Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

During a series of extensive rescue excavations, ahead of development in Dover’s town centre undertaken by Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit a building, a substantial Roman building consisting of 6 main rooms was uncovered lying on an east-west axis. This structure is today known as the ‘Painted House’ due to the vast quantity of painted wall plaster which was located, largely in situ, in association with it. The uncovered remains remain open to the public for viewing. A passage along the northern side of the complex was traced for a distance of 17.4m the precise function of this passage remains uncertain but it is clear that it provided access to room 1. (location accurate to the nearest 2m based on available information).

Monument Types

• DRAIN (chalk block drain in north passage, Roman - 200 AD to 270 AD)
• WALL (north wall of north passage, Roman - 200 AD to 270 AD?)

Full description

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(summarised from publication)

During a series of extensive rescue excavations, ahead of development in Dover’s town centre undertaken by Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit a building, a substantial Roman building consisting of 6 main rooms was uncovered lying on an east-west axis. This structure is today known as the ‘Painted House’ due to the vast quantity of painted wall plaster which was located, largely in situ, in association with it. The uncovered remains remain open to the public for viewing. A passage along the northern side of the complex was traced for a distance of 17.4m the precise function of this passage remains uncertain but it is clear that it provided access to room 1.

The passage was 1.17m wide and had a trodden earth floor, the shared south wall was solidly built; constructed of coursed flints set in a hard white mortar. It sat upon wall footings of flint which were 30-60cm high and slightly wider than the walls (60cm - 70cm wide whereas the walls were a maximum of 60cm). The wall footings were in turn positioned upon a set of broad foundations which consisted of flint rubble with a few fragments of tufa and chalk, 70-80cm wide and 30cm deep. The north wall however was poorly built; it was 48-52cm wide, was not straight and the partially demolished remains of the earlier buttressed building had been used for the foundations. It survived to a maximum height of 1.2m above the floor level which unlike rooms 1-6 does not appear to have been raised. The passage did not connect to rooms 2, 3 and 5, its use therefore, remains uncertain, one possibility is that it contained a staircase to an upper level but no evidence of this has been uncovered. Two drains, one consisting of a simple gully, the other was chalk lined, were uncovered within the passage, the smaller gully located along the centre and the larger chalk block drain at the extreme east end. (1)

<1> Philp, B, 1989, The Roman House with Bacchic Murals at Dover (Monograph). SKE24004.

Sources and further reading

Related records