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Monument details
HER Number: | TQ 74 SE 36 |
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Type of record: | Monument |
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Name: | Roman road; Rochester- Maidstone- Hastings |
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Summary
Roman road, (Kent-East Sussex), running from Rochester - Maidstone - Hastings.
Grid Reference: | TQ 5784 1402 |
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Map Sheet: | TQ51SE |
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Parish: | ROCHESTER & CHATHAM, MEDWAY, KENT |
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| BOUGHTON MONCHELSEA, MAIDSTONE, KENT |
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| BOXLEY, MAIDSTONE, KENT |
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| CHART SUTTON, MAIDSTONE, KENT |
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| MAIDSTONE, MAIDSTONE, KENT |
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| STAPLEHURST, MAIDSTONE, KENT |
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| AYLESFORD, TONBRIDGE AND MALLING, KENT |
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| BENENDEN, TUNBRIDGE WELLS, KENT |
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| CRANBROOK, TUNBRIDGE WELLS, KENT |
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| FRITTENDEN, TUNBRIDGE WELLS, KENT |
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| SANDHURST, TUNBRIDGE WELLS, KENT |
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Monument Types
- ROAD (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)
Protected Status: | Selected Heritage Inventory for Natural England: Section of Roman road from Hastings to Rochester, 300m south-west of Knox Bridge; Selected Heritage Inventory for Natural England: Roman road, running from Rochester - Maidstone - Hastings, c. 300m west of Old Place Farm, Sandhurst; Selected Heritage Inventory for Natural England: Section of Roman road from Hastings to Rochester, 270m north-west of White Horse Stone; Selected Heritage Inventory for Natural England: 1,494m section of Roman road running from Rochester to Hastings, Maidstone and Boughton Monchelsea; Selected Heritage Inventory for Natural England: 29m section of Roman road running from Rochester to Hastings, Cranbrook; Selected Heritage Inventory for Natural England: 235m section of Roman road running from Rochester to Hastings, Cranbrook; Selected Heritage Inventory for Natural England: 740m section of Roman road running from Rochester to Hastings, Staplehurst; Selected Heritage Inventory for Natural England: 280m section of Roman road running from Rochester to Hastings, Staplehurst; Selected Heritage Inventory for Natural England: 259m section of Roman road running from Rochester to Hastings, Chart Sutton and Boughton Monchelsea; Selected Heritage Inventory for Natural England: 875m section of Roman road running from Rochester to Hastings, Chart Sutton and Boughton Monchelsea; Selected Heritage Inventory for Natural England: 328m section of Roman road running from Rochester to Hastings, Cranbrook and Frittenden; Selected Heritage Inventory for Natural England: 328m section of Roman road running from Rochester to Hastings, Cranbrook and Frittenden |
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Full description
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Roman road, (Kent-East Sussex), running from Rochester - Maidstone - Hastings.
Roman road RR 13 (Margary), Rochester-Maidstone-Hastings, - For full details, including bibliography and OS field investigator comments, see Ordnance Survey Linear Archive file (RR 13), held at NMRC. (1)
In 1995 the Maidstone Areas Archaeological Group excavation 3 sections across the road in the Luck Lane area and found a roadway 2.4 m wide and 200 mm thick (7)
A section of the road was recorded in 2001 where it is exposed in a river bank near the boundary between Sandhurst and Bodiam. At this point the metalled iron slag surface extends for 9.55m, with the west end cut by the modern road bridge. The metalling varied in depth, with a maximum of 36cm 7.3m east of the modern bridge. Two ditches underlie the road, and may represent the width of a previous smaller road c.2.5m in width. A further ditch demarks the east edge of the road.
Metal detectoring in the fields to the south suggests a large quantity of metal slag in the vicinity - it is suggested that this is more than would be needed for the road metalling so there may be an iron working site nearby. (2)
Metal detector survey in 2001 at Benenden School traced the line of this road and the Benenden-Canterbury road that branches off at this point. The junction is at a high point with views over the Weald. There is some suggestion that the Benenden-Canterbury road continues further west. (3)
Cropmark south of Chatham at 575235 442275 visible on the 2007 Google Earth image. Visible running N-S for 170m with a slight kink in.
A section of Roman trackway was found at the White Horse Stone CTRL site, which is probably the main Rochester-Maidstone route.
Superficial geophysical Survey of the Roman Road between Bodiam and Sandhurst Cross. (4)
The road featured in a Historic Landscape Survey conducted in Benenden in 2016. "The Roman road then became the alignment of a lathe boundary between the two Saxon agricultural estates of Wye and Lympne (Pollard and Aldridge 2008)." (5)
A cropmark is visible south-east of Knox Bridge at 578559, 140552 on Google Earth aerial photographs of 1960. (6)
Oxford Wessex Archaeology Joint Venture, 2011, Settling the Ebbsfleet Valley. CTRL Excavations at Springhead and Northfleet, Kent. Volume 2: Late Iron Age to Roman Finds Reports (Monograph). SKE32435.
<2> Neil Aldridge, 2009, Letter from Neil Aldridge with details of sites from the Bulletin of the Wealden Iron Research Group (Unpublished document). SKE16635.
<3> Aldridge, Neil, 2005, Archaeological Notes from the Weald (Unpublished document). SKE16642.
<4> Staveley, D., 2010, A Geophysical Survey of the Roman Road between Bodiam and Sandhurst Cross, 2010 (Unpublished document). SKE17093.
<5> High Weald AONB Unit, 2016, Case study report: Benenden by footpath: Field Systems in the Weald Project (Unpublished document). SKE31799.
<6> Google Earth (Graphic material). SWX15704.
<7> Kent Archaeological Society, 1995, Kent Archaeological Society Newsletter 32, 1995 (Article in serial). SKE54514.
Sources and further reading
Cross-ref.
| Source description | --- | Monograph: Oxford Wessex Archaeology Joint Venture. 2011. Settling the Ebbsfleet Valley. CTRL Excavations at Springhead and Northfleet, Kent. Volume 2: Late Iron Age to Roman Finds Reports. |
<2> | Unpublished document: Neil Aldridge. 2009. Letter from Neil Aldridge with details of sites from the Bulletin of the Wealden Iron Research Group. |
<3> | Unpublished document: Aldridge, Neil. 2005. Archaeological Notes from the Weald. |
<4> | Unpublished document: Staveley, D.. 2010. A Geophysical Survey of the Roman Road between Bodiam and Sandhurst Cross, 2010. |
<5> | Unpublished document: High Weald AONB Unit. 2016. Case study report: Benenden by footpath: Field Systems in the Weald Project. |
<6> | Graphic material: Google Earth. |
<7> | Article in serial: Kent Archaeological Society. 1995. Kent Archaeological Society Newsletter 32, 1995. No. 32. |
Related records
TQ 83 NW 21 | Part of: Hollow and agger probably relating to Roman road (Monument) |
TQ 76 SE 86 | Part of: Late Iron Age / Roman ditches and trackway at the White Horse Stone and Pilgrim's Way site (Monument) |
TQ 83 SW 6 | Part of: Paved Roman Ford, near Stream Farm, Benenden (Monument) |