Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

In September 1948 The Canterbury Excavation Committee began work on a site 27.4m south of the Riding Gate on the city wall. At this location the city wall had suffered bomb damage in 1942. Another excavation on this site occurred in 1960.

Monument Types

• TOWN WALL (AD 270?, Undated)

Full description

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In September 1948 The Canterbury Excavation Committee began work on a site 27.4m south of the Riding Gate on the city wall. At this location the city wall had suffered bomb damage in 1942. Two trenches were dug, one across the bank inside the wall, the other (4.88m further south beyond the major damage) against the outer face of the wall. These were coded C XIII CW A and B.
The trenches revealed that the Roman wall stood to a height of 2.44m on footings 0.91m deep and that the bank was contemporary with it with no earlier bank discernable. A late third-century date for the building of the defences seems certain; although most of the pottery from the bank itself was residual, sherds of mid to late third century date were found sealed by it. In the Medieval period the city wall fell into decay and a building with chalk walls and an earth floor was erected on the surface of the bank. Later the bank of the Medieval defences was piled on its demolished remains. Much restoration work was carried out in c. 1790, in connection with the new Riding Gate.

Frank Jenkins undertook excavations against the innner face of the city wall in 1960 within the Dane John Gardens. 36m east of tower 1 the modern rampart walk had subsided and a trench showed that the Roman wall stood to a height of at least 2.7m, but was not more than 1.2m wide. It seems probable that the outer face has been reduced by weathering and neglect. Above the Roman wall was a roughly built wall of ragstone and flints, above which was the modern parapet.
A small trench dug 30m east of Tower 1 located the foundation trench of the Roman wall. Its front lay c 0.38m outside the modern wall-line. Slightly further east for a length of c. 4.9m the foundation-trench had been totally robbed and filled with mortary rubble. Beyond this the wall survived in a more substantial state; just to the west of this length of wall lay the Roman angle-tower.

In 1960 Frank jenkins directed an excavation in the Dane John Gardens. These revealed that the Roman city wall made an angle 10.2m west of the Dane John wall-tower and c. 3m west of the present angle. The remains of a Roman angle tower were seen, it was apparently horse shoe shaped with a maximum diameter of 6.2m. The front of the tower had been destroyed by erosion and landscaping and elsewhere the foundations had been extensively robbed. The tower was thought to be contemporary with the city wall but the relationship was difficult to establish due to the state of the tower.
A coin of Victorinus (268-70) was found selaed by mortary rubble in the robbed foundation trench of the city wall just to the east of the angle. It is very likely that this coin was originally sealed by the wall and its presence may therefore confirm other evidence for the late third century date of the wall.

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.

Jenkins, F, 1960, CAS Annual Report (Article in serial). SKE30756.

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

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.

Andrews, G., 1985, An Assessment. Gazetteer of Excavations. Prehistoric, Belgic and Roman Excavations (Monograph). SKE30006.

Ward, A., 1995, A Watching Brief at the Roman Worth Gate, Canterbury (Excavation archive). SKE30759.

Sources and further reading