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

At two points in Ospringe village, both of them around twenty metres south of the present day A2 trunk road (Ospringe Street) features composed of large shaped flints tightly packed together to form a flat surface, were tentatively identified as sections of the original Roman Watling Street.

Monument Types

• ROAD (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)

Full description

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

These excavations took place as part of a research project being carried out in the Ospringe area by the Faversham Society Archaeological Research Group into prehistoric and early medieval human activity. K63/T was a long narrow trench cutting a north- south section through the raised back garden of 9, Ospringe Street. K44 was a small but deep pit just south west of the Maison Dieu Museum, in the back garden of 21 Ospringe Street. With K63?T, the northern end of the trench, closest to the new extension to the house, was truncated but a still visibly lens shaped flint and chalk block feature was revealed. This tapered southwards curving upwards to give a shallow gully and south of that was a large ditch which could not be fully excavated within the constraints of the excavation. In K44, around 150 metres to the west, a similar surface of large flints with oyster shell poked into the cracks was observed at a depth of 1.3 metres. In both cases, the flint structure was built to a high standard. (1)

<1> Faversham Society Archaeological Research Group, 2012, Understanding Ospringe Project 2008-9 and 2011 (Unpublished document). SKE17255.

Sources and further reading