settling the Ebbsfleet Valley. CTRL Excavations at Springhead and Northfleet, Kent. The Late Iron Age, Roman, Saxon, and Medieval Landscape (Unpublished document). SKE31245.

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