Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

In 1843 fragments of a rudely formed urn with handles were dug up. Two stones, artificially rounded, one a flint, were with the fragments. Similar stones have been found with Roman pottery, etc. at Badminton, Gloucestershire. The find site was the garden of the vicarage house built in 1843.

Monument Types

• CINERARY URN (Roman - 43 AD? to 299 AD?)
• CREMATION (Roman - 43 AD? to 299 AD?)

Associated Finds

• BALL (RITUAL) (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)

Full description

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In December 1843 in the garden on the south side of the new vicarage-house, East Farleigh, not many yards from the drawing room windows, fragments of a rudely formed urn with handles were dug up. [Context infers Roman] Two stones, artificially rounded, one a flint, were with the fragments. Similar stones have been found with Roman pottery, etc. at Badminton, Gloucestershire. (1)

TQ 73155328. Find sited to garden south of large drawing-room windows of typical mid-19c. building, now called "The Old Vicarage" in East Farleigh. The owners were absent and not contacted. (2)

It has been suggested that the stone balls may in fact have been Civil War cannon balls relating to the Battle of Maidstone. (4)

<1> JBAA 2 1847 75 (Beale Post) (OS Card Reference). SKE44892.

<2> F1 ASP 03.06.59 (OS Card Reference). SKE41902.

<3> Field report for monument TQ 75 SW 17 - June, 1959 (Bibliographic reference). SKE4003.

<4> Des Mullaney, 2011, The Road to Farleigh Bridge, 1st of June 1648 (The initial phase of the Battle of Maidstone): An Archaeological Investigation (Unpublished document). SKE17030.

Sources and further reading