Monument record TQ 86 SE 80 - Roman settlement, Keycol Hill, Newington

A watching brief and trenching report records predominantly Roman remains at this site. Pottery typologies suggest a date in the second half of the 1st Century AD to the late 2nd or 3rd Century AD. The volume of pottery finds suggests that there may be a Roman settlement or buildings in the near vicinity. (1) Many Roman building ceramics have also been found. Finds also included Roman pot and Bronze artefacts. Features included a ditch, possible road or platform and a possible human cremation burial (dated between the 1st Century BC and the 1st Century AD). The site may be associated with cropmarks to the west of Keycol Hill. (1)

An evaluation carried out by Canterbury Archaeological Trust in 2007 on land immediately west located further features dating to the Roman period. A clay layer possibly represents a floor of a timber framed building located beside the road. A ditch could therefore be a roadside ditch. The presence of large amounts of pottery together with smaller quantities of charred plant remains, hammerscale and slag suggests domestic activity with perhaps small scale metal working also taking place on or near the evaluation site. The majority of the pottery appears to date from the early second to fourth centuries suggesting that the site was most intensively occupied during the middle of the Roman period. (2)

<1> Swale and Thames Archaeological Survey Company, 1997, Report on an Archaeological Watching Brief on Removal of Foundations From the Former Telephone Exchange at Keycol Hill, Newington (Unpublished document). SWX7061.

<2> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2007, An archaeological evaluation of land adjacent to Newington Court, Keycol Hill, Newington, Sittingbourne, Kent (Unpublished document). SKE18287.