Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

The city ditch surrounded Canterbury from the Roman Period as a major defensive feature.

Monument Types

• DITCH (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)

Full description

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The city ditch surrounded Canterbury from the Roman Period as a major defensive feature. The north edge of the ditch must lie near the south edge of St. Radigunds Street. The completion of the ditch will be contemporary with the construction of the City wall. The ditch was largely silted up by the 14th century and open ground for building by the 16th century.

In recent years the Trust has excavated only small parts of the ditch and due to its sheer size only the upper medieval levels have been examined. The ditch, it appears would be about 36 feet (11m) wide, seperated from the wall by a berm c.8-10 feet (2.4-3m) wide. It has an approximate perimeter of 4.25km.

The Roman City defensive wall, built in c. AD 279, enclosed an area of c. 130 acres, beyond which was a large and deep defensive ditch separated from the wall by a flat berm about 2.4m to 3.00m in width. The ditch, added by c. AD300, was about 25m wide by the Worth gate alough here its depth was not seen. Near to the Whitecross Tower the ditch was at least 18.20m in width and the ditch was recorded as being at least 5.40m in depth. During the medieval period the city ditch was greatly enlarged, destroying much of the evidence of the earlier Roman ditch in the process.

Excavations in the city ditch were undertaken in June 1968 with the aid of a grant from the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works, in advance of the Pin Hill/Rhodaus Town road widening scheme, to investigate the ditch and the foundations of the city wall. The site of the excavations, immediately to the west of the White Cross Bastion, was chosen because landscaping there had been less drastic than in other parts of the ditch.
However, nearly all levels later than early Roman were found to have been removed from the bank, and the stratigraphy was further disturbed by a recent garden wall and an electricity cable that ran across the site. Two main trenches were dug across the ditch at right angles to the wall, Trench II in the angle of the White Cross Bastion and the wall, and Trench I 26.82m to the west of this. A Mechanical excavator was used to cut the main ditch section in Trench II and those parts of both trenches relating to the bank and wall were dug by hand.
A complete half-profile from the wall to the centre of the ditch was obtained. The lip of the ditch was 3.05m from the base of the wall and the profile of the ditch sloped at an angle of 40 degrees to reach its deepest point 10.97m from the lip and 5.49m below it. The ditch was cut successively into natural brickearth, gravel and chalk. The greater part of the fill was clean brown silt, presume to derive from the brickearth and quite sterile, though one Roman sherd was found within it. Towards the bottom of the ditch, the fill became greyish and waterlogged and showed some signs of organic remains. This section agreed quite well with the sections shown in bore hills drilled for the city engineer in the St George's Gate areas of the ditch.
The foundations of the wall were trench built of irregular coursed flints set in rather soft buff mortar and they extended to a depth of 0.76m below the modern ground level. The foundations of the White Cross Bastion were three offset courses of large chalk blocks set in yellow mortar. Both foundations were laid directly on the natural brickearth. A certain amount of construction debris consisting of chalk and mortar rubble was found against and oversailing the offset of the foundation in trench I, but it contained no dating evidence. 1st and 2nd century rubbish pits were found to cut into the brickearth and produced a fair amount of pottery. <ref 387, 388>

Millard, L. & Jenkins, F., 1968, Excavations in Canterbury City Ditch (Unpublished document). SKE30758.

Jenkins, F, 1969, The Roman Worthgate at Canterbury (Serial). SKE30767.

Millard, L., 1970, Canterbury City Ditch (Serial). SKE30757.

Frere, SS, Stow, S, and Bennett, P, 1982, Excavations on the Roman and Medieval Defences of Canterbury. (Monograph). SKE28530.

Frere, SS, Stow, S, and Bennett, P, 1982, Excavations on the Roman and Medieval Defences of Canterbury. (Monograph). SKE28530.

Sources and further reading

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