Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

During an archaeological watching brief undertaken by Canterbury Archaeological Trust at The Grand Shaft Barracks in 2017 the heavily robbed remains of the Soldiers’ Quarters Range A of the Grand Shaft Barracks, including a number of wall foundations, were uncovered. (location accurate to the nearest 1m based on available information)

Monument Types

• WALL (Post Medieval to Modern - 1805 AD? to 1960 AD?)

Full description

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During an archaeological watching brief undertaken by Canterbury Archaeological Trust at The Grand Shaft Barracks in 2017 the heavily robbed remains of the Soldiers’ Quarters Range A of the Grand Shaft Barracks, including a number of wall foundations, were uncovered. All the wall foundations of the main block were of similar construction, being built almost entirely from dense, frogless orange-red bricks but with occasional yellows (see below), set in a light grey gritty mortar containing charcoal and chalk/lime specks. This mortar type would appear to equate with the primary, early nineteenth century buildings erected on the site. The walls were cut into an undisturbed clay deposit that was not examined in any detail but which was probably significantly earlier in date than the barracks complex.

Two of the walls uncovered represented the exterior walls of the building, both were buried under a complex sequence of modern dump deposits, the north western at a depth of about 1.2m below the present ground level and the and the south eastern at a depth of 0.45m below present ground level. The north western wall had been cut into the underlying clay, was 0.85m wide at the top and extended to a depth of 0.66m. The south eastern was 0.56m wide across the top and stood to a minimum height of 0.47m (6 courses), cut into a clay dump deposit containing fragments of red brick and grey mortar. This probably represented a levelling layer connected with the original construction of the building. Although the wall was mostly built of orange-red brick, it was noted that a single course of yellow stocks occurred as the highest course along the south-eastern side (external face). This might hint that the red bricks were generally reserved for use in the foundation courses.

A third wall was located on the south-eastern side of the north western exterior wall, set at a right-angle to it and seemingly bonded into it. The brickwork had been taken down some 0.2m lower than the central core, leaving clay infill surviving to a higher level. The complete wall would originally have been about 0.48m wide. The fourth wall foundation constitutes the base of an internal cross-wall running through the width of the building. At the south-eastern end it was carefully bonded into outer south eastern wall at a right angle. Towards the north-western end, however, it had been completely robbed away. Its continuation to link with the outer rear wall of the range appeared to be represented by the interior wall discussed above. The wall foundation itself was about 0.45m wide and survived to a maximum depth of 0.45m. It extended for a distance of 8.55m and was bonded with two other internal walls on the north-eastern side, set at right angles. A fifth wall uncovered was an internal spur wall running north-east by south-west from the north-eastern side of the internal cross wall. The two walls appeared to be contemporary but the spur being of rather less substantial construction being just 0.21m wide. Only one course was seen. The final wall uncovered was another contemporary internal spur wall running north-east by south-west from the northeastern side of the internal cross wall. It lay some 2.90m north-west of the other sprur wall and was 0.35m wide. Again, only one course was seen. These various spur walls are likely to relate to fireplaces and/or wooden floor joist supports. (summarised from report) (1).

<1> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2018, Grand Shaft Barracks, Western Heights, Dover, Evaluation Report (Unpublished document). SKE51431.

Sources and further reading

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