An evaluation was commissioned by Wilcon Lifestyle Homes Ltd in advance of the proposed redevelopment of an area of land for housing. The evaluation took place in August 1989 and the site code was NLA89.

A single trench, measuring 23m by 2m, was mechanically excavated. It extended from the North Lane frontage to the rear of
the evaluation area. The area of land included the site of a former cottage (no 30, North Lane), demolished with two other cottages (nos 28-29, North Lane) after war damage in the early 1940s. The land was formerly owned by the East Kent Bus Company, and most of the evaluation area was occupied by its disused workshops.

Capping natural deposits of gravel and sand was a 40-50cm thick deposit of clean orange brickearth. Cut from the surface of this deposit was a grave containing the skeleton of an adult male aged approximately 35 years, the fill also contained 3rd century Roman pottery. A cremation burial was also cut from the same horizon, comprising a late 2nd/early 3rd century coarseware jar containing the ashes and a small Upchurch type poppy-head beaker. The cremation was capped by a fragment of tegula and a sherd of amphora. Associated with the cremation was a small fragment of burnt worked bone.

Both burials were sealed by a deposit of mottled orange clay, 40cm thick, which extended across the entire excavation area and appeared to have been deliberately laid to seal the earlier horizon. Few finds were recovered from this deposit, but a worn follis of Constantine dated 330-331 AD, found within the matrix dates the deposit to the mid 4th century if not slightly later.

Leggatt, G., 1991, No 30 North Lane (Article in serial). SKE30809.