| Summary: | Frrom the report: "On 4 July 2013, a member of Canterbury Archaeological Trust staff (CAT) undertook an
archaeological watching brief during the excavation by contractors of two test pits within
the chancel floor of St Mary’s Church, High Halden, Kent. Forming part of an ongoing
sequence of investigations to understand the processes involved in severe movement
detected across the chancel floor, the test pits were hand excavated through the tile surfaces
into underlying deposits.
Despite the limited area of each test pit, both revealed the soils underlying the chancel floor
were poorly compacted due to being heavily disturbed through period grave excavation.
These soils had been sealed during the mid nineteenth-century by a moderate depth of loose
un-compacted mortar rubble that formed the bedding to the existing tile floor. The tile floor
itself composed of a rigid Portland cement bedding with concrete screed over, onto which
the tiles were subsequently laid.
It is known from antiquarian jottings that until the mid nineteenth-century, the chancel floor
possessed numerous incised ledger slabs dating from the early seventeenth- through to the
early nineteenth-centuries. These ledgers, clearly indicating the fashion to be buried as
close to the east alter as possible, were subsequently moved during a scheme of
refurbishment and now form part of the tower walkway floor.
It is suggested that settlement of the underlying soils and the rubble bedding to the existing
floor is responsible for the movement recorded across the tile surface of the chancel, which
in itself forms a rigid crust over the loose soils beneath." |
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