In December 1946 two small trenches were dug by the Canterbury Excavation Committee in a cellar which lay on the south side of Rose Lane and on the west side of the entrance leading into the yard of the former Rose Hotel.
In Trench I the modern cellar was found to be on two levels separated by a retaining wall of brick; both areas were floored in chalk.
No Medieval or Roman buildings were found, but a spread of demolished wall material consisting of clay and wall plaster fragments was found overlying a layer of 'dark earth' which yielded a sherd of Antonine Samian and part of a late second- or early third century mortarium. Above this was a considerable thickness of black soil into which three Medieval pits had been cut. Finds included six coins, the latest being of barbarous Fel. Temp. Reparatio type, together with a sherd of Anglo-Saxon pottery.

Ordnance Survey, 1873, 1st edition map of Canterbury 1873 (Map). SKE30447.

Tomlinson, F. W., 1947, Canterbury Excavation Committee (Monograph). SKE30423.

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.