During a watching brief undertaken within the churchyard of St Nicholas Church in New Romney for the excavation of drainage trenches and soakaway pits, the locations of two parallel east west aligned walls, cutting through the graveyard soils were exposed immediately beneath the present topsoil, east of the chancels eastern wall. Positioned approximately 3.5m apart and measuring 0.45m wide, each wall was constructed using ‘Kentish’ red stock bricks set in a similar mortar to that used the brick wall revealed at the western end of trench A. A closer examination of the area between the two walls revealed they formed the intact north and south side walls of a large brick vault, whose curving roof had collapsed into the void below and subsequently infilled with brick fragments and crushed mortar rubble. A 19th century drawing of the church clearly shows this vault surrounded by iron railings. This vault belonged to the Walter Family. Whether the burials within the chamber were removed prior to its destruction or remain in situ was not established during the trench monitoring. (1)

<1> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2005, An archaeological watching brief during groundworks associated with the construction of new drainage trenching and two new soakaway pits in the churchyard of St. Nicholas Church, New Romney, Kent (Unpublished document). SKE15822.