A number of small excavations were undertaken by the Canterbury Excavation Committee in 1951 between the south side of the Marlowe Theatre and Watling Street. The site was coded CXIX-CXX, E X-XII

In trench E XII, located in the Public Analyst's garden, behind the northern frontage of No. 18 Watling Street, was revealed two metalled surfaces belonging to the a Roman N-S street. The earlier surface was overlain by by a layer of silt, 30cm thick, in which three sherds of samian were found. Above this was a second layer of metalling, 35cm thick, with pieces of flue tile and mortar on top. To the east of the road were two deposits of road silt which possibly sealed a loam floor, but there was considerable disturbance from a Late or sub-Roman ditch which ran obliquely across the trench in a north east, south west direction and contained a Late Roman jar.

By the sixth or seventh century, at the latest, the street had gone out of use and was cut by a pit containing a Jutish and a grass-tempered sherd. This pit and the street were sealed by a thick deposit of 'dark earth' which contained patches of burnt debris, possibly from a timber hut. A sherd of a Medieval cooking-pot dating to the second half of the thirteenth century was found in this deposit, together with an Anglo-Saxon grass-tempered sherd and much residual Roman pottery.

Frere, S., 1951, Canterbury Excavations (18th Season) Easter 1951 (Monograph). SKE29989.

Blockley, K., Blockley, M., Blockley, P., Frere, S. and Stow, S., 1995, Excavations in the Marlowe Car Park and Surrounding Areas. Part 1: The Excavated Sites (Monograph). SKE29969.