An evaluation was commissioned by Bass Breweries preceding the proposed development at no 12, Beer Cart Lane. The evaluation was implemented in July 1997 and the site code was BCL97.

Two trenches were dug in the area of proposed alterations the larger and more southerly lying towards the street frontage, the other towards the rear of the site. The most southerly corner of the site is less than 15m away from SAM Kent 350, a Roman Temenos (Temple Precinct). The earliest structure identified in the southern trench was the western edge of a massive mortared flint structure surviving 0.85m below the current ground surface and apparently razed to a uniform level. The position and nature of this structure suggested that it was either the podium of the principal Roman Temple or otherwise supported a very substantial secondary or subsequent structure. The Roman levels also consisted of at least one courtyard metalling and a razed flint wall. In the northern trench the earliest deposits are varying bands of sandy fine gravels and more pebbly sandy gravel, some containing crushed opus signinum and Roman tile. These may also represent the metalled surface or levelling for the temenos courtyard, though there is a possibility that the lower levels are natural in origin. A grey clayey loam containing several inclusions from the underlying metalling is interpreted as representing late Roman early Saxon occupation. A pit cutting this layer contained food remains (bone, shell and carbonized grain) iron-working slag and hammer scale and two pottery sherds, dating the fill to the Roman or early Saxon period.

Pratt, S., 1997, 12 Beer Cart Lane: Archaeological Evaluation (Excavation archive). SKE29973.