It is recorded in early nineteenth-century illustrations and maps of St Nicholas’ Church that up until the last quarter of the nineteenth century a small square structure survived against the exterior face of the tower north aisle wall (Plate 5). Consisting of a single storied building with a hipped roof and a door in its west wall, the exact function of this structure is unknown though it could have been used as a charnel house or a covered porch enclosing the north door. Machine excavation of soils across the area of the churchyard boundary wall exposed a 2.1m long section of masonry foundation on an east-west alignment approximately 2.9m from the tower north aisle north wall. Constructed in a narrow 0.25m wide foundation trench excavated into the upper surface of the demolition/construction debris to a depth of 0.35m, its western extent overlay, and was bonded directly onto the reduced upper surface of Wall foundation 1. Constructed in horizontal courses using medium sized rounded flint beach cobbles set with a friable pale creamy white coarse gritty lime mortar, its continuation westward was obscured by the present road surface, whilst its eastern continuation and return had been truncated beyond that exposed. If this is the remains of the structure depicted on earlier maps and illustrations then it is shown with its west wall slightly short of the west end of the tower north aisle and its eastern end wall returning between the tower north aisle north door and the adjacent buttress. Whilst no evidence of its east and west returning walling was encountered during monitoring it is presumed these were removed during its demolition as part of the nineteenth-century restoration scheme. It is likley that this structure was built during or immediately after the 13th century restoration work carried out on the church ( as evidenced by the demolition/construction deposits). (1) (information summarised from source)

<1> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2011, Archaeological watching brief at St Nicholas' Church, Church Road, New Romney (Unpublished document). SKE24853.