A Roman barrow and walled cemetery were found c.1857 in removing surface ragstone from a field on Thompson's or Ducks Farm, Plaxtol. The account (a) is not entirely satisfactory, but a barrow, in part previously levelled, stood in the S.W. angle of a walled enclosure about 100 yds square. At the centre of the barrow, diameter about 30ft was a (? female) skeleton laid out head to N.E. with a large semi-circular stone (? a quern) on the breast. Groups of pottery and other relics were deposited in a circle round it on the edge of the mound, but there had been destruction here by ploughing. The brooches and glass of these margin deposits are late 1st - early 2nd century and seem, incongruously, to be earlier in date than the central burial. Other remains, including a skeleton in a tile tomb, were found nearby, some in 1857 some c.1893. The site is now occupied by an orchard but Jessup in 1953 (b) could trace a mound at TQ 60795440 and also found several fragments of Roman tile. Although further reduced the mound was still surveyable in 1959 (c) but it is now unrecognizable. Finds in Maidstone Museum include bronze fibulae and bronze fittings of a wooden casket, a glass flask, a coarse pottery flask, a poppy- head beaker and two other beakers, a 1st century flagon, 3 samian cups, form 33; 3 dishes, form 18 and one dish, form 36; also an omphalos bowl of SE `B' type. (1) One bottle found on Thompson's farm and described by Luard (authority a) as a beautiful bottle made of a kind of biscuit is now in Maidstone Museum. (Full description of vessel follows) It appears to be Romano British and of the first half of the second century A.D. (see illustration card). (2) Plaxtol. Pear shaped flask type 1. (3)

<1> Arch Cant 2 1859 6-7 plan (opp 14) (Luard) (OS Card Reference). SKE34807.

<2> Letters (RF Jessup) 11.8.53 14.8.53 (OS Card Reference). SKE46126.

<3> F2 ASP 18.06.59 (OS Card Reference). SKE43125.

<4> VCH Kent 3 1932 163 (REM Wheeler) (OS Card Reference). SKE51085.

<5> Coll Cant 1893 202-3 (C Payne) (OS Card Reference). SKE39140.

<6> Ant 10 1936 51 (Dunning and Jessup) (OS Card Reference). SKE33106.

<7> JBAA 22 1959 28-9 (RF Jessup) (OS Card Reference). SKE44915.

<8> PPS 4 1938 165 167 illust Must (OS Card Reference). SKE48596.

<9> F1 CFW 21.02.64 (OS Card Reference). SKE42676.

<10> Ant J 41 1961 93 (E Harris) (OS Card Reference). SKE33188.

<11> Early Fine Wares in Ro Brit BAR 57 1978 301 (eds P Arthur and G Marsh) (OS Card Reference). SKE41564.

<12> Field report for monument TQ 65 SW 19 - June, 1959 (Bibliographic reference). SKE3467.

<13> Field report for monument TQ 65 SW 19 - February, 1964 (Bibliographic reference). SKE3468.