A watching brief carried out during test-pitting and contimination remediation works at St Mildred's Tannery 2001-9 found a metalled street perhaps merging into a riverside hard, and various flanking buildings, one of which was overlain by later metallings. They were probably of Roman date. (1)

An environmental assessment and separate palynological assessment of samples from St Mildred's Tannery was conducted in 2001. One of the samples was taken from above the metalling for a Roman road at the site, and comprised the remains of plants. These plants comprised indeterminate roots, and seeds from orache, parsley-piert, hemlock, lamiaceae, horned pondweek, sedges, common reed, and graminae. The analysis also revealed evidence for a series of invertebrate remains (largely bugs, flies, mites, and beetles), including water snail and oyster. Palynological analysis was undertaken on only one Roman sample derived from a blackish stony peaty soil deposit.
The plant and insect species found during sampling suggested that towards the end of the Roman period, the site had wet and potentially open water conditions, including features such as a reed swamp. Palynological analysis suggested that early on, the site was dominated by grassland rich in herbs, perhaps representing contexts such as arable fields established towards the end of or after the Roman period. Domestic rubbish accumulation from dumping was also found at the site. Some of the samples also cover the Anglo-Saxon and medieval periods, following Roman occupation at the site. (2, 3)

<1> Canterbury Archaeological Trust Ltd, 2013, Section B, St Mildred's Tannery, Stour Street, Canterbury, Archaeological evaluation watching-brief and building record (Unpublished document). SKE52901.

<2> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2001, An Assessment of Plant Macrofossils and Invertebrate Remains from St Mildred's Tannery, Canterbury (Unpublished document). SKE55959.

<3> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2001, St Mildred’s Tannery, (TAN01-EV), Assessment for Potential for Palynological Analysis (Unpublished document). SKE57602.