Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

During an evaluation undertaken at Town Yard, Dover, the remains of a number of features which would have once belonged to a large railway maintenance/terminus building were uncovered (location accurate to the nearest 1m based on available information)

Monument Types

• FLOOR (cambered brick floor, Post Medieval to Modern - 1900 AD? to 2002 AD?)
• PIT (brick lined inspection pit, Post Medieval to Modern - 1900 AD? to 2002 AD?)
• WALL (pebble concrete wall footing, Post Medieval to Modern - 1900 AD? to 2002 AD?)
• Wall Foundation (Post Medieval to Modern - 1900 AD? to 2002 AD?)

Full description

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During an evaluation at Town Yard, Dover, undertaken by Canterbury Archaeological Trust in 2002, ahead of redevelopment of the site, numerous features relating to railway activity on the site were excavated and recorded. Trench 1 revealed the most extensive remains relating to the railway activity on the site, here numerous concrete foundations and cambered brick floors were exposed. These seemed to mostly relate to a single large covered railway shed, which had contained lined inspection pits between the railway tracks. Further traces of this or an adjacent building of a similar or the same type were revealed in trench 5. Again it was found that the building had been equipped with brick lined inspection pits set between the railway tracks. Conformation on the train maintenance connection for the building was provided by the discovery in one of the inspection pits of a long handled, steam engine boiler rake.

A pebble concrete wall footing, about 0.8m across was also located running at a slight angle along the length of trench 3. this is also likely to relates to the railway building. Reference to the 1858 O.S map suggests that this footing probably supported the track-side wall of the original station platform. If this is correct, it confirms that the extant platform is a later rebuild, set some distance back from the original line.

All of these structures have a probable date of the mid-20th century. (1)

<1> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2002, Report on Archaeological Evaluation Trenching at Town Yard, Dover Western Docks (Unpublished document). SKE8245.

Sources and further reading

Related records