Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

'According to the records an extensive Roman cemetery exists either side of the London Road, in the garden of Roper House, in the St. Dunstan's Street area, in Church street, Orchard Street, close to and inside the Victoria Recreation Ground and under the Southern Railway Line.'

Monument Types

• CEMETERY (Roman - 101 AD to 200 AD)

Full description

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St. Dunstan's Roman cemetery. Andrews states 'According to the records an extensive Roman cemetery exists either side of the London Road, in the garden of Roper House, in the St. Dunstan's Street area, in Church street, Orchard Street, close to and inside the Victoria Recreation Ground and under the Southern Railway Line.'

Reports of finds other than more specific references noted elsewhere bear unsubstantiated testimony to the size of this cemetery. Many burials were apparently unearthed during the conmstruction of the Canterbury to whitstable Railway in c. 1844; during house building near London Road in 1850, during drainage works in 1860-61 and 1867-8 and many chance finds have been reported from gardens, or during minor repairs to private premises. Further evidence has been revealed since Andrews Survey for example at Cranmer House, London Road; St. Dunstan's Repeater Station, etc where many further burials both cremation and inhumation have been discovered.

Brent, J., 1861, Roman cemeteries in Canterbury, with some conjectures concerning its earliest inhabitants (Article in serial). SKE17548.

Brent, J., 1879, Canterbury in Olden Time. (Article in monograph). SKE29965.

Andrews, G., 1985, The Archaeology of Canterbury: An Assessment (Unpublished document). SKE30429.

Sources and further reading