Fifty years on: My memories of excavations at St Pancras Church, Canterbury, in 1974

In August 1974, I spent two weeks on the excavations at St Pancras Church, Canterbury, which were directed by Frank Jenkins. I was then a thirteen-year-old schoolboy on my summer holidays, and it was my first excavation. I am aware that the site was never properly published, that the finds cannot be located, and that the site archive is incomplete. I write this piece to record what I can remember, especially the important burial I excavated about which no other information remains. If I remember correctly, Frank had a site supervisor; there were several adult archaeology students, some volunteers, and three people of my age. We received a £1.50 daily allowance. It should be noted that a single man (Ministry of Works?) carried out limited excavations to the west of us.

We were excavating the cemetery to the south-east of St Pancras Church. It was rough ground used as a cemetery by Canterbury Hospital in the 19th century (although there were no surface markers to indicate this). In the upper levels, we encountered numerous skeletons, and by the end of the two weeks, everyone had pretty good knowledge of how to excavate human remains. However, the treatment of the skeletons after excavation left a lot to be desired, with little respect for the dead. Things have changed a great deal since then.

[fg]png|Fig 1: Sketch of 1974 excavations|Image[/fg]

I cannot remember the exact objective of the excavation, but we were purportedly on a Roman dig, so I believe it was really to see if the site would give any clues to a potential late Roman origin for St Pancras Church.

We were told about an earlier excavation in the early 1900s and uncovered the two keyhole children’s burials (which had subsequently been filled in with sand). They were on full display during the excavation. I cannot remember much about the finds, but there was much Roman tile and a quantity of small pieces of copper slag(?).

I believe there were several Roman burials at a deeper level, although I can only be certain about mine. At about 4 feet below the surface, I uncovered a skeleton, laid out with head to the north and feet to the south. On his right side (I am pretty sure), there was a large iron spearhead at about head level – I would say the spear was around 20 cm in length, although it could have been longer. On the person’s pelvis was a dark patch with a corroded copper-alloy coin within the darkened area. This was determined to be the remains of a leather purse – it was sprinkled with water, but the sun ultimately bleached the stain. The coin was removed; I never saw it again.

It is very tempting to interpret the identity of the soldier. Was he Roman? Was he a foederatus? The presence of a coin does suggest that he subscribed to the Roman concept of the afterlife with Charon’s obol (or as).

Given my knowledge of coins, I would say it was around 20 mm or more in diameter. It was probably a later 3rd-century ‘radiate’ (c. AD 260-96) or a 4th-century nummus, which could range in date from c. AD 310-318 and 348-55. Given the heavy corrosion, I am tempted to suggest it was a ‘radiate’. A much smaller nummus of the House of Constantine (dating to c. AD 330-48, if my memory is correct) was found in much better condition nearby.

Overall, this burial was on the same north-south alignment as the two keyhole burials (and I think, but cannot be certain, as other burials found in between). This north-south alignment suggests burial in a pagan rather than Christian fashion. Furthermore, it does appear that this was a roadside cemetery that fronted on to the Roman road to the south, discovered by Frank Jenkins in 1975. If this was the case, then it does appear to have been a Roman cemetery.

Did Frank Jenkins find what he wanted? He was not satisfied with the excavation findings and called us back on the Saturday after the end of the dig. There was a frantic attempt to dig a new trench in appallingly wet conditions – it was finally aborted.

However, the positioning of St Pancras Church by the cemetery might have been no accident. As with the church at St Albans, was there some significant late Roman Christian burial within this cemetery, possibly including an above-ground mausoleum? Would this have provided the focus for the later building of St Pancras?