A geo resistivity survey and small scale excavation in the Prayer Garden of Our Lady of Carmel RC Church in Tanners St revealed the foundations of 18th century buildings corresponding to the Great Tan Yard as shown on Jacobs 1774 map of Faversham (TP25). The buildings were embedded in a layer of rammed chalk beneath which was found a horn core dump associated with medieval and late medieval pottery. The Great Tan Yard closed down in 1840. A similar association of horn cores and substantial amounts of medieval and late medieval pottery was found in the garden of the adjacent plot to the north (TP14). Further north still at 51, Tanners St (built around 1763) excavation revealed a major demolition later associated with large quantities of 16th to 17th century pottery and a large concentration of cattle metapodials, again suggesting a tanning site. The most recent leather processing structure was a drying shed on the east bank of the Westbrook, next to the Stonebridge crossing. This is shown in a 1910 colour slide but is gone by the 1930s, although its foundation raft can still (2009) be seen in the eastern bank of the Westbrook.

Dr Patricia Reid, 2009, Report on the discovery of tanneries in Tanners St, Faversham, Kent (Unpublished document). SKE15865.