TQ 728588. A bronze brooch was found in the River Medway in March 1985, by Mr C Bullock between The Friars and the bridge. Length 50mm; width: head 35mm, foot 33mm, bow 16mm. The hollow bow is very humped or leech shaped. The head and foot, or arms, each consist of a group of three conjoined roundels arranged in convex fashion and giving scalloped edges. Each roundel is decorated with two concentric circles in relief, the stamp being applied separately for each roundel in the mould. The underside is plain. The hinge and catch-plate were cast with the body of the brooch and set on opposite sides of the central axis. The missing pin was attached to a thin piece of wire, still remaining, between the two arms of the hinge. There is no exact parallel with any Iron Age brooch so it must be what it appears to be at first sight - an equal armed brooch of the Anglo Saxon period. Prof Hubener suggests that if the brooch is not early Iron Age is must be Merovingian and would include it in his group 6, a group containing many variations. However there is no exact parallel, by Prof Hubener suggests a date of the second half of the sixth or first half of the seventh century for the brooch. Manufacture could have been in Kent or between the Seine and Rhine. (1)

<1> Arch Cant 102 1985 267-69 (D B Kelly) (OS Card Reference). SKE34622.