Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

A Saxon structure was excavated just to the north of Market Street, Dover, and 3-6m north of the Roman military bath house, in an area previously occupied by derelict houses and gardens. Much of the north and south walls had been truncated by later features but it is clear that the hut was sub-rectangular with slightly rounded corners and measured approximately 4.3m (E-W). (location accurate to the nearest 2m based on available information)

Monument Types

• GRUBENHAUS (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 500 AD to 899 AD)

Associated Finds

• SHERD (Roman - 43 AD? to 409 AD?)
• FURNITURE FITTING (Roman to Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 300 AD? to 499 AD)
• ANIMAL REMAINS (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 410 AD to 1065 AD)
• DAUB (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 410 AD to 899 AD?)
• LOOMWEIGHT (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 410 AD? to 899 AD?)
• QUERN (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 410 AD to 899 AD?)
• SPINDLE WHORL (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 410 AD to 899 AD?)
• COMB (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 450 AD to 799 AD)
• POT (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 450 AD? to 950 AD?)
• SHERD (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 450 AD to 1065 AD)
• RING (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 600 AD to 699 AD)
• JUG (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 750 AD to 825 AD)
• BOWL (Medieval - 1100 AD? to 1199 AD)

Full description

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(summarised from publication)

A Saxon structure was excavated just to the north of Market Street, Dover, and 3-6m north of the Roman military bath house, in an area previously occupied by derelict houses and gardens. Much of the north and south walls had been truncated by later features but it is clear that the hut was sub-rectangular with slightly rounded corners and measured approximately 4.3m (E-W).

Three post holes were located within the structure alongside 57 stake holes, most of which seem to form part of structural arrangements of the hut. One of the post holes, located near the north wall, is on the north-south central axis and it is likely that this would have contained the large vertical timber supporting the main horizontal roof ridge post. A thin band of dark brown loam 1.2cm thick lay at the bottom of the hut, this was overlain by a deep layer, 30cm-60cm in depth, of grey brown loam containing small pebbles and chalk specks. This contained numerous sherds of pottery and fragments of animal bone, and it was likely purposefully dumped over the structure at some point in the 7th century. Numerous deposits have accumulated or have been dumped across the site in the following centuries (the pottery from these layers can be dated for the later 8th -12th centuries). A metalled surface was laid, probably in the 11th century, above this sequence of soils, consisting of a band of blue-grey pebbles in grey loam. This had been cut but numerous later features, including Medieval pits and a post medieval well. (1)

<1> Brian Philp., 2003, The Discovery and Excavation of Anglo Saxon Dover (Monograph). SKE31831.

Sources and further reading

Related records