Exploring Kent's Past

It should not be assumed that this site is publicly accessible and it may be on private property. Do not trespass.

Monument details

Summary

A Late Bronze Age site at Castle Street. Excavations in 1950 and 1986 suggest the presence of a ditched enclosure. Pottery originally dated to the middle Iron Age has since been re-assessed and assigned to the early 1st millennium BC (Late Bronze Age/Earliest Iron Age). Later material, including Late Iron Age coins, has also been recovered from the site.

Monument Types

• ENCLOSURE (Late Bronze Age to Middle Iron Age - 1000 BC to 400 BC)
• FINDSPOT (Late Bronze Age to Middle Iron Age - 1000 BC to 300 BC)
• SETTLEMENT (SETTLEMENT, Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age - 1000 BC to 401 BC)

Associated Finds

• SHERD (Late Bronze Age to Middle Iron Age - 1000 BC to 300 BC)
• COIN (Iron Age - 800 BC to 42 AD)

Full description

If you do not understand anything on this page please contact us.

An early Iron Age occupation site was partly uncovered by F Jenkins in 1950 during a rescue excavation in the blitzed cellars of Nos 10-11 Castle St Canterbury at TR 14725759 (see plan AO/LP/65/117). A ditch, in excess of 12' wide and 6' deep ran diagonally E-W across the site and continued under St John's Lane. Early Iron Age pottery was found in the primary silting and, associated with the ditch, were some 80 stake holes from 4-10 inches square. Notably, only a few had been driven into the primary level: the rest had penetrated to variouslevels higher up, suggesting a strengthening of the defences at different times. Larger stake holes indicate a palisade and probable entrance. A pre-Flavian rubbish pit, across the line of the entrance palisade, points to a silting up of the site by mid 1stc. AD. SS Frere dates the pottery to c200 BC: it is purely Iron Age `A' without Belgic admixture. Indications are that the site was above the flood-plain of the Stour in Prehistoric times and it cannot, therefore, be considered a a pile-dwelling, excavation, as yet, has been limited in the area, and the site must, perforce, remain "unexplained". (1) Siting confirmed by Jenkins. All finds, including a speculum coin (Allen's Class II) and 2 bronze coins (Allens' type Germanus Indutilli L and Dubnovellaunus) are in the Royal Museum, Canterbury. (2)
Excavations in 1986 in St John's Lane, which runs southeast from Castle Street, encountered among other features a length of ditch which may well represent the same ditch trenched previously by Jenkins. The absence of any trace of this ditch in a nearby trench suggests the presence of a causeway or entrance. The feature examined by Jenkins also appears to have been a ditch terminal. Thus if both features represent the same ditch, then more than one gap is present in its circuit. The site is presumed to be an enclosed settlement. The pottery from both the 1948-50 and 1986 excavations is similar in character and is dated to the early 1st millennium BC (ie Late Bronze Age or earliest Iron Age) rather than the somewhat later Middle Iron Age date originally preferred by Frank Jenkinsm Sheppard Frere etc. (3-5)

<1> Arch NL Mar 1951 145-7 Plan (F Jenkins) (OS Card Reference). SKE36804.

<2> F1 CFW 05-FEB-65 (OS Card Reference). SKE42436.

<3> Problems of the Iron Age 1958 207 215 278 (DF Allen) (OS Card Reference). SKE48693.

<4> Canterbury's Archaeology 11th Ann Rep 1986-7 22 (P Bennet) (OS Card Reference). SKE38569.

<5> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 1993, Canterbury's Archaeology 1992 - 1993 (Article in serial). SKE7909.

Sources and further reading