An observation was made and recorded in a contractor's hole in Church Street (St Paul's) in 1977. Roman road metalling of great depth was observed. This road is on an alignment with Burgate and from this evidence it is suggested that Burgate may be of Roman origin.

A watching brief was carried out in October, 1996 on behalf of and funded by Babtie and Southern Water Services during exploratory roadworks in the Longport area of Canterbury. The site code was LSWB96.

Two slot trenches (numbered 3 & 4) were excavated manually by the subcontractors across Church Street, St Paul's and a further pair (trenches 1 & 2) across Longport itself. In Church Street, evidence of a Roman road bounded to the south by a building or by a portico fronting a building, was revealed in trench 4. The position of the road's edge was considered to be consistent with the road having run directly from Burgate to north of Cemetery Gate. However, the earliest deposit in trench 3, at its southern end, was a flint metalling, showing a distinct camber to the south. As this lay south of such a supposed alignment, it was suggested that this was probaly a courtyard or another (earlier?) road alignment.

Frere, SS, Stow, S, and Bennett, P, 1982, Excavations on the Roman and Medieval Defences of Canterbury. (Monograph). SKE28530.

Andrews, G., 1985, An Assessment. Gazetteer of Excavations. Prehistoric, Belgic and Roman Excavations (Monograph). SKE30006.

Pratt, S., 1999, Church Street St Paul's and Longport (Article in serial). SKE30549.