Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Parts of a substantial Roman hypocausted structure have been uncovered during two separate excavations undertaken in the churchyard and beneath the church of St. Mary in Dover’s town centre, the first was in 1778 and the second in 1994. The remains were initially interpreted by Mr Lyon as being part of a Roman bath house complex, this interpretation has since been dismissed. The remains more likely represent part of a high status extra mural private or public building, located just to the north west of the CLBR fort. (location accurate to the nearest 5m based on available information).

Monument Types

• BUILDING (Large hypocausted structure, Roman - 100 AD? to 250 AD?)

Associated Finds

• FLUE TILE (Roman - 43 AD? to 409 AD?)
• STATUE (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)

Full description

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Parts of a substantial Roman hypocausted structure have been uncovered during two separate excavations undertaken in the churchyard and beneath the church of St. Mary in Dover’s town centre, the first was in 1778 and the second in 1994. The remains were initially interpreted by Mr Lyon as being part of a Roman bath house complex (1-2); this interpretation has since been dismissed. The remains more likely represent part of a high status extra mural private or public building, located just to the north west of the CLBR fort. (1)

In Mr. Lyons description of the features uncovered in 1778, he notes the presence of five walls, between 10 inches and three feet thick, the first course of which was laid on a thick bed of fine clay. Four rooms were identified with a 5 foot wide passage between two of them, and the walls of the passage at least appear to have been plastered with 'a white cement which was laid on very thick' with traces of decorative paintwork. There appears to be two phases of development represented by the features; one of the walls crosses at an angle beneath the others. The hypocaust is describes as 'small dotted quarries or lozenges, represent pilasters erected about 20 inches high with tiles 9 inches square […] placed in rows about 15 inches apart'. The floor overlying this was of opius signinum. (2)

(Summarised from publication) The excavation in 1994 was undertaken by Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit, ahead of the excavation of a soakaway pit, 6.5m to the north of St Marys Church. Two unconnected mortared walls were uncovered, the upper was built of chalk blocks and rendered with opius signinum and white plaster with an associated substantial mortared floor, was found still standing five feet high This was clearly an internal wall of a very large building and parts of at least three rooms were suggested. In the rubble inside the room pieces of painted wall plaster were recovered coloured either red, white or black. The lower wall was on an east west axis and of tile with a bottom course of tufa, 11-12 courses of which survived with patches of rendering still apparent on its surfaces, to a height of 80cm. An associated floor was uncovered on its northern side on which were the imprints of nine pilae stacks, each 28cm squared; these would have formed the bases of the roman stacks of a Roman hypocaust system. (3-4)

There are clear similarities between the two sets of features, and they possibly represent either one, very large Roman structure, or two smaller but similar structures in close proximity to each other. Two phases of construction are represented in each which fits in with the development of nearby Roman structures in Dover’s town centre; the Classis Britannica fort has at least two phases of development as does the extra mural bath house, which is situated less than 100m to the south west of this structure. (5-6)

Alongside the investigations which have identified the presence of a Roman structure beneath the Chuch of St. Mary, chance finds of Roman material at or near the church also point to the presence of this structure. A Roman Hypocaust Flue tile of a red brick clay with a fluted exterior, was located in 1838 and a Roman statue, possibly representing a Nymph or Venus, was also uncovered in 1965. Both of these were donated to Dover Museum (where they are located still) (7).

W. Batcheller, 1836, The New Dover Guide (Monograph). SKE31913.

<1> Page, W. (ed), 1932, The Victoria History of the Counties of England: Kent Volume III (Monograph). SKE7810.

<2> Mr. Lyon, 1779, Archaeologia: or miscellaneous tracts relating to antiquity: Description of a Roman Bath Discovered at Dover. Vol 5, Arch 5 1779 325-334 (J Lyon) (Article in serial). SKE31972.

<3> Brian Philp, 2014, Discoveries and Excavations Across Kent, 1970-2014 (Monograph). SKE32015.

<4> Mr. Lyon, 1779, Archaeologia: or miscellaneous tracts relating to antiquity: Description of a Roman Bath Discovered at Dover. Vol 5 (Article in serial). SKE31972.

<5> Brian Philp, 2014, Discoveries and Excavations Across Kent, 1970-2014 (Monograph). SKE32015.

<6> Council for Kentish Archaeology, 1994, Kent Archaeological Review; Major Roman building discovered at Dover. Vol. 116 (Article in serial). SKE31760.

<7> Dover Museum, 2017, Dover Museum Accession Books (Collection). SKE32383.

Sources and further reading