Roman features including a metalled road surface, post-holes, a clay floor, a pit, and drainage gullies were identified at 8 St Mary's Street, Canterbury, during an evaluation in 2002.

The metalled street surface appeared to form part of a previously unknown Roman street existing between Castle Street and Marlowe Street, and aligned NW-SE. The metalled street surface was associated with finds of charcoal and tile, and appeared to have had at least two phases of construction.

Probably contemporary with this street were a number of features relating to a Roman building; these included a clay floor, post-holes, and two drainage gullies. The post-holes and drainage gullies contained late 1st-early 3rd century pottery, and one of the drainage gullies retained some of its original tile lining.

One of the gullies was aligned NE-SW and measured 2.58m in length, 0.36-0.68m in width, and 0.18m in depth. The second gully was set at right angles to the first, and measured over 0.80m long, 0.50m wide and 0.23m deep.

The post-holes measured around 0.52m in diameter and 0.04-0.23m in depth. A rubbish pit was also possible associated with this layer or potentially the layer above, this measured 0.72m in diameter by 0.11m in depth.

The street metalling was cut by a series of post-holes thought to relate to a large Roman timber building - either located adjacent to the street frontage, or representing re-use of the disused street.
The post-holes were set at regularly spaced intervals of 1.6-2.1m centre to centre. These post-pits measured between 0.51-0.62m in diameter and between 0.12-0.35m in depth.
These features were created prior to the late 1st - early second century, evidenced by the superposition of a layer of soil dating from this period which sealed them. Following the abandonment of the road and timber structure, the area apperas to have undergone cultivation during the later Roman period. (1)

<1> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2002, Archaeological evaluation on land at 8 St Mary's Street, Canterbury, 2002 (Unpublished document). SKE54970.