Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Site of a Roman villa with two parallel ranges of rooms projecting on either side of the main entrance and an open verandah, hypocaust and opus signinum floor dating from the second half of 1st century to the 5th century. An area about 100 metres east of the villa revealed boundary ditches and pits containing domestic rubbish of 3rd century date. A Roman tiled oven was also recorded. During the 1970s rescue excavations took place which revealed an extensive area of Roman metalling sealing a filled-in water channel, a series of post holes relating to the water channel and the footings of a flint boundary wall. The finds included over 100 4th century AD coins, pottery and many small finds. Evidence for late Iron Age occupation of the site is also suggested by finds of tin coins and pottery.

Monument Types

• SETTLEMENT (SETTLEMENT, Iron Age - 800 BC to 42 AD)
• SETTLEMENT (SETTLEMENT, Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)
• VILLA (VILLA, Roman - 43 AD to 399 AD? (at some time))
• HYPOCAUST (Roman - 50 AD? to 399 AD? (at some time))

Full description

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[TQ 5538 6737 ROMAN BUILDING [R] (site of) [NAT] (1) Roman building at Franks: type unidentified. Bulldozer revealed roughly square area of side approximately 25 yards comprising great quantities of brick, tile, imbrex tiles, mortar, pottery and part of a Roman horseshoe. Building lies close to the old course of the River Darent which has cut through it: exact extent unknown. (2) TQ 5541 6742 Site at present under excavation. Exposed are flint rubble foundations. Also in situ box-flue tiles, round drainage tiles,masses of roof tiles and a floor of broken tile and cement. The site is marked by a low mound on the W bank of the Darent. (3) Excavation in 1960 and 1961 by the Darent Valley Archaeological Research Group under J. Ritson revealed a villa continuously occupied from the second half of the C1st AD to the end of the C4th, the building ceasing to be used early in the C5th. A Belgic occupation was revealed by much native pottery and three native tin coins were associated with this. House consisted of two parallel ranges of rooms with small apartments projecting on either side of the main entrance. protected by an open verandah. One room had hypocaust, another an opus signinum floor. (4,5) Excavations filled in and site levelled. Finds in Dartford Museum: full report to be published in Arch Cant. (See also TQ 56 NE 26). (6) TQ 555 675 Franks Roman Villa. An area about 100 metres E of the villa revealed boundary ditches and pits containing domestic rubbish of C3rd date. A Roman tiled oven was also recorded. The exact position of the villa house was located by trial excavation on the W bank of the riverand its overall limits defined. (7) Early in 1976 planning permission was given for gravel to be extracted in the area of the villa, to supply the adjacent M20 construction work. The site was scheduled and the main villa house saved from destruction, however the areas to the N and W of the villa were to be destroyed. As a result, rescue excavations took place by the KARU which revealed an extensive area of Roman metalling sealing a filled in water channel, a series of post holes relating to the water channel and the footings of a flint boundary wall. The finds included over 100 C4th AD coins, pottery and many small finds. (8) Additional bibliography. (9-11)

from the National Heritage List for England:
The monument includes a minor Romano-British villa and a possible Iron Age farmstead situated on the western bank of the River Darent.
The domestic range of the villa complex, which survives as a buried feature, is a north east-south west orientated, south east facing, rectangular building 29m long and up to 19.4m wide, with projecting wings at either end. The building has been shown by partial excavation during the 1940's, 1960's and 1970's to have been in use from the early second century AD to the early fifth century AD. It was constructed in two main phases, the second of which took place during the fourth century and entailed the rebuilding and extension of the earlier, timber-built villa. At this time flint foundations were added in support of a renewed, timber superstructure. At least one room in the south western corner of the building was equipped with a hypocaust, or under floor heating system. The remains of two infants, buried with a large stone jar, were found beneath the villa floor. Situated beneath the domestic range of the villa are the buried remains of earlier, Iron Age occupation which may represent a farmstead. These survive in the form of a series of ditches and pits revealed by partial excavation during the 1960's. A natural change in the course of the River Darent some time in the past, which occurred after the villa had been abandoned as a residence, has caused some damage to the north eastern end of the villa building. During the 1970's the mechanical extraction of gravel used for the construction of the nearby M20 motorway from the area surrounding the domestic range is likely to have destroyed the remainder of the villa complex. Gravel extraction also destroyed further traces of the earlier, Iron Age farmstead and traces of later, early medieval occupation of the site, represented by the remains of a sunken-floored house, discovered c.100m to the east of the main villa site during rescue excavation in the 1970's. (13)

<1> OS 1" 1946 (OS Card Reference). SKE48106.

<2> Arch Cant 61 1948 181-2 (G W Meates, E Greenfield and E Birchenough) (OS Card Reference). SKE35328.

<3> F1 ASP 15-JUL-60 (OS Card Reference). SKE42122.

<4> Arch Cant 76 1961 1 AND 1xxii (G W Meates) (OS Card Reference). SKE35587.

<5> Arch Cant 78 1963 lv (OS Card Reference). SKE35652.

<6> F2 ASP 28-AUG-64 (OS Card Reference). SKE43182.

<7> Archaeological Excavations 1975 122 (B Philp) (OS Card Reference). SKE37332.

<8> Archaeological Excavations 1976 85 (B Philp) (OS Card Reference). SKE37333.

<9> JRS 51 1961 190 (OS Card Reference). SKE45119.

<10> Britannia 7 1976 376 (R Goodburn) (OS Card Reference). SKE38380.

<11> Britannia 8 1977 424 (S S Frere) (OS Card Reference). SKE38382.

<12> Field report for monument TQ 56 NE 4 - August, 1964 (Bibliographic reference). SKE2866.

Sources and further reading

Related records