Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

A length of large rolled flint cobbles laid in a shallow trench was uncovered overlaying the Roman deposits, this formed a road running north-south for a total of 14.5m. It was located approximatley 20m to the south west of the remains of the church of St. Martin-Le-Grand and roughly parrallel and inside of the west wall of the late Roman shore fort, about 15-17m from it. Underlying soil deposits situated between the bottom of the trench and the Roman deposits contained sherds from two Saxon vessels which can be dated to A.D. 850-950 suggesting a contruction date of the 10th century for this road. (location accurate to the nearest 2m based on available information)

Monument Types

• GULLY (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon to Medieval - 900 AD to 1099 AD)
• ROAD (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon to Medieval - 900 AD to 1099 AD)

Associated Finds

• SHERD (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)
• POT (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 500 AD to 950 AD)
• SHERD (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 850 AD to 1050 AD)
• SHERD (Medieval - 1200 AD to 1399 AD)

Full description

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(Summarised from publication)

A length of large rolled flint cobbles laid in a shallow trench was uncovered overlaying the Roman deposits, this formed a road running north-south for a total of 14.5m. It was located approximately 20m to the south west of the remains of the church of St. Martin-Le-Grand and roughly parallel and inside of the west wall of the late Roman shore fort, about 15-17m from it. Underlying soil deposits situated between the bottom of the trench and the Roman deposits contained sherds from two Saxon vessels which can be dated to A.D. 850-950 suggesting a construction date of the 10th century for this road.

The road was 2.2m-2.6m wide and the trench in which it had been carefully situated was between 10 and 30cm deep, with a largely flat base and vertical sides. There was a narrow gully on the western side of the road, presumably for drainage; this was only evident at the southern end of the road. Clearly several tons of stone had been brought to the site to enable to construction of this road. There was no finished surface and the rounded boulder seem to have served as the final surface. Its precise function is not clear but it seems to have lead towards the Saxon hall S10 which is of 8th-10th century date. (1)

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

Sources and further reading

Related records