Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

During extensive rescue excavations undertaken across Dover’s Town centre by Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit, substantial remains of the Classis Britannica fort were uncovered and recorded. Excavations in an area covering most of the disused burial ground of St. Martin-Le-Grand's church (Burial Ground site) were undertaken in 1970, during this excavation a series of successive buildings were uncovered in approximately the same location. The first of these appears to represent a builder’s workshop; this was unique in its form among the rest of the buildings within the fort. This workshop was later replaced by a large barrack block which contained at least four main periods of development. (location accurate to the nearest 2m based on available information)

Monument Types

• WORKSHOP (Early builders workshop, Roman - 120 AD? to 125 AD?)
• BARRACKS (Roman - 125 AD to 210 AD)

Associated Finds

• SHERD (Late Iron Age to Roman - 10 AD? to 170 AD?)
• SHERD (Roman - 75 AD to 210 AD)
• MORTARIUM (Roman - 90 AD to 150 AD)
• BROOCH (Roman - 100 AD? to 199 AD)
• COIN (Roman - 119 AD to 122 AD)
• BEAD (Roman - 125 AD? to 210 AD?)
• BRACELET (Roman - 125 AD? to 125 AD?)
• BRACELET (Roman - 125 AD? to 210 AD?)
• DISC (Roman - 125 AD? to 210 AD?)
• GAMING BOARD (Roman - 125 AD? to 210 AD?)
• PIN (Roman - 125 AD? to 210 AD?)
• RING (Roman - 125 AD? to 210 AD?)
• STRAP END (Roman - 125 AD? to 210 AD?)
• COIN (Roman - 138 AD to 161 AD)

Full description

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(summarised from publication)

During extensive rescue excavations undertaken across Dover’s Town centre by Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit, substantial remains of the Classis Britannica fort were uncovered and recorded. Excavations in an area covering most of the disused burial ground of St. Martin-Le-Grand's church (Burial Ground site) were undertaken in 1970, during this excavation a series of successive buildings were uncovered in approximately the same location. The first of these appears to represent a builder’s workshop; this was unique in its form among the rest of the buildings within the fort. This workshop was later replaced by a large barrack block which contained at least four main periods of development.

The builders workshop had suffered considerable damage from subsequent buildings on this site and only part of its west and two internal walls had survived. Minimum dimensions of 9m by 6.2m with four rooms are suggested by the surviving remains which consisted of roughly squared chalk blocks set in clay, surviving to a maximum height of 30cm. Its untypical plan and the fact that it was quickly replaced suggest that it served a function during the construction of the fort rather than during its use. The building which replaced this workshop was much larger with a different plan; it had an overall minimum length of 16.5m and width of 6.35m and was constructed of neatly squared chalk blocks set in well-built, regular courses bonded with a brown clay. It is very similar to the period one barrack blocks evidenced over the rest of the interior of the fort and, like the other barrack blocks, appears to have undergone an extensive reconstruction. During this reconstruction, B32 seems to have retained its external walls, several of the internal walls however, had been demolished and sealed by the period two floor. The new internal walls created four new rooms and a narrow passage, these were again constructed of chalk blocks but were comparatively less well-built than the period one walls.

Evidence of substantial or total demolition of the period two building it apparent across the site and a new building with a changed plan appears to have been erected in its place. The new external walls followed the same approximate line of the earlier walls but the new internal walls were totally repositioned. These were constructed of chalk blocks of varying sizes and uneven construction, set in an orange-brown clay. The floor was simply the compacted surface of the period two demolition deposits. This period three building appears to have undergone some degree of modification which included the removal on one of the internal walls and the insertion of at least two new rooms at the north-west corner. (1)

<1> Philp, B. J., 1981, The Excavation of the Roman Forts of the Classis Britannica at Dover 1970-1977 (Monograph). SKE7863.

Sources and further reading

Related records