Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Sedgebrook Roman Villa first discovered in 1956. The 1986 excavations discovered a winged-corridor style house, 25m x 11.5m facing east. The walls are of ragstone with yellow mortar and rubble core. Finds included iron nails, bone, oyster shell and pottery dating from the early 1stC AD onwards.

Monument Types

• VILLA (BUILDING, Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)

Associated Finds

• VESSEL (Undated)
• ASSEMBLAGE (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)
• SPOON (Roman - 43 AD to 199 AD)
• TEGULA (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)
• VESSEL (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)
• BOWL (Roman - 145 AD to 409 AD)
• COIN (Roman - 286 AD to 293 AD)
• COIN (Roman - 330 AD to 335 AD)

Full description

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[TQ 61505369] 'Roman tiles (roof) and pottery ploughed up April 1956' (1) [TQ 61505368.] On the edge of a cultivated field on the E. bank of the R. Bourne at a height of 200 ft. OD. there is evidence of a Roman building. Its site is indicated by a slight platform (unsurveyable) on the crest of a slope, together with a scatter of large ragstone blocks and roofing-tile. Site surveyed on Antiquity model. (2) Checked and correct. (3)

Trial trenching in May 1984 by the Tonbridge School Archaeological Society uncovered a Roman tile and mortar floor. (3)

Through the latter half of 1986 members of the KAS excavated a newly discovered Roman building at Sedgebrook, Plaxtol. It is approximately at the junction of the Wealden Clay and Greensand Beds and is at the natural springline. The 1986 excavations discovered a winged-corridor style house, 25mx11.5m facing east. The walls are of ragstone with yellow mortar and rubble core. The central room was built first as all other walls butt against it and measures 16mx5.5m internally. Underlaying the floor and S and E walls of the NE part of the villa, Area 2.2, were the remains of an oven visible as a ring of scorched clay.

Finds included iron nails, bone, oyster shell and pottery dating from the early 1stC AD owards. (7,8, 10,11) Also found was the 'Cinnamus' bowl stamped by Cinnamus of Lezoux AD145-150. (9)

Additional Info(12)

<1> Wing Cdr WV Dumbreck Hadlow (OS Card Reference). SKE51394.

<2> Maidstone Mus Office 6' (LRA Grove undated) (OS Card Reference). SKE46329.

<3> F2 AC 31-JUL-59 (OS Card Reference). SKE43065.

<4> F3 CFW 19-FEB-64 (OS Card Reference). SKE43386.

<5> Field report for monument TQ 65 SW 20 - July, 1959 (Bibliographic reference). SKE3469.

<6> Field report for monument TQ 65 SW 20 - February, 1964 (Bibliographic reference). SKE3470.

<7> Cockett, R & Connell, T., 1987, Major West Kent Discovery: A Roman Villa Excavated, Pages 1-2 (Article in serial). SKE6751.

<8> Connell, T., 1987, Archaeology and Local History at Work '87, KAS Newsletter No.12 page 1 by Ted Connell (Article in serial). SKE7569.

<9> Guy de la Bedoyere, 1986, Site: Plaxtol Villa, near Sevenoaks, Kent (Bibliographic reference). SKE7281.

<10> Kent Archaeological Society, 1986, Interim Excavation Report: Romano-British Site at Sedgebrook, Plaxtol, KAS excavation interim report (Unpublished document). SKE7571.

<11> Kent Archaeological Society, 1987, Second Interim Excavation Report on the Romano-British Site at Sedgebrook, Plaxtol, KAS excavation 2nd interim report (Unpublished document). SKE7573.

<12> Guy de la Bedoyere, 1991, The Buildings of Roman Britain, pages 125-127 (Monograph). SKE7578.

Sources and further reading