Archaeological Notes and Summaries

ARCHAEOLOGICAL NOTES AND SUMMARIES 295 4. Nos 5-7 The Parade (TR 14995 57795 centred) During the summer of 2007 the Trust excavated four small trenches (between 1-2m2) at the corner of The Parade and Mercery Lane. The work formed part of an interdisciplinary investigation associated with refurbishment of a building of medieval origin. Only one trench (B1) was excavated to the base of the archaeological sequence. An early soil overlying the brickearth was shown to be superseded by a sequence of deposits associated with various phases of Roman period buildings, including floors, occupation layers and structural features. The later structural phases formed part of a substantial masonry building which could be related to the Roman-period street pattern. The development of a high status town-house extending over much of the site is therefore suggested. The Roman period remains were cut by potentially post-Roman and Anglo-Saxon pits (the latter possibly part of a sunken-featured building) and superseded by a medieval floor and occupation layers and a cess pit dated to c.1140-75. Although one trench (B2) was situated entirely within the footings for the twentieth-century basement, the backfill contained redeposited wall fabric that was clearly of medieval date, suggesting an early cellar had been removed or expanded to form the modern one. A significant vaulted cellar, perhaps of fourteenth-century origin, can still be seen in the basement beneath 9-9A Mercery Lane, but nothing earlier than the fifteenth century survives above ground. ARCHAEOLOGICAL NOTES AND SUMMARIES 295 6. Ryde Street (TR 14207 58246) In October 2008 the Trust conducted an archaeological evaluation ARCHAEOLOGICAL NOTES AND SUMMARIES 296 and subsequent watching brief in advance of and during residential development on a small plot of land on the north-west side of Ryde Street in St Dunstan’s. The work produced typical evidence of mixed activity in suburban Durovernum Cantiacorum. A single evaluation trench within the plot contained three compact gravel features of late Iron Age date (possible building pads), Roman period industrial activity and a particularly late Romano-British cremation burial containing three pottery vessels. The assemblage dates to the late third or fourth century, a time when inhumation burial is accepted as the norm. The uppermost deposit of archaeological significance in the trench was a burnt clay layer, again suggesting industry but of the medieval/post-medieval period. The watching brief on the works identified more early soils and possibly Roman period metallings, but nothing further of a funerary nature. ARCHAEOLOGICAL NOTES AND SUMMARIES 299 12. Minster in Sheppey (TQ 9575 7306; TQ 95646 73026; TQ 95575 72954) During the spring and summer of 2007 the Trust carried out an evaluation and two watching briefs on neighbouring sites at Minster in Sheppey. The watching briefs lay within the Anglo-Saxon and medieval abbey grounds and were conducted in accordance with Scheduled Ancient Monument consents. The evaluation, in the former front garden at 45 Queen’s Road ARCHAEOLOGICAL NOTES AND SUMMARIES 301 (TQ 9575 7306), revealed that the natural Bagshot Beds were overlain by multiphase occupation dating from the late prehistoric, Roman, Anglo- Saxon and medieval periods. This included at least two Anglo-Saxon buildings apparently associated with a boundary wall with a gateway and a ditch, along with a slightly later structure with a clay floor. Monitoring of work to replace a manhole for the vicarage drains north-east of the abbey church (TQ 95646 73026) produced residual Roman tile fragments and evidence of another medieval building with clay floors, and repairs to the wall retaining the south-western portion of the churchyard (TQ 95575 72954) afforded an inspection of the nineteenth-century wall foundation, probably associated with major renovation of the church in 1880-3.