Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

The likely site of a Roman cremation cemetery due to the number of cremation urns that have been dug up in the area.

Monument Types

• CEMETERY (CEMETERY, Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)

Associated Finds

• URN (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)

Full description

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[Name TQ 8690 6477] Crock Field (Roman urns found) [NAT] (1) [TQ 8690 6503: sited from map.] This field is the site of a Roman cemetery and derived the name of "Crockfield" from the immense number of urns found there. (2) The single tree standing on the summit of the hill south of the CalvesHole railway cutting, and known locally as "Tom All Alone", is the site of the "Crockfield" Cemetery: it is some hundreds of yards away from any earthwork. [Kent 20 SE 18] which may have been on Keycol Hill. (3) About 0.25 miles from Newington, not much above a stone's cast from the highway on the right hand as you come from Sittingbourne, there is a field out of which, in a very little compass of ground, have been dug up within these few years Roman pots and urns. Some thousands are said to have been found and many hundreds have certainly been found. The vessels are ususally arranged in groups, a large urn with several smaller vessels. Nothing has been found in the urns except bones and ashes. One vessel given to me by the vicar has an inscription cut on the neck: SEVERA NVS . PATER . D OZA . 1 OW . V FF <<I/\ (4) Casaubon (authority 4) figures a 2nd century indented Castor urn, a Samian dish stamped COCCILLI.M, and an urn inscribed apprently in graffiti "Severianus pater d(at) ala(m)I ... filia (e)", a Samian cup of form 33, and mentions the stamps PRISCIAN, FVL.LINVS. (5) On Keycol Hill is a field called Crockfield which is littered with Roman pottery turned up by the plough. Many antiquarians have dug here and the vessels they have dug up have been dispersed throughout the country. (6) Additional references. (7-10) The Keycol Hill/Crockfield area is a long-established orchard. A perambulation and local enquiries failed to produce evidence of the exact site or extent of the cemetery. (11) [TQ 8686 6476] ROMAN BURIAL GROUND [R] (12)

<1> OS 6" 1908 (OS Card Reference). SKE48323.

<2> Arch Cant 15 1883 107 1" map fp 104 (G Payne) (OS Card Reference). SKE34724.

<3> Collectanea Cantiana 1893 59 (G Payne) (OS Card Reference). SKE39214.

<4> Marcus Aurelius Antoninus... His Meditations 1634 notes 31-6 (M Casaubon) (OS Card Reference). SKE46547.

<5> VCH Kent 3 1932 161-2 (OS Card Reference). SKE51081.

<6> History of Kent II 1782 561-3 illust (E Hasted) (OS Card Reference). SKE44139.

<7> Villare Cantianum 1659 249-50 (T Philipott) (OS Card Reference). SKE51251.

<8> Hearne's edn of Leland's Itinerary 6 1711 103 (OS Card Reference). SKE43755.

<9> Antiquitates Rutupinae 1745 107-8 (OS Card Reference). SKE33279.

<10> Collectanea Antiqua 5 1861 116 (C Roach Smith) (OS Card Reference). SKE39196.

<11> F1 CFW 03-JUL-63 (OS Card Reference). SKE42402.

<12> OS 1:10000 1979 (OS Card Reference). SKE48165.

<13> Field report for monument TQ 86 SE 1 - July, 1963 (Bibliographic reference). SKE4587.

Sources and further reading