During an archaeological evaluation undertaken by Canterbury Archaeological Trust in 2001, off Queens Gardens, Dover, 5 trenches were excavated. Number of Medieval pits were located in trenches 4 and 5, towards the north-eastern end of the site, one of which was a substantial refuse pit, over 2m in depth.

(summarised from report) The large refuse pit was located in Trench 4, it was circular and only approximately one quarter was fully excavated. It appeared to be a typical Medieval rubbish pit; the filling produced 32 sherds of pottery, the latest of which are datable to the period c. A.D 1250-1450. There were also a number of residual sherds of Iron Age, Roman and early Medieval material. A quantity of Roman tile fragments, animal bones and marine shell was also discovered. The bottom of the pit was not reached but it was excavated to a depth of 0.98m, and probing suggested that its overall depth was greater than 2m. The hollow left by this infilled pit has been filled with chalk and flint rubble.

Within trench 5 a series of shallow pits, two containing Medieval pottery, the latest of which was datable to c. A.D 1075-1125, cut the lowest investigated layer. These pits represent the only features located on this site which pre-date the post medieval period. It would seem that the site lay outside the main settlement area of the town until the later post medival period. It is likely that casual rubbish dumping occurred here during the Roman period, which is evidenced by numers sherds of pottery and fragments of tile across the site, this was succeeded by more intensive dumping and pit digginf in the Medieval period. (1)

<1> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2001, Report on Archaeological Evaluation: Trenching off Queen's Gardens, Dover (Unpublished document). SKE7867.