A feature – labelled structure 1 during excavations, was located immediately north of the Roman hollow way (TR…) on the far western side of a Roman settlement (TR 36 NW 238) it was formed from a rectangular arrangement of beam slots which were 0.22-0.42m wide and 0.1-0.23m deep, creating a structure with overall dimensions of 6m east to west and 5.78m north to south. An entranceway 1.39m wide lay to the south, providing access into the structure from the adjacent trackway. The enclosure was cut by five features thought to be contemporary with the use of the structure. These comprised two roughly circular pits, a rectangular pit and an irregular shaped feature. One of the round pits contained a intact Rhentish ‘hunt cup’ decorated with a relief of a stag and hunting dogs, thought to be of a mid second century date. All of the features were infilled with a chalky clay loam from which pottery broadly dating to the mid to late second century was recovered. It is of a fairly traditional Romano-British form, and its form alongside the hunt cup find leads to the suggestion that it was a roadside shrine. Although of rectangular plan there was no trace of a Cella or enclosing ambulatory, rather this example may be paralleled with the roadside shrines seen at Lullingstone. There is was proposed the structure may have been associated with a woodland deity; the cult worshipped at the shrine in Monkton is not known. (information summarised from source) (1-2)

<1> 1996, Arch Cant 116, 1996 (Article in serial). SKE54497.

<2> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 1996, Canterbury's Archaeology 1994 - 1995 (Serial). SKE11882.