A considerable spread of medieval archaeology was encountered in a trench (trench 19) during evaluation trenching on land off Ashford Road, New Romney. It largely comprised building debris in a demolition deposit, most of this was not in situ however, four timbers, possibly in situ (one still
pressed against a packing stone) and two postholes, one with timber still present in the cut suggests the immediate proximity of a structure somewhere around trench 19. A wide range of building material was recovered, and the presence of the Caen-type ashlar block fragment and the west country roofing slate suggests a building of some consequence (something that the quality of
the pottery would correlate with, the pottery dating from c. 1250-1375). Two robber trenches suggests that at some point before the 14th century the building would have been dismantled in search of building material, especially for the high-quality stone and slate, possibly after the great storm of 1287 which may have destroyed the original structure. The larger of the two robber cuts had several layers of demolition suggesting a period of disuse rather than a deliberate backfill of the trench, where subsequent storm deposits covered the remaining portions of the building. It is unclear what function this building may have had, given that the archaeology surrounding it appears to be mostly domestic, it may be related to further medieval features identified in the field to the north of this site. (1) (information summarised from sources)

<1> RPS, 2020, Archaeological Evaluation Report, Land at Ashford Road, New romney, Kent (Unpublished document). SKE55254.