An Anglo-Saxon trackway, metallings, and floor surface, roadwash, and a ground surface were excavated at St Mildred's Tannery, Canterbury during a watching brief carried out in 2002.

The trackway was represented by a layer of 0.20m of reedy peat containing twigs, which was overlain by a series of roundwood lengths. Another layer of peat containing twigs was deposited above the lengths of roundwood. The trackway may have connected two areas of post-Roman activity, one formed of a small island of dry ground.

Cultivated soils from the Anglo-Saxon period were also identified at the site. These were associated with residual finds of mortar, oyster shell, tile, charcoal, and imbrex. (1)

An environmental assessment and separate palynological assessment of samples from St Mildred's Tannery was conducted following an evaluation in 2001. Palynological analysis was undertaken on a sample dating to the late Roman - 5th century, and several other samples dating to the Anglo-Saxon - medieval periods. Plants identified from the samples included 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.

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, interpreted as the cause for the construction of some of the walkways established at the site. The prevalence of woody plants and herbs was fairly low in earlier samples, but species diversity is seen to increase during the Saxon period, suggested by the authors of the report to be a result of an increase of agriculture during this period (2). It is also likely that some of the samples were derived from contexts such as arable fields established towards the end of or after the Roman period. Many of the wetter contexts may have been the result of wetland conditions or regular flooding events at the site. Domestic rubbish accumulation from dumping was also found at the site. Many of the samples cover the Anglo-Saxon and medieval periods, following Roman occupation at the site. (2, 3)

<1> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2002, St Mildred's Tannery, Stour Street, Canterbury: Second Archaeological Watching Brief on Geo-Technical Augering (Unpublished document). SKE56084.

<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.