Monument record TR 15 NE 16 - Romano-British cremation cemetery

[Area TR 163577] A Roman cremation cemetery was discovered in 1926, during the preliminary excavations for a housing scheme on the Littlebourne road, adjacent to the Mill House Inn and about 400 yards from St Martin's Church, in and near the new Windmill Road. A dozen or more burials seem to have been disturbed, and the pottery, now in the Canterbury museum is wholly or mostly of 2nd century date. Intrinsically the most remarkable piece is a potlid with a cupped handle and rough but bold figures of a stag and hounds applied to the main upper surface. A Samian dish (a late example of form 31, probably of late 2nd or 3rd century date) bears on the underside of the base a graffito resembling the Chi-Rho in its supposedly later form; but is not recorded whether this particular dish forms a part of a grave-group. (1-3) The principal finds were made in Windmill Road (centred at TR 1632 5770). A further burial was uncovered in 1952 in the back garden of 9 Littlebourne Road (a) when posts for a chicken run were being dug. The findspot at TR 16375773 was indicated by Miss Fordyce (occupier). (4) [TR1637557733] Roman Cremation found 1952 (NAT). (5)

<1> Arch Cant 40 1928 67-78 illusts (W Whiting and HT Mead) (OS Card Reference). SKE35091.

<2> Ant J 1927 322 (RP Wright) (OS Card Reference). SKE33148.

<3> VCH Kent 3 1932 79 (REM Wheeler) (OS Card Reference). SKE51134.

<4> F1 ASP 05-FEB-65 (OS Card Reference). SKE41940.

<5> OS 1:1250 1973 (OS Card Reference). SKE48185.