Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

South gate of Rochester Roman town observed during the Boley Hill repaving project. It seems likely that this gate passage continued to function in some form into the early Norman period.

Monument Types

• GATE (Roman to Medieval - 200 AD? to 1344 AD? (at some time))

Full description

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The life of the gate passage has been split into five phases.

The remains of the Roman south gate were identified just 0.25m below the modern road surface. Only a short length of masonry forming the western side of the gate passage was visible, but a more extensive fragment of the eastern side was exposed in a nearby Victorian drain trench. This consisted of foundation material, bonded in an opus signinum mortar, topped by two courses of neatly laid ragstone facing blocks and a string course of Roman tile. Taken together the fragments suggested a gate passage c.4m wide. The reports propose that the gate passage walls served as retaining walls to prevent the second century earthen rampart from eroding into the road and that the gateway is contemporary with it. The walls were provided with a sub foundation of flint and crushed chalk (observed under the eastern side). At the southern end of the passage this material formed a ‘sleeper’ or ‘tie’ foundation across the gate passage, confirming the presence of a gate opening and suggesting that there was an arch or pillar at the opening. The absence of a similar ‘sleeper’ or ‘tie’ at the northern end of the passage, suggests there was no internal arch across the northern end and therefore no turret above the early gate passage.
The passageway with its possible arch and stone retaining walls for the late second century earthwork defences formed the first phase of the Roman and Norman south gate.

In the second phase, the gateway was remodelled when Rochester’s earth rampart was provided with a wide stone face in the third century, the foundations of which terminated either side of the passage. The rampart was cut back and the passage walls were foreshortened, the original arched entrance was demolished. A ‘new opening’ was formed on the spot of the old passageway, in line with the new wall.

In the third phase, probably in the late Roman or Saxon period, a fragment of masonry was recorded forming part of a wall, built to block the gateway passage. The date of the blocking remains unproven, although the wall fabric appeared to be of Roman build.

In the fourth phase, much of the Roman wall and blocking wall were robbed out, probably in the early medieval period.

Finally in the fifth phase, traces of later fabric suggest that the town wall had been rebuilt in the late eleventh or twelfth century, only to be destroyed in the thirteenth or fourteenth century when the decision was taken to the abandon the line of the Roman wall. A new ‘South Gate’ was constructed to the south west under the junction of what is now Boley Hill and St. Margaret’s Street [TQ 76 NW .
Within the ‘passageway’ of the gate, gravel road surfaces were observed of probable Roman date, along with later soil build up layers [1 and 2].

<1> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 1999, DRAFT Archaeological Observations undertaken during the Boley Hill, Rochester Repaving Project 1998. Volume 1: Report (Unpublished document). SKE12475.

<2> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2001, Boley Hill repaving, Rochester (Article in serial). SKE12479.

Sources and further reading