Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Since 1830 there have been reports of small finds in the area above Kits Coty House and possibly a building in a little coombe behind and to the east of The Lower Bell Inn. In the 1830s the building was recorded as a probable watch tower but in the 1840s the suggested use was a villa, a short distance south of a Roman burial ground.

By the 1950s it was the belief that the site had been suitable for a temple but not for domestic use.

Recorded finds over the years have been many and various. Building debris includes stones, paving, bonding, flue tiles, nails, roof tiles and iron clamps. Great amounts of pottery sherds (some samian), one glass vessel, jewellery and small instruments including tweezers, have been noted.

In early records the building remains were recorded as being on a mound, in which at least one skeleton was found.

Coin finds have included an urn found in the 1840s containing about 100 small brass Roman coins and as many as 200 other coins discovered later.

The site is now wooded and no mound is visible.

Monument Types

• FINDSPOT (Early Iron Age to Roman - 800 BC to 409 AD)
• BUILDING (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)
• TEMPLE? (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)
• VILLA? (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)

Associated Finds

• COIN (Iron Age - 800 BC to 42 AD)
• COIN HOARD (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)

Full description

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[TQ 7485 6098] Roman remains found AD 1831 [NAT] (1) Roman remains found AD 1830 [NAT] (2) In the winters of 1830 and 1831, on the range of chalk hills, immediately above Kits Coty House, the probable remains of 'a speculum' [a watch tower or place of observation] were found, placed upon an elevated spot and commanding an extensive view of the country."Stones, paving, bonding and flue tiles, iron clamps and other building materials were found there; great quantities of pottery, some....Samian; one glass vessel, fibulae of different patterns; and various small instruments, pickers etc. On one side of the mound, on which the building had been erected, a human skeleton was discovered. On the summit of the hill, Roman coins were found in great variety, in first, second and third brass..." [Account gives list of Emperors represented from Augustus, BC 31-AD 14, to Arcadius AD 383-408] "With these were found three Gaulish coins..." (3) Add ref. (4) A little below a previous excavation T. Wright accidentally discovered the extensive traces of Roman buildings. The site was "only a few hundred yards to the south" of that where Mr Charles recently discovered "a Roman burial ground". Local cottagers told Wright that they found coins and potsherds over a large area around the site. The site was covered with brushwood and had never been ploughed. Wright uncovered, at a depth of 1-1.5 feet, 2 or 3 inches above the chalk, a few square yards of `a pavement' of `large bricks' which were mixed with roof tiles. It was covered in potsherds including Samian and a few human bones, nails and fragments of burnt wood were also found. (5) Further ref to Wright's find. "...evidently the site of a villa..." Distance from Charles's find amended to ".. a short distance south ...of the Roman burial ground". (6) Refers to "... Mr Charles's tumulus and cemetery..." as the burial place of a supposed Ro town at Eccles [TQ 76 SW 8]. Mentions fragments of stone tombs, surgical implements and other remains as found there. (7) "A short time since" a labourer digging on the hill above Kits Coty House turned up an urn containing c100 small brass Roman coins. Nearlyall were obtained by H. Wickham of Strood. They included 22 Constantine family including 1 or 2 of Tetricus and 1 of Magnentia; 20Valentinian; 41 Valens and 15 Gratian. They were most probably deposited by a soldier of the army of Magnus Maximus when he left Britain for Gaul and defeated Gratian". [AD 383]. (8) A pair of bronze tweezers [compared to illustrations in Faussett's Inventorium Sepulchrale, (1856), - pres Saxon] found in November 1855,"near the tumulus on Boxley Hill whence many Roman coins...." [Gives list - Vespasian to Lower Empire] have been obtained. (9) Refs IA coins found by Charles: 2 of Evan's type G13 [Mack type 295 - Bronze uninscribed coin of Cantii - Mack's, The Coinage of Anc Britain, 1953]. 1 of Evan's type IV, 2 [Mack type 309 - Bronze coin ofEppillus]. 1 of Evan's type XIII, 12 [Mack type 299 - Bronze uninser coin of the Cantii]. (10) Add refs of IA coins. (11-13) "In a sheltered nook of the chalk hills (Boxley Hill) by some chalk pits, close to (east of) the Roman road from Rochester, a few hundred yards east of and above Kits cots "extensive buildings" were traced about 1844 [actual date pre 28.8.1844 - see Authority 5] and part of a brick floor was uncovered… Earlier in 1830 and 1831 a few hundred yards north, stones, tiles of all kinds… were found on the site of a mound, a skeleton was also found upon it and on the top coins ranging from Augustus to Arcadius". [note the original reference - Authority 3 - does not state that the many coins were found on the mound but "on the summit of the hill"]. "Lastly a hoard of 100 small brass… was found around here about 1850. Maidstone Museum contains 8 fibulae, some apparently early, a bronze key, rings, pins etc from here also cordoned pedestal urns similar to those of EIA date from the Aylesford cemetery" [are immediately Pre-Roman IA cemetery see TQ 75 NW 21]. "Whatever the character of the buildings and "the mound" and the coins suggest a temple site, they were occupied apparently through the Roman period as well as before it". [Site shown on accompanying map of RB Kent as a Temple - and shown in conformity with text east of the Roman road]. (14)
Part of Beale-Poste’s MSS deals with a large tumulus near Blue Bell Hill, a perfect oval 30 by 16 yards and 13 - 15 feet high. On it and around it were found some 220 Roman coins from Claudian to Gratian and also nearby much Roman debris, including potsherds, stonework building materials and cornice and flue-tiles with many metallic objects, all in the possession of T. Charles. Beale-Poste believed that this was a Roman cemetery with funeral monuments. (15)
A perambulation of revealed nothing. The ground is covered with leaf mould and undergrowth and is wooded. There is now no mound, such as is described by Authority 15. The site of the villa "a few hundred yards to the south" can only be conjectured. It may have been in a little coombe behind, and to the east of, the Lower Bell Inn. This would accord with the siting evidence offered by Authority 14 (area centred at TQ 7497 6067). (16) Shown on map and listed in index as "Roman Temple". (17) The site at Kits Coty has produced no directly religious objects but its upland or summit position, whilst unsuitable for domestic occupation, is suitable for a temple. (18)
TQ 7461 Kits Coty (Cantiaci) Possible temple site, C1st - C4th AD; paving tiles, cornice-stones found. (19)

<1> OS 6" 1909 (OS Card Reference). SKE48324.

<2> OS 6" 1938-9 (OS Card Reference). SKE48357.

<3> Arch Vol 30 1844 p.536 dated 7.4.1842 (C R Smith communicating latter from T Charles of Maidstone) (OS Card Reference). SKE36940.

<4> Gents g 1842 pt 1 p.532 (OS Card Reference). SKE43580.

<5> Arch J Vol 1 1845 p.263 read 28 8 1844 (T Wright) (OS Card Reference). SKE36768.

<6> Wanderings of an Antiquary 1854 p.173 (T Wright) (OS Card Reference). SKE51271.

<7> JBAA Vol 4 1849 p.82 (Beale Poste) (OS Card Reference). SKE45014.

<8> Num Chron Vol 15 1853 p.59 (C R Smith) (OS Card Reference). SKE47739.

<9> JBAA Vol 12 1856 p.236 (Beale Poste) (OS Card Reference). SKE45010.

<10> Coins of the Anc Britons 1864 pp122 197 354 (J Evans) (OS Card Reference). SKE39064.

<11> Num Chron Vol 1 1839 p.84 (OS Card Reference). SKE47738.

<12> Coll Ant Vol 1 1848 p.6 (OS Card Reference). SKE39115.

<13> VCH Kent Vol 1 1906 p.330 (OS Card Reference). SKE51189.

<14> VCH Kent Vol 3 1932 p.104 (OS Card Reference). SKE51226.

<15> Beale-Poste MSS (Maidstone Museum) Vol 3 Sect 3 p.97-102 (OS Card Reference). SKE37614.

<16> Arch Cant Vol 62 1949 p.134 (J H Evans) (OS Card Reference). SKE36414.

<17> F1 ASP 14-MAY-59 (OS Card Reference). SKE42103.

<18> OS Map of Roman Britain (3rd Edition 1956) (OS Card Reference). SKE48421.

<20> Temples in Roman Britain 1966 p.124 (M J T Lewis) (OS Card Reference). SKE49829.

<21> BAR 24 The Religions of Civilian Roman Britain 1976 229 (M Green) (OS Card Reference). SKE37520.

<22> Field report for monument TQ 76 SW 31 - May, 1959 (Bibliographic reference). SKE4191.

<23> Field report for monument TQ 76 SW 31 - July, 1959 (Bibliographic reference). SKE4192.

Sources and further reading